III Corps was an

army corps Corps (; plural ''corps'' ; from French , from the Latin "body") is a term used for several different kinds of organization. A military innovation by Napoleon I, the formation was first named as such in 1805. The size of a corps varies great ...

of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

formed in both the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

Prior to the First World War

In 1876, a mobilisation scheme for eight army corps was published, with '3rd Corps' headquartered at

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

and composed of the guards regiments. In 1880 its order of battle was: *1st Division (Croydon) **1st Brigade (London) ***1st Bn.

Grenadier Guards "Shamed be whoever thinks ill of it." , colors = , colors_label = , march = Slow: " Scipio" , mascot = , equipment = , equipment ...

(Wellington Barracks), 2nd Bn.

Coldstream Guards The Coldstream Guards is the oldest continuously serving regular regiment in the British Army. As part of the Household Division, one of its principal roles is the protection of the monarchy; due to this, it often participates in state ceremonia ...

(The Tower), 2nd Bn.

Scots Guards The Scots Guards (SG) is one of the five Foot Guards regiments of the British Army. Its origins are as the personal bodyguard of King Charles I of England and Scotland. Its lineage can be traced back to 1642, although it was only placed on the ...

(Chelsea) **2nd Brigade (Croydon) ***3rd Bn. Grenadier Guards (Chelsea), 1st Bn. Coldstream Guards (Shorncliffe), 1st Bn. Scots Guards (Wellington Barracks) **Divisional Troops ***1st Bn.

60th Foot The King's Royal Rifle Corps was an infantry rifle regiment of the British Army that was originally raised in British North America as the Royal American Regiment during the phase of the Seven Years' War in North America known in the United St ...

(Winchester),

Staffordshire Yeomanry The Staffordshire Yeomanry (Queen's Own Royal Regiment) was a unit of the British Army. Raised in 1794 following Prime Minister William Pitt's order to raise volunteer bodies of men to defend Great Britain from foreign invasion, the Staffordshir ...

(Lichfield), 9th Company

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

(RE) (Chatham) **Artillery ***C/5th Brigade

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

(RA) (Ipswich), B/5th Brigade RA (Chatham), B/6th Brigade RA (Woolwich) *2nd Division ( Red Hill) **1st Brigade (Red Hill) ***Kilkenny Militia (Kilkenny), King's County Militia (Parsonstown), Limerick County Militia (Limerick) **2nd Brigade (Red Hill) *** 1st Royal Surrey Militia (

Richmond upon Thames The London Borough of Richmond upon Thames () in southwest London forms part of Outer London and is the only London borough on both sides of the River Thames. It was created in 1965 when three smaller council areas amalgamated under the London ...

), 2nd Royal Surrey Militia (

Guildford Guildford () is a town in west Surrey, around southwest of central London. As of the 2011 census, the town has a population of about 77,000 and is the seat of the wider Borough of Guildford, which had around inhabitants in . The name "Guildf ...

), 3rd Royal Surrey Militia (

Kingston upon Thames Kingston upon Thames (hyphenated until 1965, colloquially known as Kingston) is a town in the Royal Borough of Kingston upon Thames, southwest London, England. It is situated on the River Thames and southwest of Charing Cross. It is notable as ...

) **Divisional Troops ***Tyrone Militia (Omagh), Warwickshire Yeomanry (Warwick) **Artillery ***L/3rd Brigade RA (Hilsea), L/4th Brigade RA (Hilsea), C/6th Brigade RA (Woolwich) *3rd Division (Tunbridge Wells) **1st Brigade (Tunbridge Wells) *** West Kent Light Infantry Militia (Maidstone), 4th South Middlesex Militia (Hounslow), Royal London Militia (London) **2nd Brigade (Maidstone) ***1st

Royal East Middlesex Militia The Royal East Middlesex Militia was an auxiliary regiment reorganised in Middlesex in the Home counties of England during the 18th Century from earlier precursor units. It later became part of the Middlesex Regiment. Primarily intended for home ...

(Hounslow), 2nd

Royal West Middlesex Militia The Royal West Middlesex Militia, later the Edmonton Royal Rifle Regiment, was an auxiliary regiment reorganised in Middlesex in the Home counties of England during the 18th Century from earlier precursor units. It later became part of the King' ...

