 On 24 September, at the special request of the Secretary of State for War, Earl Kitchener of Khartoum, the Wessex Division accepted liability for service in British India to relieve the Regular units there for service on the Western Front.The division's infantry battalions (without their brigade headquarters) embarked at Southampton on 8 October and the were convoyed to Karachi (the Devon battalions) and Bombay (1/4th DCLI).They were immediately distributed to garrisons across India, reverting to peacetime service conditions, and the Devon & Cornwall Brigade never saw service as a whole, though it was formally numbered the 130th (Devon and Cornwall) Brigade in May 1915.