The 3rd Infantry Brigade was a regular British Army formation, part of the 1st Infantry Division which was originally formed in 1809, with a long history, having been present at the Peninsula War, the Crimean War, World War I, and during the Second World War.
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This brigade saw service as part of the British Expeditionary Force on the Western Front (World War I) and with the British Expeditionary Force during the World War II Battle of France. After the retreat from Dunkirk it remained in Great Britain until 1943 when it was sent to North Africa to take part in the Algerian and Tunisian Campaigns.
On 11 June 1943 the 1st Infantry Division was sent to the Italian island of Pantelleria which they captured and occupied before being sent to Italy. They fought in Italy until 28 January 1945 when they were sent to Palestine as a garrison where they remained to the end of the war. As part of 1st Division the Brigade was in Egypt after the war and returned during the Suez Crisis. It then went out to Cyprus in 1956. Following operations against EOKA, the brigade was disbanded there in 1963.
From 1972, the 3rd Infantry Brigade was headquartered in the Kitchen Hill Factory in Lurgan until moving to Portadown in late 1976, under HQ Northern Ireland and was the HQ element for the security forces which controlled the South Armagh region of Ulster, including several battalions of the Ulster Defence Regiment. The brigade was disbanded on September 1, 2004 and its former units divided between 8 Brigade and 39 Brigade.
Also attached to the 3rd Brigade were: