West Riding Division

West Riding Division 49th (West Riding) Division 49th (West Riding) Infantry Division 49th (West Riding) Armoured Division 49th (West Riding and Midland) Infantry Division
Division badge, third pattern, replaced the second pattern during the Second World War in 1943.
Active	1908–1919 1920–1945 1947–1967
Country	United Kingdom
Branch	British Army
Type	Infantry Armoured
Size	Division
Nickname(s)	"Barker's Bears" "The Polar Bears" "The Polar Bear Butchers"
Engagements	First World War Second World War
Commanders
Notable commanders	Sir Evelyn Barker Sir Gordon MacMillan
Insignia
Identification symbol	Shoulder sleeve insignia sign, used on signboards during the First World War.
Identification symbol	Badge worn at the top of the sleeve between the wars and early in the Second World War, made of white metal.
Identification symbol	Badge, second pattern, adopted in Iceland during the Second World War.

The 49th (West Riding) Infantry Division was an infantry division of the British Army. The division fought in the First World War in the trenches of the Western Front, in the fields of France and Flanders. During the Second World War the division fought in the Norwegian Campaign and in North-western Europe. After the Second World War it was disbanded in 1946, then reformed in 1947. It remained with Northern Command until finally disbanded in 1967.

The division was first created on 1 April 1908 upon the creation of the Territorial Force (TF), the British Army's part-time reserve. Originally designated the West Riding Division, the division was composed of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd West Riding Brigades, each with four infantry battalions, along with supporting units. The division was one of fourteen divisions that made up part of the peacetime TF.

Elements of the division had, by the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, just departed for their annual summer camp and were mobilised for war service on 5 August, the day after Britain entered the war. According to the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907, men of the TF were not obligated to serve overseas without their permission and so, on 31 August, the division was ordered to form a second-line reserve unit, the 2nd West Riding Division, formed mainly from those men who, for various reasons, choose not to volunteer for overseas service. The division, under the command of Major General Thomas Baldock, who had been in command since 1911, moved to the South Yorkshire/Lincolnshire area for concentration and spent the next few months engaged in training.