7TH (SERVICE) BATTALION. 1914-1919 Extracted from : A short history of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry, 1741-1922 for the young soldiers of the Regiment By R.B. Crosse. Doiran, 1917, 1918.
The Battalion was raised in September 1914, at Oxford, and after training at home proceeded to France a year later, as part of the 78th Infantry Brigade, 26th Division. A few weeks later it was transferred to Salonika, and landed there on November 26th, 1915, being employed for the next six months on the “Bird Cage Line,” the outer defences of the place.
In July 1916, the Battalion captured an important Bulgar outpost, Horseshoe Hill, with great dash under difficult conditions, thus being the first British unit to fight its way into Serbia.
Trench work and the digging of support lines filled the winter 1916-17, but with the spring came heavy fighting, during which the Battalion was ordered to capture Petit Couronne, a key position on the Doiran front. Here, though the brigade on its flank had had to fall back, the Battalion held its objective, in spite of very heavy losses and all its officers being wounded, from midnight till withdrawn by order ten hours later.
After three weeks the Battalion was again in the line near Doiran, where it continued till September 1918, the Bulgars being then compelled to withdraw.
The Battalion then took part in the pursuit, moving up the line of the Vardar River, and after crossing the hills into the Strumnitza Plain, was the first battalion to enter Bulgaria.
After the Armistice the Battalion moved up halfway into Bulgaria. Then it was transferred to the Dobrudja, where it helped to keep the peace between Roumanian and Bulgar, finally moving to Egypt, where it was used to quell the riots, and where it was eventually disbanded in September 1919.