The 1st Infantry Division was established in Larissa on 19 March 1897 before the outbreak of, and in response to, the Greco-Turkish War. Formed, predominantly, from personnel recruited from Thessaly, it originally comprised two infantry brigades (1st and 2nd) and three Evzone battalions, and was tasked with the defence of the frontier from the Thermaic Gulf (near the Tria Platania heights) to the Bogazi pass, near Tyrnavos. Its first commander was Major General Nikolaos Makris.