144th Infantry Brigade (United Kingdom)
The 144th Infantry Brigade was an infantry brigade of the British Army. First raised in 1908 as part of the Territorial Force, the brigade was originally the Gloucester and Worcester Brigade and was assigned to the South Midland Division. In 1915 the brigade was numbered the 144th (Gloucester and Worcester) Brigade and the division became 48th (South Midland) Division. During the Great War the brigade served with the division throughout the war, mainly on the Western Front but also on the Italian Front from 1917.
Disbanded in 1919 after the war, the brigade was reformed in the Territorial Army in the 1920s as the 144th Infantry Brigade and again assigned to the 48th Division. During the early stages of World War II, the brigade was sent, with the rest of the division, overseas to France in January 1940 to join the rest of the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) which was stationed on the Franco-Belgian border. In May 1940 the brigade fought the German Army in the battles of Belgium and France and were forced to retreat to Dunkirk and be evacuated to England after the Germans nearly surrounded the entire BEF from the French Army.
World War I formation
- 1/4th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
- 1/6th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
- 1/7th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment
- 1/8th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment
World War II formation
- 5th Battalion, Gloucestershire Regiment
- 7th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment
- 8th Battalion, Worcestershire Regiment
- 2nd Battalion, Royal Warwickshire Regiment
- 4th Battalion, Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry
- 5th Battalion, Royal Inniskilling Fusiliers