(Barnet), 3rd Royal Westminster Middlesex Militia (Turnham Green) **Divisional Troops ***

Royal Sussex Light Infantry Militia The Royal Sussex Light Infantry Militia, later the 3rd Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment, was an auxiliary regiment raised in Sussex on the South Coast of England. From its formal creation in 1778 the regiment served in home defence in all of Brita ...

(Chichester),

Leicestershire Yeomanry The Leicestershire Yeomanry (Prince Albert's Own) was a yeomanry regiment of the British Army, first raised in 1794 and again in 1803, which provided cavalry and mounted infantry in the Second Boer War and the First World War and provided two fie ...

(Leicester) **Artillery ***B/1st Brigade RA (Shorncliffe), C/1st Brigade RA (Shorncliffe) *Cavalry Brigade (Ashford) ** 1st Life Guards (London), 2nd Life Guards (Windsor), Royal Horse Guards (London), East Kent Yeomanry (Canterbury), K Battery B Brigade RHA (Canterbury) *Corps Artillery (Croydon) **K Battery A Brigade

Royal Horse Artillery The Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) was formed in 1793 as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery (commonly termed Royal Artillery) to provide horse artillery support to the cavalry units of the British Army. (Although the cavalry link ...

(RHA) (Exeter), F Battery B Brigade RHA (Exeter) This scheme had been dropped by 1881. The Stanhope Memorandum of 1891 (drawn up by

Edward Stanhope Edward Stanhope PC (24 September 1840 – 21 December 1893) was a British Conservative Party politician who was Secretary of State for War from 1887 to 1892. Background and education Born in London, Stanhope was the second son of Philip Sta ...

when

Secretary of State for War The Secretary of State for War, commonly called War Secretary, was a secretary of state in the Government of the United Kingdom, which existed from 1794 to 1801 and from 1854 to 1964. The Secretary of State for War headed the War Office and ...

) laid down the policy that after providing for garrisons and India, the army should be able to mobilise three army corps for home defence, two of regular troops and one partly of militia, each of three divisions. The 1901 army estimates introduced by

St John Brodrick William St John Fremantle Brodrick, 1st Earl of Midleton, KP, PC, DL (14 December 185613 February 1942), styled as St John Brodrick until 1907 and as Viscount Midleton between 1907 and 1920, was a British Conservative and Irish Unionist Alli ...

allowed for six army corps based on the six regional commands (Aldershot, Southern, Irish, Eastern, Northern and Scottish).Dunlop. From 1 October 1901, the

Duke of Connaught Duke of Connaught and Strathearn was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom that was granted on 24 May 1874 by Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to her third son, Prince Arthur. At the same time, he was also ...

held the dual commands of CinC Ireland and GOCinC III Corps. Under Army Order No 38 of 1907, the title III Corps disappeared, but the Irish Command was constituted as a corps comprising 3rd Cavalry Brigade, 5th Infantry Division and

6th Infantry Division 6th Division may refer to: Infantry divisions * 6th Division (Australia) * 6th Division (Austria) *6th (United Kingdom) Division * Finnish 6th Division (Winter War) *Finnish 6th Division (Continuation War) * 6th Division (Reichswehr) * 6th Divisi ...

First World War

Pre-war planning for the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) did not envisage any intermediate headquarters between GHQ and the six infantry divisions. However, on mobilisation the decision was made to conform to the two-division army corps organisation employed by the French armies alongside which the BEF was to operate and corps HQs therefore had to be improvised. III Corps HQ was formed in France on 31 August 1914 under Sir William Pulteney, taking over 4th Division, part of which had already fought at Le Cateau, and 6th Division, which arrived in early September. It was first engaged in the

First Battle of the Marne The First Battle of the Marne was a battle of the First World War fought from 5 to 12 September 1914. It was fought in a collection of skirmishes around the Marne River Valley. It resulted in an Entente victory against the German armies in the ...

, and remained on the Western Front throughout the

Great War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

First World War composition

The composition of army corps changed frequently. Some representative orders of battle for III Corps are given here. As initially constituted: General Officer Commanding:

Major-General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of a ...

William Pulteney *

Brigadier-General Brigadier general or Brigade general is a military rank used in many countries. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries. The rank is usually above a colonel, and below a major general or divisional general. When appointed ...

