The Regiment raised a number of extra war service battalions during The Great War. In all the Loyal North Lancs expanded to 21 battalions of infantry for service at home and abroad.Of these, there were the two regular battalions (the 1st and 2nd Battalions), the Special Reserve (former militia) battalion (3rd (Reserve) Battalion), ten Territorial Force battalions (1/4th, 1/5th, 2/4th, 2/5th, 3/4th, 3/5th, 4/5th, 1/12th (Pioneers), 2/12th and 14th Battalions), and seven service battalions of Kitchener's Army (6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, 10th, 11th (Reserve) and 15th Battalions), as well as a home service battalion (13th (Home Service) Battalion).
Regular Army
The 1st Battalion landed at Le Havre as part of the 2nd Brigade in the 1st Division in August 1914 for service on the Western Front
The Service Battalions During the latter half of 1915 Lancashire units of the ‘New Army’ began to arrive on the Western Front, including the three 7th Battalions (all in the same brigade), the three 8th Battalions, the three 9th Battalions, 11th South Lancashires and 10th Loyal North Lancashires. Over the next few months they were initiated into the arduous routines of trench warfare. On 26th November Private William Young of the 8th East Lancashires won the Victoria Cross for rescuing his sergeant, who was lying wounded between the lines, while on 21st May 1916 Lieutenant Richard Jones of 8th Loyal North Lancashires earned a posthumous Victoria Cross for his gallant defence of Broadmarsh Crater on Vimy Ridge.