The Metropolitan Artillery Volunteers (popularly known as 'Truro's Tigers') was a part-time unit of the British Volunteer Force formed in the London area in 1861. It was designated the 3rd Middlesex Artillery Volunteers and went on to become the 5th London Brigade, Royal Field Artillery in the Territorial Force. It provided two active service units in the First World War, which saw action on the Western Front. Just before the Second World War it again spun off a duplicate regiment, each taking the '5th London' subtitle. Both regiments saw widely varied service during the war. The regiment later provided an airborne artillery unit in the Territorial Army of the 1950s.
Volunteer Force The enthusiasm for the Volunteer movement following an invasion scare in 1859 saw the creation of many Rifle, Artillery and Engineer Volunteer Corps composed of part-time soldiers eager to supplement the Regular British Army in time of need.Beckett.Spiers, pp. 163–8. One such unit was the Metropolitan Artillery Volunteers raised in Islington, North London, on 12 September 1861 by Charles Wilde, 2nd Lord Truro and known as 'Truro's Tigers'. It was numbered as the 3rd Middlesex Artillery Volunteer Corps (AVC), and competition to join was so great that it was able to set a minimum height standard of 5 foot 11 inches (1.8 m). The cost of maintaining guns and harness put pressure on the AVCs and a number of units began to decline after the first enthusiasm. In 1870 the 3rd Middlesex AVC absorbed the 4th (The Authors' Volunteer Horse Artillery) Middlesex AVC, originally raised at West Brompton Cricket Ground on 4 December 1865. Despite the problems that other volunteer artillery units suffered, the 3rd Middlesex went from strength to strength: by 1881, with Lord Truro still the Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant, it had become a full brigade organised as follows:Beckett, Appendix VIII.Frederick, p. 665.Litchfield & Westlake, pp. 120–7.5th London Artillery at Regiments.org.Army List, various dates.
Brigade Headquarters (HQ) at 111 Regent Street, later 16 Regent Street 1st Division at Armoury House, Farringdon Road, Clerkenwell Nos 1–3 Batteries 2nd Division at 76 Lower Kennington LaneOsborne.Borough of Lambeth, Drill Hall Register at Stepping Forward London. Nos 4–7 and 11 Batteries 3rd Division at Porteus Road, Paddington – popularly known as the 'Paddington Light Horse Artillery' Nos 8–10 and 12 Batteries Ambulance Detachment Cyclist Section
From June 1886 Brigade HQ was at 18 Cockspur Street, Charing Cross, and by 1899 at 1 Palace Place, Great Scotland Yard.
A number of early AVCs had manned semi-mobile 'position batteries' of smooth-bore field guns pulled by agricultural horses. Like all volunteer units the 3rd Middlesex conducted regular camps and took part in Volunteer reviews. In 1868 they attended the Volunteer review at Portsmouth, taking a horsed battery of 9-pounder smooth bore guns.'The Volunteer Review at Portsmouth', Illustrated London News, 25 April 1868, p. 415. However, the War Office (WO) refused to pay for the upkeep of field guns and the concept died out in the 1870s.
On 1 April 1882 the Volunteer Artillery were organised into large 'divisions' of the Royal Artillery (RA) along with Regular and Militia garrison artillery units: the 3rd Middlesex was assigned to the London Division. When on 1 July 1889 the artillery were regrouped into three large divisions, the 3rd Middlesex joined the Eastern Division. Volunteer artillery batteries were redesignated companies in 1891, reflecting their role as garrison artillery.
In 1888 some Volunteer batteries were reorganised as 'position artillery' (later 'heavy artillery') to work alongside the Volunteer infantry brigades. By 1893 the War Office Mobilisation Scheme had allocated the 3rd Middlesex Artillery Volunteers to the Thames defences.Mobilization Tables for Home Defence, List of Militia, Yeomanry and Volunteer Units, HMSO, London, 1893 Although the 3rd Middlesex was not designated as Position Artillery in the Army List, in 1896 it was reported that nine of its batteries were armed with 40 Pounder RBL position guns, and a further three batteries with a mixture of 9-Pounder and 13-pounder Rifled Muzzle Loading (RML) field guns.Navy and Army Illustrated, 4 September 1896, p120Beckett, pp. 178–9.Litchfield and Westlake, pp. 4–6. The 3rd Middlesex won the Queen's Prize at the National Artillery Association's annual camp in 1870, 1878 and 1885, and after the competition was split into two sections it won the Position/Heavy Artillery category in 1896.Litchfield & Westlake, p. 189. The unit also had the distinction of having the Duke of York (the future King George V) as its Honorary Colonel from 30 July 1892.
On 1 June 1899 all the Volunteer artillery units became part of the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) and with the abolition of the RA's divisional organisation on 1 January 1902, the unit became the 3rd Middlesex RGA (Volunteers). Brigade HQ was now at 76 Lower Kennington Lane and the unit consisted of eight companies.Litchfield and Westlake, pp. 5–6.
