The Black Watch (Royal Highlanders) was an Infantry Battalion that would have had an MG Section as part of its Battalion Headquarters. These weapons would have been brigaded when the Machine Gun Corps was formed in 1915. The guns, and crews, would have been formed into a Machine Gun Company.
During the Great War, the dispositions of Battalions were distributed as follows:
The 1st Battalion was part of the 1st Brigade, attached to the 1st Division. It's MG Section was transferred on 26 January 1916 to form the 1st Bde. MG Coy..
As a unit of the 1st Infantry Division, it will have taken part in the following battles and engagements.
| On the outbreak of War the 1st Division was quartered at Aldershot, and it mobilized there. The division crossed to France between the 11th and 15th August, concentrated around le Nouvion, and began to move forward on the 21st August. | |
| 1914 | |
| 23 and 24 August | Battle of Mons [I Corps] |
| 24 August to 5 September | RETREAT FROM MONS [I Corps] |
| 27 August | Etreux (1st Guards Bde) |
| 6 to 9 September | Battle of the Marne [I Corps] |
| 13 to 26 September | BATTLE OF THE AISNE [I Corps] |
| 13 September | Passage of the Aisne |
| 20 September | Actions on the Aisne Heights |
| 26 September | Action of Chivy |
| 19 October to 15 November | BATTLE OF YPRES [I Corps] |
| 21 to 24 October | Battle of Langemark [I Corps] |
| 29 to 31 October | Battle of Gheluvelt [I Corps] |
| 11 November | Battle of Nonne Bosschen [I Corps] |
| 20 to 21 December | Defence of Givenchy |
| 1915 | |
| 25 January | Givenchy |
| 29 January | Cuinchy |
| 9 May | BATTLE OF AUBERS RIDGE [I Corps, First Army] |
| Attack at Rue du Bois | |
| 25 September to 1 October | Battle of Loos [IV Corps, First Army] |
| 5 to 8 October | |
| 13 October | Hohenzollern Redoubt [IV Corps, First Army] |
The 8th Battalion was part of the 26th Brigade, attached to the 9th Division. It's MG Section was transferred on 29 January 1916 to form the 26th Bde. MG Coy..
As a unit of the 9th Infantry Division, it will have taken part in the following battles and engagements.
| FORMATION, BATTLES, AND ENGAGEMENTS | |
| This New Army Division had no existence before the outbreak of the Great War.
Great Britain declared war on Germany at 11 p.m. on Tuesday, the 4th August 1914, and on the 5th Agusut Field-Marshall Earl Kitchener of Khartoum was appointed Secretary of Strate for War. On the 6th August Parliament sanctioned an increase of 500,000 men for the Regular Army, and a proclamation headed: "Your King and Country need you. A Call to Arms," was published on the 11th August. This proclamation asked for an immediate addition of a hundred thousand men to the Regular Army, and issued on the 21st August 1914, and amended by Army Order No. 382 of the 11th September authorised the addition of six dibisions (9th to 14th) and Army Troops to the Regular Army. This augmentation became the First New Army, and the 9th (Scottish) Division was formed towards the end of August, 1914. After enlistment the men went to their depots; they were then sent on to training camps in the Salisbury Training Centre, and in September the 9th Division assembled around Bordon. At first the scarcity of arms, munitions, and equipment added to the difficulties of training; but as the deficiencies were overcome intensive training for war began and in due course unit training was followed by divisional field manoeuvres. On the 5th May 1915, Field-Marshall Earl Kitchener inspected the 9th Division on Ludshott Common, and on the 7th May embarkation orders were received. The Division crossed to France between Sunday the 9th and Wednesday the 12th May, and by noon on Saturday the 15th May the Division was concentrated in billets to the south-west of St. Omer. Throughout the remainder of the Great War the 9th Division served on the Western Front in France and Belgium and was engaged in the following operations:- | |
| 1915 | |
| 25 to 29 September | Battle of Loos |
In 1922, the Machine Gun Corps and Guards MG Regiment were disbanded and the guns returned to the Infantry Battalion as a Machine Gun Platoon and then formed as a Machine Gun Company in the early 1930s.
This remained until the formation of Divisional Machine Gun Battalions in 1936 where guns were brigaded once again.
After the Second World War, the MG assets reverted to MG Platoons within support companies of Infantry Battalions.