Considered by contemporaries to be socially élite and reasonably well-trained compared to other territorial units, the 1/10th volunteered for overseas service and became the seventh territorial battalion to be dispatched to the Western Front. The battalion took passage aboard the SS "Maidan" at Southampton on 1 November 1914, completing its disembarkation at Le Havre on the morning of the third with the Queen's Westminster Rifles. The battalion's original strength - those who qualified for the 1914 Star - became known as the "Maidaners" in reference to the vessel.