A number of 'Divisions' were organised on a territorial basis by Britain's Royal Artillery (RA) in 1882 in an attempt to improve the administration and recruitment of garrison artillery units. These also provided for the first time a higher organisation for the part-time Artillery Militia and Artillery Volunteers. In 1889 these divisions were reorganised into fewer, larger organisations. The RA was split into two distinct branches in 1899, with the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) taking over all the units in these divisions, which were scrapped in 1902.
Since 1877 the regular batteries of the Royal Artillery had been organised as 11 'brigades' [lower-alpha 1] of which 7th–11th Brigades were garrison artillery. Under General Order 72 of 4 April 1882 these five brigades were broken up and the garrison batteries of the regular Royal Artillery and all the part-time Artillery Militia units in the UK were organised into 11 territorial 'divisions'. [lower-alpha 2] Shortly afterwards, the Artillery Volunteers were added to the divisions. [1] [2] [3]
Within each division, the 1st Brigade comprised the regular batteries, assigned arbitrarily from the previous brigades and redesignated sequentially as '1st Battery, 1st Brigade, Northern Division' etc. The 2nd and subsequent brigades were the artillery militia units (who temporarily lost their county designations), which already consisted of multiple batteries and had sometime sbeen referred to as 'regiments'. Artillery Volunteer Corps (AVCs) had been independent units comprising a variable number of batteries, sometimes grouped into administrative brigades, but since 1881 these had been consolidated into larger AVCs. They mostly retained their county titles. Although the militia and volunteers organised by county were affiliated to an appropriate territorial division, for the Regular RA the divisions simply represented recruiting districts – batteries could be serving anywhere in the British Empire and their only allegiance to brigade headquarters (HQ) was for the supply of drafts and recruits. The amount of militia artillery in each division had no relation to the coast defences that needed to be manned, but solely to the numbers that could be recruited within its boundaries. For example there were too few in Southern England where the principal coast fortress lay – there were none in London – and too many in Ireland. The Volunteer Force did not exist in Ireland. The organisation in 1882 was as follows: [1] [3] [4] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9]
On 1 July 1889 the garrison artillery was reorganised again into three large territorial divisions of garrison artillery and one of mountain artillery. The names of the territorial divisions seemed arbitrary, with the Scottish units being grouped in the South Division, for example, but this related to where the need for coastal artillery was greatest, rather than where the units recruited. The artillery militia units regained their county designations, as did those volunteer units that had adopted brigade titles. After 1889 all were intended to include '(----ern Division, Royal Artillery)' after their title, but many of the volunteers did not use them. From 1 August 1891 garrison artillery batteries were termed companies (unless they were equipped with specific guns, such as mountain batteries or position batteries), and some were grouped into double companies at this time before reverting to their previous numbers in March 1894. [3] [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12]
1st and 2nd Sussex; 1st Norfolk; 1st, 2nd and 3rd Kent; 1st Essex; 1st and 2nd Cinque Ports; 2nd and 3rd Middlesex; 1st London; 1st Suffolk & Harwich
1st and 2nd Hampshire; 1st Edinburgh; 1st Midlothian; 1st Banffshire; 1st Forfarshire; 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, 8th and 9th Lancashire; 1st Renfrew & Dumbarton; 1st and 2nd Dorsetshire; 1st Fife; 1st Haddington; 1st Lanarkshire; 1st Ayrshire & Galloway; 1st Argyll & Bute; 1st Cheshire & Carnarvonshire; 1st Caithness; 1st Aberdeenshire; 1st Berwickshire; 1st Inverness-shire; 1st Cumberland; 1st Orkney; 1st Shropshire & Staffordshire; 1st Worcestershire
Tynemouth; 1st and 2nd Northumberland; 1st and 2nd Devonshire; 1st Cornwall; 1st and 2nd Glamorganshire; 1st and 2nd Yorkshire (East Riding); 1st Gloucestershire; 1st Yorkshire (North Riding); 1st Lincolnshire; 1st Berwick-on-Tweed; 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Durham; 1st, 2nd and 4th Yorkshire (West Riding); 1st Newcastle upon Tyne; 1st Monmouthshire
When the territorial divisions were reorganised on 1 July 1889, one field battery in South Africa and nine garrison artillery batteries – one in Monmouthshire, the remainder in India – were converted into mountain batteries to constitute a new mountain artillery division. On 1 June 1899 this was redesignated the Mountain Division, RGA, and the batteries became '1st Mountain Bty, RGA', etc. [11]
In 1899 the Royal Artillery was divided into two distinct branches, field and garrison. The field branch included the Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) and the newly-named Royal Field Artillery (RFA). The garrison branch was named the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) and included coast defence, position, heavy, siege and mountain artillery. The RGA retained the divisions until they were scrapped on 1 January 1902, at which point the Regular RGA companies were numbered in a single sequence and the militia and volunteer units were designated '--- shire RGA (M)' or '(V)' as appropriate. [5] [6] [7] [8] [9] [13]
The West Riding Artillery was formed as a group of volunteer units of the British Army in 1860. Its units later formed the divisional artillery of the West Riding Division of the Territorial Force in World War I and World War II. The West Riding Artillery's lineage is continued in a battery of today's Army Reserve
The Tynemouth Volunteer Artillery claims to be the oldest volunteer artillery unit of the British Army. It served coastal and siege guns in World War I and World War II, and also served in the infantry role.
