Canadian Expeditionary Force Study Group

1. Library and Archives Canada (WD Link)
2. CEFSG War Diary Transcription (in progress = IP)

The 4th Division Artillery was not formed until June 1917, at which time it was created from units already serving in France.  Nicholson (page 188) reports that the 4th Division entered the line in France on August 25, 1916, more or less as part of "Frank's Force", a temporary formation of British, Belgian and Australian artillery.

Love reports on page 91 of his text the due to space limitations at Shorncliffe in October 1915, new units arriving in England were sent to Bramshott.  As a result this are became a base reserve depot for supplying replacements to reserve unites.  Important to the 4th Division review was the action in December 1915 to reorganize the Bramshott-based battalions into four brigades, three of which were used to form the 4th Canadian Division in May 1916

Nicholson - The 3rd and 4th Divisions Formed 1915, pages 133 - 135

In December 1915 the United Kingdom ’s War Committee, in line with the decisions at Chantilly , had decided that for the British Empire France was the main theatre of war, and in the months that followed every effort was made to strengthen the British Expeditionary Force. Territorial Force and New Army troops crossed the Channel, and nine divisions were brought home from Egypt. Between Christmas and 1 July the forces under Sir Douglas Haig’s command grew from three armies numbering 38 infantry divisions to four armies (and a reserve army) of 49 infantry divisions, the number of cavalry divisions remaining at five. The reserve army became the Fifth Army in October.

Each of these increases reflects an additional Canadian division. Late in June 1915 the War Office had formally inquired whether Canada , in addition to maintaining her present overseas force with some 5000 reinforcements monthly, could see her way to raise "further formed bodies of troops. Although General Hughes, two months earlier, had intimated that a third division could and would be raised (above, p. 114), Sir Robert Borden, the Chief of the General Staff, and others now doubted its feasibility. However, after Genera! Alderson pointed out that in France it was the policy to have army corps of three divisions, with always one being kept in reserve, it was decided to form a new division largely from unallotted units already overseas and to complete the establishment with troops still in Canada .14 Meanwhile the maximum number of men under arms had been set at 150,000.15 By September 1915, 56 battalions had been authorized besides the units of the 1st and 2nd Divisions and the 7th and 8th Brigades. Three months later the War Office asked whether Canada would be prepared to provide twelve battalions for service in Egypt - either in addition to completing the 3rd Division, or by deferring the formation of the 3rd Division until the spring. Now confident that they could maintain four divisions in the field, and preferring to keep them all together, the Canadian authorities made the counter­proposal (which was accepted) of both a third and a fourth division for the Western Front.

In accepting the offer of a fourth Canadian division, the War Office stipulated that Canada’s first obligation was to complete the provision of 18 reserve bat­talions in England ; these were required as a source of reinforcement drafts for the 36 battalions of the three existing divisions. For that reason the 4th Division did not go overseas as such but was formed from units already there, or soon to arrive, on 26 April 1916. A tentative selection was made by representa­tives of the Canadian Training Depot and the War Office 

Concentration and preliminary divisional training took place at Eramshott, in Aldershot Command. The divisional commander, Major-General David Watson, was brought back from commanding the 5th Brigade in France . Like the 2nd and 3rd Divisions, the 4th did not at first have its own artillery: the 4th Divisional Artillery was formed in June 1917 by a distribution of units in France . Otherwise the new division was complete by August 1916, when it crossed the Channel; though there had been substitutions in the slate of battalions originally proposed.

The 10th Brigade, commanded by Brig.-Gen. W. St. P. Hughes, consisted of the 44th Battalion (from Winnipeg), the 46th (South Saskatchewan), the 47th (New Westminster, Vancouver and Victoria) and the 50th (Calgary). In the 11th Brigade (Brig.-Gen. V. W. Odium) were the 54th ( Kootenay , British Colum­bia ), 75th (Toronto-Hamilton-London), 87th ( Montreal ) and 102nd ( North British Columbia ) Battalions. The 12th Brigade was commanded by Lord Brooke, who had previously led the 4th Brigade in France . One of its battalions - the 38^th, from the Ottawa district - had previously served in Bermuda , relieving the R.C.R. The other three units were the 72nd, 73rd and 78th Battalions, from British Columbia , Montreal and Winnipeg respectively.

The demands created by the organization of the two new overseas divisions and the necessity of maintaining in the United Kingdom an adequate number of reinforcement battalions (one for every two battalions in France) were met by an increasing flow of infantry units across the Atlantic. Although in the first two months of 1916 a shortage of accommodation in England restricted troop movements from Canada , by the end of June forty-two infantry battalions had sailed. Meanwhile the total establishment of the armed forces had been doubled.

From Chris Wight: 

Last year N.S. Regt (Stephen) sent me scans of a pamphlet put out by those related to the 4th Division (probably printed via Gen. David Watson since he owned a Quebec City newspaper). Anyway I transcribed two sets which attach for the matrix project, there are two more entries for 1918 and 1919 I never got round to doing. You'll have to bear in mind the dates are rather arbitrary and the orbat could have changed the next. (Download Zip File)

Mechanical Transport Company
1918/04/14-1919/05/12

Assistant Director of Medical Services
1916/05/08-1919/05/31

Deputy Assistant Director of Veterinary Services
1916/08/01-1919/04/30

Deputy Assistant Director Ordnance Services
1916/09/01-1919/04/30

Assistant Provost Marshall
1917/04/01-1917/04/30

Field Cashier
1916/08/15-1919/04/30