The 41st Division was an infantry division of the British Army, raised during the First World War as part of Lord Kitchener's New Armies. The division saw service on the Western Front and later on the Italian Front.
Formation history
thumb|left|Men of 5 Platoon, B Company, 15th (Service) Battalion, [[Royal Hampshire Regiment|Hampshire Regiment, resting before going into the trenches. Southern Road, Mametz Wood, France, 17 July 1916.]]
After training and home service, the 41st Division, commanded by the experienced Major-General Sydney Lawford, who had previously commanded an infantry brigade in battle, deployed overseas to reinforce the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front in the first week of May 1916; its first major combat came in September of that year, at the Battle of Flers–Courcelette, part of the larger Battle of the Somme.
thumb|right|Infantry outpost in front of 41st Division's line at Wieltje, 27 April 1918, during the [[Battle of the Lys (1918)|Battle of the Lys.]]
After fighting in 1917 at the Battle of Messines and the Battle of Passchendaele (also known as the Third Battle of Ypres) it was transferred with four other divisions to the Italian Front. It remained here for three months throughout the winter of 1917–18 before returning to the Western Front, where it arrived just before the German Army launched its Spring Offensive in March. It participated in the Allied "Hundred Days Offensive" and ended the war in Flanders, from where it moved to join the Army of Occupation in Germany, following the Armistice of 11 November 1918.
The 41st Division was commanded by Major-General Lawford throughout its existence and was demobilised in March 1919, with some units transferred to the 47th (1/2nd London) Division, British Army of the Rhine (BAOR).