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.
Artillery Volunteers 1859-1908 The first artillery unit formed amid the enthusiasm that created the British Volunteer Force in the mid-19th Century was the 1st Northumberland Artillery Volunteer Corps (AVC), which was raised after a public meeting at Tynemouth on 7 May 1859. The meeting was held in response to statements by Commander Bedford Pim, Royal Navy, that a modern ironclad warship could do untold damage to the towns of Tyneside due to the poor state of their defences. The unit was raised by Edward Potter of Cramlington, a local coal mining engineer.Beckett, p. 63.Potter memorial at Cramlington.Potter family at Grace's Guides. By 25 May 1859, the first drill was held for Rifle and Artillery volunteers at Tynemouth, formal enrolment for the 1st Northumberland Artillery Volunteers opened on 2 August, and the corps was formally accepted on 16 August 1859. In November 1859, the new unit held its first gun practice, on two 70-year-old muzzle-loading smoothbore cannon at Tynemouth Castle.Beckett, Appendix VIII.Frederick, p. 667.Litchfield & Westlake, pp. 138–43.Maurice-Jones, p. 164.
A 2nd Northumberland AVC was formed at Tynemouth on 12 January 1860 but, in May 1860, it was absorbed into the 1st as its second battery; four other batteries were raised at Willington Quay, Newcastle upon Tyne and North Shields. Other AVCs were also being formed in the area: the Percy Artillery, raised from tenants of the Duke of Northumberland and named after a previous volunteer unit of 1805,Percy Artillery at Amble & District Local History. was formed as the 3rd Northumberland AVC on 22 March 1860, then took the vacated position as 2nd. A new 3rd Northumberland AVC of two batteries was formed at Blyth on 23 November 1860, but was disbanded in January 1864. In September that year, the Newcastle members of the Tynemouth Volunteers left to form a separate 2nd Newcastle AVC and in January 1865 the Willington Quay men became the 3rd Northumberland AVC.
The 1st Administrative Brigade of Northumberland Artillery Volunteers was formed at Tynemouth on 4 April 1866 and included the 1st Northumberland (Tyneside Volunteers) and both its offshoots, the 2nd Newcastle and the 3rd Northumberland. (The 1st Newcastle and 2nd Northumberland (Percy Artillery) AVCs remained independent.) The 2nd Newcastle was absorbed into the 3rd Northumberland in 1868, in which year the brigade's HQ moved from Tynemouth to Newcastle. The 1st Durham AVC was added to the Admin Brigade in 1873.Army List, various dates.
The Volunteers were consolidated into larger units in 1880, and the Administrative Brigade became the 1st Northumberland and Durham Artillery Volunteers on 23 July with its HQ at Newcastle: Nos 1–6 Companies from 1st Northumberland AVC (Tynemouth) Nos 7–12 Companies from 3rd Northumberland AVC (Newcastle) Nos 13–15 Companies from 1st Durham AVC (Sunderland)
However, the Tynemouth Volunteers were withdrawn to become independent again in April 1881. They were supposed to become the new 3rd Northumberland, but objected to the title, asserting their primacy, and in August were renamed The Tynemouth Artillery Volunteers (with emphasis on the definite article 'The'). The unit became part of the RA's Northern Division on 1 April 1882, then the Western Division on 1 July 1889. By now, the unit had eight batteries.
In the early years, the volunteer gunners practised on whatever guns were available, including those at Tynemouth Castle. But, in addition to manning fixed coast defence artillery, some of the early Artillery Volunteers manned semi-mobile 'position batteries' of smooth-bore field guns pulled by agricultural horses. The Tynemouth Artillery Volunteers were supplied with light 9-pounder field guns in 1869. But the War Office refused to pay for the upkeep of field guns for Volunteers and they had largely died in the 1870s. In 1888, the 'position artillery' concept was revived and some Volunteer companies were reorganised as position batteries to work alongside the Volunteer infantry brigades. The Tynemouth Volunteer Artillery were re-equipped with 20-pounder field and 40-pounder fort guns in 1889 and on 14 July 1892 they were reorganised as a position battery and six companies:Beckett, p. 178.Litchfield & Westlake, p. 6.
HQ at Tynemouth No 1 Battery at Tynemouth Nos 2–4 Companies at Tynemouth No 5 Company at Backworth No 6 Company at Blyth and Ashington No 7 Company at Blyth
In 1893, the batteries at Tynemouth Castle were equipped with modern 6-inch breech-loading guns on hydro-pneumatic disappearing carriages, and the Tynemouth Volunteer Artillery immediately began training to operate them. This was reflected in the War Office Mobilisation Scheme for that year, which allocated the unit to the Tynemouth fixed defences.Mobilization Tables for Home Defence, List of Militia, Yeomanry and Volunteer Units, HMSO, London, 1893
On 1 June 1899, the RA was split into Royal Field Artillery and Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA), which was responsible for all coastal and fortress artillery; the Volunteers were affiliated to the RGA. On 1 January 1902, the RA abandoned its divisional organisation and the unit changed its designation to Tynemouth Royal Garrison Artillery (Volunteers).
