Northamptonshire Battery, Royal Field Artillery

Northamptonshire Battery, Royal Field Artillery
Active 1908–1919
Country United Kingdom United Kingdom
Branch Territorial Force
Role Field artillery
Part of IV East Anglian Brigade, Royal Field Artillery
Garrison/HQ Peterborough
Engagements WWI:
Western Front
Sinai and Palestine Campaign
Disbanded 1919
Commanders
Notable
commanders		 Hon George Wentworth-FitzWilliam
William Cecil, 5th Marquess of Exeter

The Northamptonshire Battery, Royal Field Artillery was a unit of Britain's Territorial Force from 1908 to 1919. It served in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign during World War I.

Early history

An invasion scare in 1859 led to the creation of the Volunteer Force and huge enthusiasm throughout Great Britain for joining local Rifle Volunteer Corps (RVCs).[1] The 6th (Peterborough) Northamptonshire RVC was one such unit, raised at Peterborough in Northamptonshire on 3 March 1860. The first commanding officer was the Hon George Wentworth-FitzWilliam, MP for Peterborough 1841–59.[2][3][4][5] All the county's volunteer units were included in the 1st Administrative Battalion, Northamptonshire RVCs, in 1860.[3][4][6]

The following officers commanded the 6th Northamptonshire RVC during its independent existence:[7]

When the Administrative Battalion was consolidated as the 1st Northamptonshire RVC in 1880, the former 6th at Peterborough formed H and I (later G and H) Companies.[3][8] Under the Childers Reforms of 1881, the battalion was attached to the Northamptonshire Regiment, and formally changed its title to 1st Volunteer Battalion, Northamptonshire Regiment, in December 1887.[3][4][9]

Territorial Force

When the Volunteer Force was subsumed into the new Territorial Force (TF) as part of the Haldane reforms of 1908, the bulk of the 1st Volunteer Bn became the 4th Bn Northamptonshire Regiment, but the two Peterborough companies were converted to form the Northamptonshire Battery of the Royal Field Artillery and the East Midland Brigade Company of the Army Service Corps.[3][4][10][11][12][13]

The Northamptonshire Battery was based at the Drill Hall, Queen's Street, Peterborough. It was included with two Hertfordshire batteries in the IV East Anglian Brigade, RFA, which formed part of the TF's East Anglian Division.[11][14][15][16] Before World War I broke out, the battery was equipped with four 15-pounder field guns.[15]

William Cecil, 5th Marquess of Exeter, previously a captain in the 3rd Bn Northamptonshire Regiment (the Northampton and Rutland Militia) was appointed commanding officer of the Northamptonshire Battery in the rank of major in 1910. In January 1914 he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel and appointed CO of the whole IV East Anglian Brigade of which his Cecil kinsman, the Marquess of Salisbury, was Honorary Colonel.[14]

World War I

Mobilisation

The East Anglian Division had begun its annual training on 27 July 1914. When the order to mobilise was given on 4 August, the units returned to their headquarters and then to their war stations. By 10 August the division had concentrated around Brentwood, Essex, and on 20 August it moved to Chelmsford and formed part of the coast defences of the UK until the following May.[15][16] Meanwhile, the formation of duplicate or 2nd Line TF units from Home Service men and recruits had been authorised, and towards the end of 1914 the 2nd East Anglian Division came into existence at Peterborough. The original (1st Line) Northampton Battery became the 1/1st, and its 2nd Line became the 2/1st Northampton Battery.[11][17]

1/1 Northamptonshire Battery

The 1st East Anglian Division was employed on coast defence until May 1915, when it was concentrated at St Albans preparatory to going overseas as the 54th (East Anglian) Division. However, when the infantry departed for the Gallipoli Campaign, the divisional artillery was left behind. In August it joined the 2nd Line at Thetford in Norfolk and Brandon, Suffolk, rearmed with modern 18-pounder guns and handed over its obsolete 15-pounders to the 2nd Line batteries.[15][16][17]

On 17 November 1915 the 54th Divisional Artillery embarked for France, where it joined 33rd Division, a 'Kitchener's Army' division whose artillery were still under training.[15][16][17][18]

After a month on the Western Front, during which parties of officers and men had been attached for training to other divisions in the Front Line, 54th Divisional Artillery was warned that it was to be transferred to Egypt to rejoin its parent division, which had been withdrawn from Gallipoli. Embarkation began at Marseille on 30 January 1916 and disembarkation was completed at Alexandria by 14 February. The divisional artillery rejoined 54th Division at Mena Camp near Cairo and in April moved into No 1 (Southern) Section of the Suez Canal defences.[15][16]

