The 1st Battalion, which had been serving in India, landed at Marseilles as part of the Dehra Dun Brigade in the Meerut Division in October 1914 for service on the Western Front. It saw action at the Battle of Aubers Ridge in May 1915. The battalion then moved to Mesopotamia in December 1915, where it took part in the Siege of Kut later that month and the Fall of Baghdad in March 1917, before moving to Palestine in January 1918.