For over half a century, the Divisional sign of the Second Division has been the Crossed Keys. It was a familiar sign around India later on in the war, and the flag with the Crossed Keys flies today in the little Westphalian town (Lubbecke) whose municipal coat of arms is, by the long arm of coincidence, the Crossed Keys.

In the early days of World War II the War Office ordered that each formation should choose for itself some device which would be easily recognised and simple to reproduce. General Lloyd, then commanding the Second Division in France, chose the emblem of the Crossed Keys. His previous command, a Guards Brigade, had as its sign a single key, and he decided to add a second key for his new command. So it was that the Crossed Keys came to the French town of Orchies in 1940.

The choice was not inappropriate, for in earlier days it was the custom for the Archbishop of Canterbury, whenever necessary, to raise an Army in the South of England, and for the Archbishop of Canterbury to raise a Second Army in the North. This Second Army carried on its banners and shields the emblem of the Crossed Keys, taken from the arms of the Archbishop of York.

When the Division was sent to Yorkshire after Dunkirk, it was re-establishing a distant historical connection. This was subsequently reinforced when the Division moved from the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) to York in 1982 taking over the responsibility of the Army’s Eastern District in 1995. The 1998 Strategic Defence Review led to a reorganisation of Land Command and the move in April 2000 of Headquarters 2nd Division to Edinburgh.