1st Infantry Brigade (South Africa)

1st South African Infantry Brigade
Active	Sep 1915 – ? 1926 – Jan 1943
Country	Union of South Africa
Allegiance	Allied Forces, World War I and World War II
Branch	South African Army
Type	Infantry
Size	Brigade
Disbanded	1 Jan 1943
Commanders
Commander WWI	Brig-Gen H. T. Lukin Brig-Gen F. S. Dawson Brig Gen W. E. C. Tanner
Commander World War II	Brig J. Daniel Brig D. H. Pienaar Brig J. B. Kriegler Brig J. P. A. Furstenberg Brig E.P. Hartshorn Brig C. L. de w. du Toit

The South African 1st Infantry Brigade was an infantry brigade of the army of the Union of South Africa during World Wars I and II. During World War I, the Brigade served as a British formation in Egypt and on the Western Front, most famously the Battle of Delville Wood. It was reactivated at the start of the Second World War as a South African formation and served in East Africa and the Western Desert; the Brigade disbanded on 1 January 1943.

When the First World War broke out in 1914, the South African government chose to join the war on the side of the Allies. General Louis Botha, the then prime minister, faced widespread Afrikaner opposition to fighting alongside Great Britain so soon after the Second Boer War and had to put down a revolt by some of the more militant elements before he could mobilise and deploy troops as an expeditionary force (some 67,000 troops) to invade German South-West Africa (now Namibia).

The South African Union Defence Act of 1914 prohibited the deployment of South African troops beyond the borders of the South Africa and its immediate neighbouring territories. To send troops to Europe to support the Commonwealth in World War I, Generals Botha and Smuts created the South African Overseas Expeditionary Force. However, because of the limitations of the Defence Act, they issued a General Order (Order 672 of 1915) which stated that "The South African Overseas Expeditionary Force will [sic] be Imperial and have the status of regular British Troops." "Status" was meant to imply administrative purposes, as Britain was paying for the maintenance of the force in the field for the sake of local political sensitivities. Regrettably, this Administrative Order later meant that the South African units which served as part of the Overseas Expeditionary Force were not, as South African units, entitled to retain Regimental Colours awarded to them for battles fought as "British" units. The 1st Infantry Brigade Group was the first unit to be formed as a constituent part of the South African Overseas Expeditionary Force.

...
Wikipedia