HISTORY OF THE DUKE OF CORNWALL’S LIGHT INFANTRY 1914-1919

In August 1914 the DCLI consisted of five battalions, 1st and 2nd (Regular), 3rd (Special Reserve) and 4th and 5th (Territorial). The 1st was at the Curragh in 14 Brigade, 5th Division; the 2nd was in Hong Kong; the3rd and the 5th were in Bodmin and the 4th was in Truro. Before the war had ended another ten battalions had been formed and of the total of fifteen battalions ten served abroad. Apart from the 2/4th which spent the war in India, all the active service battalions were in France and Belgium, two of them (2nd and 8th) going on to Salonika with 27th and 26th Divisions respectively. Two of them, 1/5th and the 10th were divisional pioneer battalions while the 12th (Labour) Battalion, which went to France as Army Troops Fourth Army, became labour companies in the Labour Corps. The Regiment was awarded 57 battle honours and one VC, the dead numbered 4510.
The author is one of the most prolific of the military history writers, seven regimental and four divisional histories when this one went to press. The narrative begins with the 1st Battalion mobilizing and embarking for France where it arrived on 15th August, part of the original BEF. The 2nd Battalion returned from Hong Kong to join the newly formed 27th Division, which arrived in France in December 1914 and eleven months later was transferred to Salonika. Wyrral follows his usual pattern of providing a chronological account of the war from Mons to the Armistice as it affected the DCLI, and in the margins of each page is the date of the events being described and the battalion or battalions involved. There is a Roll of Honour, list of Honours and Awards including Mentions in Despatches and Foreign Awards, promotions for services in the field and a useful reference showing the allocations of battalions of the Regiment to brigades or divisions.