The goal of this site is to provide an initial Order of Battle of the Divisions of the New Armies as they were formed in 1914-1915. Any changes to the Order of Battle throughout the Great War are not listed.
Kitchener was appointed Secretary of State for War of 6th August and the next day he issued his call for 100.000 men, the first hundred thousand. These men would form the first divisions of the 70 divisions Kitchener planned to raise to fight the war.
Within fourteen days the first hundred thousand were recruited, and on 21st August an Army Order was issued to form six divisions, one from each of the geograghical Commands the country was divided in; the Southern Command provided a light Division consisting of Rifle and Light Infantry battalions. Thus, the First New Army (K.1) was formed comprising 9th to 14th Divisions, each with a (geograghical) title in addition to their number.
Consequently, a Second New Army (K.2) was authorised on 11th September with divisions numbered 15 to 20 with the same geograghical designation as K.1. The Third New Army was formed only three days later. K.3's divisions were numbered 21 to 26, without any designation.
Due to overrecruiting in these first two months of the war, the surplus inflow were posted to the Reserve and Special Reserve battalions of the Line Regiments. By October they became much overstrenght so that the Forth New Army was formed. The divisional numbers were 30 to 35, since 27, 28, 29 were already in use for divisions formed from regular battalions.
The Ulster Division was formed from the Ulster Volunteer Force at the same time, and consisted of locally raised battalions of the three Ulster regiments. Initially it was just known at the Ulster Division, but was numbered 36 end of October.
When the units for the first four New Armies were assembled and raised, another group of battalions was formed, the locally raised battalions. These were formed by committees from cities, towns, organizations and individuals, and were fed, housed and clothed by them untill the War Office took them over in 1915. In the beginning these battalions were known by their origin, e.g. 1st Tyne Scottish Bn, Northumberland Fusiliers. These locally raised units also comprised the Pals battalions, composed of men with the same geographical, social or occupational background.
In December 1914 these battalions were formed in the Fifth New Army (K.5), with the next six numbers, 37 to 42. The Welsh Division was also formed at the same from locally raised battalions from Wales, which was numbered 43. The first division, the 44th, of the Sixth New Army was formed in March 1915 from battalions raised at army troops fro the first three armies.
In April 1915 the decision was taken to break up the six divisions of K.4 and to use the battalions as training reinforcements for the first three New Armies. The Fifth New Army became the Fourth New Army and its divisions were renumbered 30th to 35th. The 44th division was renumbered 37th and the 43rd (Welsh) division was renumbered 38th. To complete the tally, the 39th to 41st divisions were formed during 1915.
Thus, within one year we see the formation of thirty New Army divisions and six training divisions, all as result of Kitchener's call to arms that started 6th August 1914. In all 557 battalions were formed.

Some final notes on the designation of the battalions. When the New Armies were formed, there were two different schools of thought: one justed wanted to number the battalions as 1st, 2nd etc Infantry Battalion as was done in the Canadian and Australian Forces; the other wished to linking the battalions to existing Regiments thus preserving and/or creating traditions and esperit de corps. As Kitchener was indifferent, he wanted the men, the traditional school won, and thus the battalions were raised as "additional battalions of the regiments of Infantry of the Line and will be given numbers following consecutively on the existing battalionsof their regiments." Furthermore, to distinguish them from the regular and territorial battalions, all service battalions had the word "Service" in brackets after their number, i.e. 8th (Service) Battalion The Black Watch. The locally raised battalions had an additional title in brackets showing their connections, i.e. 15th (Service) Battalion The Sherwood Foresters (Nottingham). In the Order of Battle presented here, the word "Service" has been omitted since all battalions are service battalions, but the additional titles are shown. The Regimental names are as of 1914 and subtitles have been omitted in most cases to improve readability. Thus The Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment) will simply be called The Royal Scots. A complete list of the Infantry of the Line with titles is provided here.