The Queen's (Royal West Surreys) 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 3rd Brigade, attached to the 1st Division.
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] |
On 08 November, 1914, it was transferred to I Corps H.Q. It remained with I Corps Troops until 21 July, 1915, when it was transferred to 5th Brigade, 2nd Division. As part of the 2nd Division, it will have taken part in the following:-
| 1915 | |
| 25 September to 04 October | Battle of Loos [I. Corps, First Army]. |
| 13 to 19 October | Hohenzollern Redoubt [I. Corps, First Army]. |
The Battalions was transferred to 33rd Division on 15 December, 1915.
The 2nd Battalion was part of the 22nd Brigade of the 7th Division at the outbreak of war.
On 20 December 1915, it became part of the 91st Brigade, attached to the 7th Division. It's MG Section was transferred on 14 March 1916 to form the 91st Bde. MG Coy..
As a unit of the 7th Infantry Division, its MG Section will have taken part in the following battles and engagements.
The division had no existence before the outbreak of War; it was gradually assembled at Lyndhurst between the 31st August and the 4th October, 1914. The 12 infantry battalions included the three remaining unalloted regular battalions left in England, as well as nine battalions brought back from various overseas stations, viz. - Guernsey (1), Gibralter (2), Malta (2), Cairo (1), Natal (1), and the Transvaal (2). The mounted troops included an existing yeomanry regiment as well as a cyclist company, formed on mobilization. The Field Artillery was made up by one R.H.A. Brigade (XIV., of two batteries), and one R.F.A. Brigade (XXXV.) still left at home, together with one R.F.A. Brigade (XXII.) from the Transvaal. The two heavy batteries were new units formed at Woolwich after the outbreak of War, and the field companies came from Chatham and Pretoria. Three of the A.S.C. companies (30, 40 and 42) came from Gibralter, Malta, and Pretoria, but the remaining company (86) was a new formation. The 7th Division embarked at Southampton on the 4th and 5th October, and began disembarkation at Zeebrugge on the 6th October. The division moved to Bruges on the 7th October, and reached Ghent on the 9th October. During the night of 11/12 October, a retirement on Ypres was begun and the place was reached on the 14th. The 7th Division served on the Western Front in France and Belgium until the 17th November, 1917, when it began entraining for the Italian Front, on which it served for the remainder of the War. The 7th Division was engaged in the following operations:- | |
| 1914 | |
| 09 and 10 October | Antwerp Operations [IV. Corps]. |
| 19 October to 05 November | BATTLES OF YPRES |
| 21 to 24 October | Battle of Langemarck [IV. Corps]. |
| 29 to 31 October | Battle of Gheluvelt [I. Corps]. |
| 18 December | Rouges Banes - Well Farm Attack [IV. Corps]. |
| 1915 | |
| 10 to 13 March | Battle of Neuve Chappelle [IV. Corps, First Army]. |
| 09 May | Battle of Aubers Ridge [In reserve, IV. Corps, First Army]. |
| 15 to 19 May | Battle of Festubert [I. Corps, First Army]. |
| 15 and 16 June | Givenchy [IV. Corps]. |
| 25 September and 08 October | Battle of Loos [I. Corps, First Army]. |
In 1922, the Machine Gun Corps was 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.
Upon the disbandment of Divisional Machine Gun Battalions in the post-WW2 restructure of the British Army, the Vickers Machine Gun assets reverted to individual Battalions as part of the Support Company as a Machine Gun Platoon.