On 18 January 1916 13th (W) Division began embarking for Egypt and by the end of the month it had concentrated at Port Said. Lieutenant-Colonel Harold Younghusband, DSO, was promoted from adjutant of 1/5th Bn Bedfordshire Regiment to command 7th Gloucesters on 24 January. The division took up posts in the Suez Canal defences, but on 8 February it was ordered to the Mesopotamian Front. Handing over its posts on 12 February the first troops went by rail to Suez where they embarked on the SS "Simla" for Basra, arriving on 27 February. Here there was an outbreak of fever amongst 7th Gloucesters and the battalion was left behind when the rest of the division moved up the Tigris in March. It therefore missed the first series of attempts to relieve the besieged garrison of Kut Al Amara, only travelling up the Tigris by riverboat to rejoin the division on 18 April in time for a renewed attack.