On 29 July 1914 the Wessex Division was on Salisbury Plain carrying out its annual training camp when 'precautionary orders' were received, and next day the division took up emergency war stations in Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. The order to mobilise arrived on the evening of 4 August. Between 10 and 13 August the division concentrated on Salisbury Plain, with divisional HQ moving from Exeter to Tidworth, to begin war training. On 24 September, at the special request of the Secretary of State for War, Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, the Wessex Division accepted liability for service in British India to relieve the Regular Army units there to go to the Western Front. The division's infantry and artillery embarked on 8 October and reached India in November. The engineers, transport, and other support units remained in the UK. The Wessex Division never saw service as a whole, though it was formally numbered the 43rd (1st Wessex) Division in 1915.As soon as the Wessex Division had left for India, the home depots began raising 2nd Line units, distinguished from the 1st Line by a '2/' prefix. Recruitment and training of the 2nd Wessex Division proceeded so well that it was also sent to India in December 1914, and later received the notional title of 45th (2nd Wessex) Division. Once again, the RE and support units were left behind in the UK.