56th (London) Infantry Division

1st London Division 56th (1st London) Division 1st London Infantry Division 56th (London) Infantry Division 56th (London) Armoured Division
Formation sign of the 56th (1/1st London) Division, First World War.
Active	1908–1919 1920–1946 1947–1961
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	Territorial Army
Type	Infantry Armoured warfare
Size	Division
Engagements	First World War Second World War
Commanders
Notable commanders	Gerald Templer Montagu Stopford Claude Liardet

The 56th (London) Infantry Division was an infantry division of the British Army, which served under several different titles and designations. It was raised in 1908 upon the creation of the Territorial Force, as the 1st London Division. The division, now the 56th (1/1st London) Division, served in the trenches of the Western Front during the Great War and was disbanded shortly after the end of the end of the war. Now reformed as part of the Territorial Army, the division saw active service in the Second World War in Tunisia and Italy. The division was disbanded again in April 1946 and reformed as an armoured formation, the 56th (London) Armoured Division, before final disbandment in 1961.

The division's insignia in the First World War was the sword symbolising the martyrdom of Paul the Apostle from the coat of arms of the City of London; in the Second World War the insignia was changed to a black cat.

The 1st London Division was created on the formation of the Territorial Force of the British Army in 1908. Its pre-war formation was:

On the outbreak of the conflict, the Division's pre-war establishment units were mobilised individually, rather than in their divisional formation and were initially used for garrison duty overseas in Malta or as reinforcements for other divisions on the Western Front. In January 1916, the Division was re-constituted as a fighting formation in the Abbeville district in France, and numbered the 56th (1/1st London) Division, so numbered as it was the last 1st Line TF division to serve overseas. For the remainder of the war, the Division saw action on the Western Front, taking part in all of the major campaigns and seeing severe fighting. It was demobilised in May 1919.