The 3rd North Midland Brigade, Royal Field Artillery was a volunteer unit of the British Territorial Force formed in 1908. It served in some of the bloodiest battles on the Western Front during World War I Origin When the Territorial Force (TF) was created from the former Volunteer Force by the Haldane Reforms in 1908, it was organised into regional infantry divisions, each with a full establishment of Royal Field Artillery (RFA) brigades. Where there were no suitable artillery volunteer units in the region, these brigades had to be created from scratch. This was the case for the North Midland Division, for which a new III (or 3rd) Brigade was raised in Staffordshire with the following composition: III North Midland Brigade, RFA HQ at Riding School Drill Hall, Park Road East, Wolverhampton 4th Staffordshire Battery at Wolverhampton 5th Staffordshire Battery at Drill Hall, Carter's Green, West Bromwich 6th Staffordshire Battery at Friars' Walk Drill Hall, Stafford III North Midland Ammunition Column at Wolverhampton On the outbreak of World War I, the Commanding Officer (CO) was Lieutenant-Colonel C.C. Leveson-Gore, a retired Major in the Indian Army, appointed on 1 April 1909. World War I Mobilisation The order to mobilise was received on 4 August 1914. Shortly afterwards, the men were invited to volunteer for overseas service, and the majority having accepted this liability, the North Midland Division concentrated at Luton. In November it moved to the area round Bishop's Stortford where it completed its war training. At the time of mobilisation, the batteries of III North Midland Bde were each equipped with four 15-pounder guns. The formation of reserve or 2nd Line TF units was authorised by the War Office on 31 August 1914. They began to form in September 1914 as a duplicate of the 1st: the units took a '2/' prefix to distinguish them from the 1st Line unit. The unit therefore became the 1/III and 2/IIINorth Midland Brigade RFA (TF), the latter forming part of 2nd North Midland Division. 1/III North Midland Brigade The North Midland Division began embarking for France on 25 February 1915, and by 8 March had completed its concentration at Ploegsteert in Belgium – the first complete TF division to deploy to the Western Front with the British Expeditionary Force (BEF). It was numbered the 46th (North Midland) Division shortly afterwards. Hooge Over the following months the artillery supported the infantry in routine trench