The 1st Essex Artillery Volunteers was a unit of Britain's part-time auxiliary forces raised in Essex in 1860 in response to an invasion scare. It served under various designations as field artillery in Palestine during World War I. During World War II its units served as mountain artillery in Italy and as jungle artillery and medium artillery in Burma. Postwar it became an airborne unit until it was merged with other units in the 1950s.
The 2nd Devonshire Artillery Volunteers was a unit of the British Volunteer Force and Territorial Army. The unit and its successors defended Plymouth Dockyard and the Devon coast from 1861 to 1961.
The 1st Kent Artillery Volunteers was a part-time unit of the British Army's Royal Artillery from 1860 to 1956. Primarily serving as coastal artillery defending the Port of Dover and other harbours in South-East England, the unit's successors also served in the heavy artillery role on the Western Front during World War I and as anti-aircraft artillery during the Blitz and later in the North African and Italian campaigns of World War II.
The 1st East Yorkshire Artillery Volunteers was a part-time unit of Britain's Royal Artillery based in the East Riding of Yorkshire, which also contained sub-units from the North and West Ridings. Created during an invasion scare in 1859–1860, it survived to supply units to the later Territorial Force of the 20th century.
The West Riding Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery was a part-time unit of Britain's Territorial Force formed in 1908 in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It fought on the Western Front during World War I, and served on in the Territorial Army until the eve of World War II.
The 1st Hampshire Artillery Volunteers and its successors were part-time coast defence units of the British Army from 1860 to 1967. Although the units saw no action, they protected the Portsmouth area in both World Wars and supplied trained gunners to siege batteries engaged on the Western Front during World War I. The unit continued in the Territorial Army after World War II.
The Northern Division, Royal Artillery, was an administrative grouping of garrison units of the Royal Artillery, Artillery Militia and Artillery Volunteers within the British Army's Northern District from 1882 to 1889.
The Lancashire Division, Royal Artillery, was an administrative grouping of garrison units of the Royal Artillery, Artillery Militia and Artillery Volunteers within the British Army's Northern District from 1882 to 1889.
The Cinque Ports Division, Royal Artillery was an administrative grouping of garrison units of the Royal Artillery, Artillery Militia and Artillery Volunteers within the British Army's South Eastern District from 1882 to 1889.
The London Division, Royal Artillery, was an administrative grouping of garrison units of the Royal Artillery and Artillery Volunteers within the British Army's Home and Woolwich Districts from 1882 to 1889.
The Scottish Division, Royal Artillery, was an administrative grouping of garrison units of the Royal Artillery, Artillery Militia and Artillery Volunteers within the British Army's Scottish District from 1882 to 1889.
The Welsh Division, Royal Artillery, was an administrative grouping of garrison units of the Royal Artillery, Artillery Militia and Artillery Volunteers in the British Army's Western District from 1882 to 1889.
The North Irish Division, Royal Artillery, was an administrative grouping of garrison units of the Royal Artillery and Artillery Militia in Ireland from 1882 to 1889.
The South Irish Division, Royal Artillery, was an administrative grouping of garrison units of the Royal Artillery and Artillery Militia in Ireland from 1882 to 1889.
The Eastern Division, Royal Artillery, was an administrative grouping of garrison units of the Royal Artillery, Artillery Militia and Artillery Volunteers within the British Army's Eastern District from 1882 to 1902.
The Southern Division, Royal Artillery, was an administrative grouping of garrison units of the Royal Artillery, Artillery Militia and Artillery Volunteers within the British Army's Southern District from 1882 to 1902.
The Western Division, Royal Artillery, was an administrative grouping of garrison units of the Royal Artillery, Artillery Militia and Artillery Volunteers within the British Army's Western District from 1882 to 1902.
The Mountain Division, Royal Artillery, was an administrative grouping of mountain artillery units of the Royal Artillery from 1889. It continued as a distinct branch of the Royal Garrison Artillery until World War I.