The 16th (Irish) Division was a voluntary 'Service' division of Kitchener's New Army raised in Ireland from the 'National Volunteers', initially in September 1914, after the outbreak of the Great War. In December 1915, the division moved to France, joining the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), under the command of Irish Major General William Hickie, and spent the duration of the First World War in action on the Western Front. Following enormous losses at the Somme, Passchendaele and Ypres, the Division required a substantial refit in England between June and August 1918, which involved the introduction of many non-Irish battalions. The division served as a formation of the United Kingdom's British Army during World War I.