, General Staff: J. P. Du Cane *Brigadier-General,

: E. J. Phipps-Hornby, VC *

Colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge of ...

: Brigadier-General F. M. Glubb * 4th Division * 6th Division * 19th Independent Brigade (attached to III Corps 6 October 1914; became part of 6th Division 12 October 1914) Order of Battle at start of the Battle of the Somme, 1 July 1916: General Officer Commanding:

Lieutenant-General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

Sir William Pulteney *

8th Division 8th Division, 8th Infantry Division or 8th Armored Division may refer to: Infantry divisions * 8th Division (Australia) * 8th Canadian Infantry Division * 8th Air Division (People's Republic of China) * 8th Division (1st Formation) (People's Repu ...

* 19th (Western) Division * 34th Division Order of Battle during the final advance in Artois, 8 October 1918: General Officer Commanding: Lieutenant-General Richard Butler * 55th (West Lancashire) Division *

74th (Yeomanry) Division The 74th (Yeomanry) Division was a Territorial Force infantry division formed in Palestine in early 1917 from three dismounted yeomanry brigades. It served in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War, mostly as part of XX Corps. ...

Second World War

During the

, III Corps was formed in France under the command of

Sir ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as ...

Ronald Forbes Adam General Sir Ronald Forbes Adam, 2nd Baronet, (30 October 1885 – 26 December 1982) was a senior British Army officer. He had an important influence on the conduct of the British Army during the Second World War as a result of his long tenure ...

to control forces of the British Expeditionary Force, after the expansion of that force had rendered control by just two corps headquarters cumbersome. The Corps was withdrawn from

Dunkirk Dunkirk (french: Dunkerque ; vls, label=French Flemish, Duunkerke; nl, Duinkerke(n) ; , ;) is a commune in the department of Nord in northern France.GOC:

(Lieutenant-General

Sydney Rigby Wason Lieutenant General Sydney Rigby Wason , and Bar (27 September 1887 – 17 March 1969) was a senior British Army officer in the Second World War. His commands included a corps during the Battle of France and the anti-aircraft defences of Souther ...

after 26 May 1940) *

42nd (East Lancashire) Infantry Division The 42nd (East Lancashire) Infantry Division was an infantry Division (military), division of the British Army. The division was raised in 1908 as part of the Territorial Force (TF), originally as the East Lancashire Division, and was redesignat ...

* 44th (Home Counties) Infantry Division *

** 5th Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery ** 97th (Kent Yeomanry) Army Field Regiment ** 51st (Midland) Medium Regiment ** 56th (Highland) Medium Regiment **54th (

Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders Argyll (; archaically Argyle, in modern Gaelic, ), sometimes called Argyllshire, is a historic county and registration county of western Scotland. Argyll is of ancient origin, and corresponds to most of the part of the ancient kingdom of ...

) Light Anti-Aircraft Regiment **3rd Survey Regiment *III Corps Troops

** 213th, 214th, 217th Army Field Companies ** 293rd Corps Field Park Company **514th Corps Field Survey Company *Infantry—Machine Gun ** 7th Battalion,

Royal Northumberland Fusiliers The Royal Northumberland Fusiliers was an infantry regiment of the British Army. Raised in 1674 as one of three 'English' units in the Dutch Anglo-Scots Brigade, it accompanied William III to England in the November 1688 Glorious Revolution an ...

**1/9th Battalion,

Manchester Regiment The Manchester Regiment was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1958. The regiment was created during the 1881 Childers Reforms by the amalgamation of the 63rd (West Suffolk) Regiment of Foot and the 96th ...

**1st Battalion,

Princess Louise's Kensington Regiment The Kensington Regiment (Princess Louise's) is a unit of the British Army, which originated in the Volunteer Rifle Corps' movement of the 1850s. In 1908 it became a battalion of the London Regiment in the Territorial Force. It was an infantry re ...

Middlesex Regiment The Middlesex Regiment (Duke of Cambridge's Own) was a line infantry regiment of the British Army in existence from 1881 until 1966. The regiment was formed, as the Duke of Cambridge's Own (Middlesex Regiment), in 1881 as part of the Childers Re ...