On 29 May 1916 the IV East Anglian Brigade was renumbered CCLXXIII (273) Brigade RFA and its batteries became A, B and C. It was renumbered again on 29 December, becoming CCLXX (270), and was reorganised into six-gun batteries. C (1/1st Northamptonshire) Battery was joined by half of B (1/2nd Hertfordshire) Battery and became B Battery.[15][16]

The infantry battalions of 54th Division were slowly brought back up to strength with drafts from home during 1916, and by mid-January 1917 the whole division had assembled at Moascar in preparation for the British invasion of Sinai.[19]

After crossing the Wilderness,[20] the division took part in the First (26–7 March), Second (17–9 April) and Third Battles of Gaza (27 October–7 November) and the final capture of Gaza (1–7 November). At the end of the year the division was engaged in the Battle of Jaffa (21–22 December).[15][16]

54th Division was next engaged in the action at Berukin (9–10 April 1918). Finally it took part in the opening stage of Allenby's final offensive (the Battle of Megiddo), known as the Battle of Sharon (19–23 September).[15][16]

The division was then taken out of the line and concentrated at Haifa, where it was engaged in repairing communications for the rapidly advancing army. It next moved to Beirut, where it was concentrating when the Armistice of Mudros was signed with Turkey and hostilities ended on 31 October.[15]

In late November 1918 the division was ordered to return to Egypt, the artillery proceeding by sea and arriving in mid-December. Demobilisation began in January 1919, and the TF units were slowly reduced to cadres. The divisional artillery had disappeared by June.

2/1 Northamptonshire Battery

Training for the 2nd Line artillery was hindered by the shortage of equipment, and several months passed before guns, horses and harness were received. Even then, only obsolete French 90 mm guns were available for training. Early in 1915 the 2nd East Anglian Division (which was numbered 69th in August 1915) concentrated round Thetford, where it formed part of First Army in Central Force. The divisional artillery was distributed around Cambridge, Tuddenham and Brandon. In November the divisional artillery took over the 15-pounder guns released by its 1st Line.[17]

In May 1916, the 2/IV East Anglian Brigade was numbered CCCXLVIII Bde RFA, in which 2/1st Northampton became C Battery, and the following month he division was transferred to Northern Command and moved to Harrogate in North Yorkshire. In the summer of 1917 the divisional artillery moved into camp at Welbeck in Nottinghamshire until winter set in, when they moved into winter quarters around Doncaster and Darlington. [17]

The division's role throughout the war was to train drafts of reinforcements for units serving overseas. By the end of 1917 the 2nd Line infantry battalions had been replaced by training units, and from 1 January 1918 the division lost its 'East Anglian' title. The artillery remained around Darlington (later Middlesbrough) and Doncaster. Demobilisation began after the Armistice with Germany, and 69th Division's artillery disappeared before the end of January 1919.[17]

Disbandment

When the TF was reformed (as the Territorial Army) in 1920, the two Hertfordshire batteries of IV East Anglian Brigade were reformed into 86th (East Anglian) (Hertfordshire Yeomanry) Brigade, but no replacement Northampton Battery was formed.[11][12]

Notes

  1. ↑ Beckett.
  2. ↑ Beckett, p. 53 & Appendix VII.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 Westlake, p. 190–1.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Northamptonshire Volunteers at Regiments.org.
  5. ↑ Gurney, p. 315.
  6. ↑ Gurney, pp. 318–9.
  7. ↑ Gurney, p. 325.
  8. ↑ Gurney, p. 321.
  9. ↑ Gurney, p. 320.
  10. ↑ Gurney, p. 322.
  11. 1 2 3 4 East Anglian Bde RFA at Regiments.org.
  12. 1 2 Litchfield, p. 101.
  13. ↑ London Gazette, 20 March 1908.
  14. 1 2 Monthly Army Lists.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Becke, Pt 2a, pp. 125–31.
  16. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 54 Div at Long, Long Trail.
  17. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Becke, Pt 2b, pp. 91–8.
  18. ↑ Becke Pt 3b, pp. 31–9.
  19. ↑ Burrows, pp. 112, 127–8.
  20. ↑ Burrows, p. 133.

References

Online sources

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