The Scots Guards were 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 as follows:
At the outbreak of War, the 1st Battalion was part of the 1st (Guards) Brigade, 1st Division. As a unit of the 1st (Guards) Brigade, it took part in the following actions.
| 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.
Throughout the War, the 1st Division served on the Western Front, and it was engaged in the following operations: | |
| 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 | |
It was transferred to the 2nd Guards Brigade, Guards Division, on 23 August, 1915 (arriving on 25 August, 1915). It's MG Section was transferred between 01 September and 19 September, 1915, to form the 2nd Guards Bde. MG Coy.
| In July, 1915, His Majesty approved the formation of a Guards Division, and in August, 1915, the Guards Division was formed in France, the units, on arrival, being concentrated around Lumbres (near St. Omer). |
At the outbreak of war, the 2nd Battalion was part of 20th Brigade, 7th Division. As a unit of the 7th Division, it will have taken part in the following 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 | |
| 25 August to 05 September | RETREAT FROM MONS [II. Corps, 26 to 30 August 1914, and III. Corps from 31 August 1914.] |
| 26 August | Battle of le Cateau [under II. Corps]. |
| 01 September | Nery (1/R. War. R. and 2/R.D.F., 10th Bde.) |
| 06 to 09 September | Battle of the Marne [III. Corps]. |
| 13 to 20 September | BATTLE OF THE AISNE [III. Corps]. |
| 13 October to 02 November | Battle of Armentieres [III. Corps]. |
| 13 October | Capture of Meteren |
| 1915 | |
| 25 April to 25 May | BATTLES OF YPRES [V. Corps, Second Army]. |
| 25 April to 04 May | Battle of St. Julien [V. Corps, Second Army, and from 28 April to 07 May in Plumer's Force]. |
| 08 to 13 May | Battle of Frezenberg Ridge [V. Corps, Second Army]. |
| 24 and 25 May | Battle of Bellewaarde Ridge [V. Corps, Second Army]. |
The 2nd Battalion was transferred from 20th Brigade, 7th Division, to the 3rd Guards Brigade, Guards Division on 08 August, 1915 (arriving on 09 August, 1915). It's MG Section was transferred between 01 September and 19 September, 1915, to form the 3rd Guards Bde. MG Coy..
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.