Territorial Force When the Volunteers were subsumed into the new Territorial Force (TF) under the Haldane Reforms of 1908,Dunlop, Chapter 14.Spiers, Chapter 10. the Tynemouth RGA was intended to combine with the 1st Durham RGA to form a Northumberland and Durham RGA (and spin off a battery and ammunition column for the local RFA brigade). These plans were radically changed, so that by 1910 the Tynemouth and 1st Durham elements had formed their own units.London Gazette, 20 March 1908London Gazette 14 October 1910 The Tynemouth RGA (TF) was designated as a Defended Ports unit with the following organisation:Maurice-Jones, p. 165.Conrad, 1914.Northumberland at Great War Centenary Drill Halls.RA Depots and Home Training Units at Long, Long Trail.Rinaldi, Richard A, 2008. Order of Battle of the British Army 1914, Ravi Rikhye, p. 276 HQ at Military Road, North Shields No 1 Company at North Shields No 2 Company at North Shields No 3 Company at Prospect Avenue, Seaton Delaval No 4 Company at Plessey Road/Quayside, Blyth
The unit formed part of North Eastern Coast Defences, which also included the Regulars of Nos 12 and 47 Companies RGA at Tynemouth. These units were responsible for the manning the following guns in the Tyne defences: Maurice-Jones, p. 186. 2 × 9.2-inch 6 × 6-inch
World War I Coast defence On the outbreak of war, the Tynemouth Volunteer Artillery deployed to its war stations in the Tyne Garrison.
Shortly after the outbreak of war on 4 August 1914, TF units were invited to volunteer for Overseas Service, and they began forming Second Line units (distinguished from the original First line by a '2/' prefix).Becke, Pt 2b, p. 6. By October 1914, the campaign on the Western Front was bogging down into Trench warfare and there was an urgent need for batteries of siege artillery to be sent to France. The War Office decided that the TF units were well enough trained to take over many of the duties in the coastal defences, releasing Regular RGA gunners for service in the field.WO Instruction No 248 of October 1914. Soon the TF RGA companies that had volunteered for overseas service were also supplying trained gunners to RGA units serving overseas and providing cadres to form new units, although complete defended port units never went overseas. Thus the siege batteries formed in late 1915–early 1916 were a mixture of Regular and TF gunners from the RGA coast establishments together with new recruits.Sir John Eldridge's account in MacDonald, Pro Patria, p. 162. 44th Siege Battery formed at Sheerness in 1915 had its cadre provided by the Tynemouth RGA, while a number of others formed at Tynemouth (14 batteries in 1916 alone) may have included men from the Tynemouth RGA among the Regulars and recruits, although the War Office or Army Council Instructions did not specifically order this.Army Council Instructions, 1915–1916.
Under Army Council Instruction 686 of April 1917, the coastal defence companies of the RGA (TF) were reorganised. The four serving companies of the Tynemouth RGA (1/1st, 1/2nd/ 1/3rd and 1/4th) were reduced to three (1st, 2nd and 3rd) albeit with a slightly larger establishment of five officers and 100 men, and were to be kept up to strength with Regular recruits.Frederick, p. 698.Army Council Instructions April 1917.
By early 1918, the companies were serving in No 18 Coastal Fire Command based at Tynemouth. In April 1918, the following guns were in place around the Tyne:Farndale, Forgotten Fronts, Annexes 4 & 7.Frederick, p. 647.
Tyne Garrison Sunderland, Roker Battery – 4 × 4.7-inch Quick Fire (QF) guns Tyne Defences Kitchener's Battery – 2 × 12-inch guns Frenchman's Point Battery 1 – 1 × 9.2-inch Mk X gun Frenchman's Point Battery 2 – 2 × 6-inch Mk VII guns Spanish Battery – 2 × 6-inch Mk VII Tynemouth Castle Battery 1 – 1 × 9.2-inch Mk X Tynemouth Castle Battery 2 – 2 × 6-inch Mk VII Roberts Battery – 2 × 12-inch Blyth Defences Blyth Battery – 2 × 6-inch QF gun
Following the Armistice with Germany the Tynemouth RGA was placed in suspended animation in 1919.
44th Siege Battery, RGA
The battery was formed on 12 July 1915 at Sheerness from a cadre provided by the Tynemouth RGA and Regular RGA gunners brought back from the defences of Gibraltar and Malta.Frederick, p. 702. It went out to the Western Front on 24 January 1916, manning two 12-inch railway howitzers and was involved in the preparatory bombardment for the Battle of the Somme later that year.Siege Batteries of the RGA at Long, Long Trail.'Allocation of Siege Batteries RGA', The National Archives (TNA), Kew, file WO 95/5494/4.'44 Siege Battery War Diary January 1916–February 1918', TNA file WO 95/545.]Edmonds, 1916, Vol I, p. 346.Farndale, Western Front, p. 146.
The battery remained in action throughout the Somme fighting of 1916. Thereafter, the heavy howitzers were in great demand it was frequently shifted around the railway network behind the Western Front from one army to another. It ended the war attached to Fifth Army supporting the great Allied Hundred Days Offensive.Farndale, Western Front, Annex M.
44th Siege Battery continued in the Regular Army after the Armistice, becoming 16th Medium Battery in 4th Medium Brigade, RGA, in 1920.Frederick, p. 727.
Interwar years Tynemouth Heavy Brigade The Tynemouth RGA was reformed on 7 February 1920. When the TF was reconstituted as the Territorial Army (TA) the following year, it was redesignated as the Tynemouth Coast Brigade, becoming the Tynemouth Heavy Brigade in 1924 when the RGA was subsumed into the RA. It had the following organisation:Frederick, p. 616.Maurice-Jones, p. 206. Headquarters moved to Blyth in 1934 150 Heavy Battery at North Shields – from Nos 1 and 2 Companies 151 Heavy Battery at Blyth – from No 4 Company 152 Heavy Battery at Seaton Delaval – from No 3 Company
In 1926, it was decided that the coast defences of the UK would be manned by the TA alone.
64th (Northumbrian) Anti-Aircraft Brigade