A Machine Gun Company was attached to each Infantry Brigade and their subsequent Division, an additional Company was attached as a divisional reserve.
| Brigade attached to: | Divisional Reserve |
| Division attached to: | 1st Division |
The 216th M.G. Coy. was formed on the 22 March 1917.
On 28 February 1918, it was amalgamated with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Machine Gun Companies to form No. 1 Battalion, Machine Gun Corps.
As a unit of the 1st Infantry Division, it will have taken part in the following battles and engagements.
| 1917 | |
| 21 June to 20 October | Operations on the Flanders Coast |
| 10 July | Defence of Nieuport [XV Corps, Fourth Army] |
| BATTLE OF YPRES | |
| 5 to 10 November | Second Battle of Passchendaele [II Corps, Second Army] |
| 1918 | |
| BATTLES OF THE LYS | |
| 9 to 11 April | Battle of Estaires [I Corps, First Army] |
| 15 April | Battle of Hazebrouck (3rd Bde.) [under 55th Division, XI Corps, First Army] |
| 18 and 19 April | Battle of Bethune [I Corps, First Army] |
| THE ADVANCE TO VICTORY | |
| SECOND BATTLES OF ARRAS | |
| 2 and 3 September | Battle of the Drocourt-Queant Line [Cdn. Corps, First Army] |
| BATTLES OF THE HINDERBURG LINE | |
| 18 September | Battle of Epehy [IX Corps, Fourth Army] |
| 29 September to 2 October | Battle of the St. Quentin Canal [IX Corps, Fourth Army] |
| 3 to 5 October | Battle of the Beaurevoir Line [IX Corps, Fourth Army] |
| THE FINAL ADVANCE IN PICARDY | |
| 17 to 25 October | Battle of the Selle [IX Corps, Fourth Army] |
| 4 November | Battle of the Sambre [IX Corps, Fourth Army] |
| 4 November | Passage of the Sambre-Oise Canal |
On the 11th November the 1st Division was resting and training around Fresnoy le Grand and Wassigny. Ordered to the Rhine, the 1st Division began its advance on the 18th November, entered Germany on the 16th December, and on the 24th the division reached its destination, the vicinity of Bonn.