Formation

The Army's 2nd Division was raised in Portugal at Albuera on the 18th June 1809 by Sir Arthur Wellesley, later the Duke of Wellington, and fought at

• 1809 - Talavera, Spain
• 1812 - Salamanca, Spain
• 1813 - Vittoria, Spain
• 1814 - Pyrenees, France
• 1815 - Waterloo, Belgium
• 1854 - Alma, Crimea
• 1855 - Sebastapol, Crimea
• 1860 - Peking, China
• 1879 - Ulundi, Zululand
• 1882 - Tel-El-Kebir, Egypt
• 1914 - Mons, Belgium
• 1914 - Marne, France
• 1916 - Somme, France
• 1917 - Ypres, France
• 1918 - Cambrai, France
• 1939 - Maginot Line, Saarland
• 1940 - River Escaut, Belgium
• 1940 - Dunkirk, France
• 1944 - Kohima, Assam
• 1944 - Imphal, Burma
• 1945 - Mandalay, Burma
• 1945 - Rangoon, Burma

The First World War

During the First World War, having deployed to France as part of Kitchener's 'Contemptible Little Army', the Division spent over four years in the trenches. It served with distinction at the battles of Mons, Marne, the Somme, Ypres and Cambrai.

The Second World War

Shortly after the start of the Second World War, the 2nd Division had to extricate itself through Dunkirk. 2Lt Richard Annand (1914-2004) of the Division's 6th Infantry Brigade's 2nd Bn Durham Light Infantry won the first VC of the Second World War at the River Dyle, Belgium, on 15 May 1940. After the threat of a German invasion had receded, 2nd Division deployed to India in 1942.

There, the Division, under Maj Gen John Grover was to fight its most famous battle. In 1944, during the Burma Campaign, the Division relieved the embattled garrison at Kohima in the Naga Hills. Despite being hampered by the monsoon rains and treacherous terrain, Allied soldiers succeeded in taking Kohima in hand-to-hand fighting, most famously on the Deputy Commissioner's tennis court. This battle was ultimately to prove the turning point of the war against the Japanese in Burma. The Kohima Museum can be visited at Imphal Barracks in York.

Post War

Since 1947, the 2nd Division has changed its role many times. In the 1950s it amalgamated with the 6th Armoured Division in Germany and in 1976 it was re-roled as an armoured formation. The Division returned to the UK in 1982. As 2nd Infantry Division it was based in York taking over the responsibility of the Army's Eastern District in 1995.

The Strategic Defence Review

The 1998 Strategic Defence Review led to a reorganisation of Land Command and the move in April 2000 of Headquarters 2nd Division to Craigiehall to the north of Edinburgh.

Craigiehall

Craigiehall has been the home of the 2nd Division since April 2000 although the estate has been occupied by the Army since September 1939. The earliest recorded mention of Craigiehall is in the time of King David I of Scotland (1124-1153).The estate has passed through the hands of the Annandales, the Hope-Weirs and the Roseberys.

Since the Second World War, Craigiehall has been home to various anti-aircraft units, HQ Scottish Command, HQ Scotland and now HQ 2nd Division. The main part of Officers' Mess was built by Sir William Bruce and completed in 1699. The building was added to by William Burn (1828), David Bryce RSA (1853), Sir Robert Lorimer (1926-1928) and less sympathetically by the Army in more recent years. Rudolf Hess is rumoured to have been questioned at Craigiehall in May 1941 and President Idi Amin visited in 1972.