Officers of the 7th (Service) Battalion (Pioneers), York and Lancaster Regiment, in a ruined building in Arras, 30 April 1917.
The 17th (Northern) Division was created under Northern Command in September 1914, just a month after the British entry into the Great War, from men volunteering for Lord Kitchener's New Armies. Most of the volunteers had had little prior military experience. Worsening the situation was an acute lack of experienced officers and NCO's to train the new men as, due to the huge expansion of the British Army, experienced soldiers were needed everywhere. Furthermore, weapons and equipment, along with billets, were scarce.
The division, commanded by Major GeneralWalter Kenyon-Slaney, part of Kitchener's Second New Army (K2), concentrated throughout Dorset for training, moving to Hampshire in late May 1915. In early July the division sent advance parties to France in preparation for a move overseas, the rest of the division following a week later, moving to Saint-Omer for concentration. The division was to remain on the Western Front for the rest of the war, with most of the rest of 1915 being spent in the southern sector of the Ypres Salient, being instructed in trench warfare.
The division's first major engagement was in July 1916, where the division, as part of V Corps, fought in the battles of Albert and Delville Wood, both part of the larger Battle of the Somme. On the first day on the Somme, on 1 July 1916, the 50th Brigade, in particular the 10th (Service) Battalion, West Yorkshires, suffered very heavy casualties, the highest sustained by any British unit on that day. On 13 July Major General Thomas Pilcher, who had been in command since January 1915, was sacked by his superiors, who were not impressed with him. He was replaced by Major General Philip Robertson, who was to remain in command for the rest of the war.
During the Great War the 17th (Northern) Division had, from 1915, when it departed for the Western Front, until 1918, when the war ended, sustained 40,258 casualties.
Order of battle
The 17th (Northern) Division was constituted as follows during the war:
LXXX Brigade, Royal Field Artillery (broken up 31 August 1916)
LXXXI (Howitzer) Brigade, Royal Field Artillery (broken up 1–27 January 1917)
17th Divisional Ammunition Column, Royal Field Artillery
17th Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery (raised with the division but moved independently to France and joined XXIX Heavy Artillery Brigade on 9 October 1915)
V.17 Heavy Trench Mortar Battery Royal Field Artillery (joined 22 August 1916, left 28 February 1918)
X.17, Y.17 and Z.17 Medium Mortar Batteries Royal Field Artillery (formed by 22 August 1916; by 28 February 1918, Z broken up and batteries reorganised to have 6 x 6-inch weapons each)
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