After commanding forces in the United Kingdom during late 1940, from the Old Rectory in

Whitchurch, Shropshire Whitchurch is a market town in the north of Shropshire, England. It lies east of the Welsh border, 2 miles south of the Cheshire border, north of the county town of Shrewsbury, south of Chester, and east of Wrexham. At the 2011 Census, the ...

within Western Command, the corps was used for deception purposes. It eventually ended up being transferred to

Persia and Iraq Command The Persia and Iraq Command was a command of the British Army established during the Second World War in September 1942 in Baghdad. Its primary role was to secure from land and air attack the oilfields and oil installations in Persia (officially ...

as part of the

British Tenth Army The Tenth Army was a field army of the British Army during the Second World War created in Iraq and formed from the major part of "Paiforce" (Persia and Iraq Force). It was active in 1942 and 1943, and then disbanded. In April 1941, British and ...

, under

General A general officer is an Officer (armed forces), officer of highest military ranks, high rank in the army, armies, and in some nations' air forces, space forces, and marines or naval infantry. In some usages the term "general officer" refers t ...

Sir Edward P. Quinan. It took command of a number of formations there, including the British 5th Infantry Division. On 16 October 1944 it became the headquarters for Lieutenant-General

Ronald Scobie Lieutenant-General Sir Ronald MacKenzie Scobie, (8 June 1893 – 23 February 1969) was a senior British Army officer who fought in both the First and Second World Wars, where he commanded the 70th Infantry Division and later III Corps. He was ...

for operations in the

Greek Civil War The Greek Civil War ( el, ο Eμφύλιος �όλεμος ''o Emfýlios'' 'Pólemos'' "the Civil War") took place from 1946 to 1949. It was mainly fought against the established Kingdom of Greece, which was supported by the United Kingdom ...

: at this point it received operational formations. Forces in Greece included 23rd Armoured Brigade. On 17 December 1944 it was redesignated HQ Land Forces and Military Liaison (Greece).

General Officers Commanding

Commanders have included: From 1901 to 1905 the commander of the troops in Ireland was also commander 3rd Army Corps. * 1 October 1901: General the

Duke of Connaught and Strathearn Duke of Connaught and Strathearn was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom that was granted on 24 May 1874 by Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to her third son, Prince Arthur. At the same time, he was also ...

* 10 May 1904: General Lord Grenfell * 5 August 1914 – 16 February 1918 Lieutenant-General William Pulteney * 16 February – 26 February 1918 Major-General R. P. Lee (acting) * 26 February – 11 August 1918 Lieutenant-General Sir Richard Butler * 11 August – 11 September 1918 Lieutenant-General Sir A. J. Godley (temporary) * 11 September 1918 Lieutenant General Sir Richard Butler * 1939 – June 1940 Lieutenant-General

Ronald Adam General Sir Ronald Forbes Adam, 2nd Baronet, (30 October 1885 – 26 December 1982) was a senior British Army officer. He had an important influence on the conduct of the British Army during the Second World War as a result of his long tenure ...

* June–November 1940 Lieutenant-General James Marshall-Cornwall * 1940 – 1943 Lieutenant-General Desmond Anderson * December 1943 – December 1944 Lieutenant-General

Notes

References

* Lt-Col Ewan Butler & Maj J.S. Bradford, ''The Story of Dunkirk'', (London, nd). * * Col John K. Dunlop, ''The Development of the British Army 1899–1914'', (London 1938). * * JPS Cigarette card series, ''Army, Corps and Divisional Signs 1914–1918'', John Player and sons, 1920s. * Martin Middlebrook ''The First Day on the Somme'' (London, Allen Lane, 1971). * * Official History 1914: Brigadier-General Sir James E. Edmonds, ''Military Operations France and Belgium, 1914: Mons, the Retreat to the Seine, the Marne and the Aisne, August–October 1914'' 3rd revised edn 1933 (reprint Imperial War Museum, 1992) (). *Official History 1939-40: Ellis, Major L.F., ''History of the Second World War, United Kingdom Military Series: The War in France and Flanders 1939-1940'', London: HMSO, 1954.

External links

''The Long Long Trail''''Official History 1939-40''Royal Artillery 1939-45
* {{DEFAULTSORT:03 Corps British field corps Corps of the British Army in World War I Corps of the British Army in World War II Military units and formations of the British Empire in World War II