The West Riding Territorials in the Great War

This 1920 account stands as the definitive contemporary record of the West Riding's citizen-soldiers in the Great War. Laurie Magnus, writing just a year after the armistice, weaves together the stories of two Territorial divisions that answered the call in 1908 and marched through hell together. The 49th Division arrived in France in April 1915; the 62nd followed in January 1917, twenty months later but equally consequential. Magnus documents their mobilization, training, and battlefield valor through official records and firsthand accounts, capturing not just the strategic movements but the human cost: 44,049 casualties across all ranks, including 406 officers and 5,242 other ranks killed. The book matters because it preserves what could have been lost, the specific units, the commanding officers, the honors earned, that make local history tangible. Book III culminates with the 62nd Division's unique distinction as the only Territorial force selected for the British Army of Occupation, marching into Germany as the war ended. This is military history at its most particular and most personal.