Territorial Force
When the Volunteers were subsumed into the new Territorial Force (TF) under the Haldane Reforms of 1908,Spiers, Chapter 10. the 3rd Middlesex transferred to the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) on 17 June as the V (or 5th) County of London Brigade, RFA, with the following organisation:Frederick, p. 678.Litchfield, pp. 153–5.London Gazette 20 March 1908.Becke, Pt 2a, pp. 69–75.47th (2nd London) Division at Long, Long Trail.Maude, pp. 1–2; Appendix C. Brigade HQ at 76 Lower Kennington Lane 12th County of London Battery at Kennington Lane 13th County of London Battery at Kennington Lane 14th County of London Battery at Porteus Road, Paddington 5th London Ammunition Column (formed 28 January 1909)
Each battery was equipped with four 15-pounder guns, and the unit formed part of the TF's 2nd London Division.
First World War Mobilisation When war was declared on 4 August 1914 the V London Brigade had just returned from its annual training, and mobilised at Kennington Lane. The officer in command at the time was Major E.C. Massy, RA, who was a Temporary Lt-Col in the TF. After mobilisation the 2nd London Division's artillery brigades moved to the country round Hemel Hempstead, Berkhamsted and Kings Langley in Hertfordshire to begin war training.Maude, pp. 2–3.
On the outbreak of war, TF units were invited to volunteer for Overseas Service. On 15 August 1914, the WO issued instructions to separate those men who had signed up for Home Service only, and form these into reserve units. On 31 August, the formation of a reserve or 2nd Line unit was authorised for each 1st Line unit where 60 per cent or more of the men had volunteered for Overseas Service. The titles of these 2nd Line units would be the same as the original, but distinguished by a '2/' prefix. In this way duplicate batteries, brigades and divisions were created, mirroring those TF formations being sent overseas. Eventually these too were prepared for overseas service and 3rd Line reserve units were formed to produce reinforcement drafts to the others.Becke, Pt 2b, p. 6. The duplicate 2/V London Brigade was formed in September 1914 and separated in March 1915 when 1/V Brigade went overseas.Dalbiac, pp. 17–8.Frederick, p. 690.
1/V London Brigade At the end of October 1914 the 2nd London Division was chosen to reinforce the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) fighting on the Western Front and training was stepped up, despite bad weather and equipment shortages. Brigade and Divisional training began in February 1915 and it received its orders for the move to France on 2 March. By 22 March all the batteries had reached the divisional concentration area around Béthune.Maude, pp. 3, 11–12.
Aubers Ridge While the division's infantry were introduced to trench routine by being attached in groups to the 1st and 2nd Divisions holding the line, the TF field batteries with their obsolescent 15-pounders were interspersed with those of the two Regular divisions equipped with modern 18-pounder guns. However, ammunition was very scarce, and the guns were restricted to three rounds per gun per day during April. Ammunition was being saved up for the Battle of Aubers Ridge on 9 May, when the 12 15-pounders of V London Bde joined with the guns of 1st and 2nd Divisions and the Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) to cut the barbed wire for the assault by 1st Division. The bombardment began at 05.00 with Shrapnel shell, then at 05.30 the guns switched to High Explosive (HE) shell to join the howitzers already firing at the German breastworks. At 05.40 the guns lifted to targets further back and the infantry moved to the attack, while the infantry of 2nd London Division remained in reserve. The attackers ran into devastating machine gun fire (there was no artillery barrage to suppress the defenders) and they found that the wire was inadequately cut and the breastworks barely touched. The inexperienced artillery had failed in all its tasks. A renewed bombardment was ordered from 06.15 to 07.00, but the artillery's forward observation officers (FOOs) were unable to locate the hidden German machine gun positions, which required a direct hit from an HE shell to be put out of action. The second attack failed as badly as the first, as did two others launched during the afternoon, and the survivors were pinned down in No man's land until nightfall, despite a further bombardment being laid on to allow them to withdraw.Edmonds, 1915, Vol II, pp. 6, 17–29, 39.Farndale, Western Front, pp. 103–7.Maude, pp 12–3.
Festubert Although 2nd London Division suffered few casualties at Aubers Ridge, its gunners had learned a sobering lesson about the impossibility of suppressing strong defences with inadequate guns and shells. On 11 May the division was redesignated 47th (1/2nd London) Division, and on the night of 14/15 May it took its place in the line for the Battle of Festubert. The guns were already in place, with 47th Divisional Artillery operating under the control of 7th Division. Despite the continuing shortage of ammunition, the plan this time was for a long methodical bombardment. On 13 and 14 May the field guns carried out three two-hour deliberate bombardments each day, attacking the wire with slow observed fire or keeping the enemy communication trenches under fire. At night they carried out intermittent bombardments of the communication trenches and defences, to stop supplies being brought up and to prevent repairs being carried out. The guns fired about 100 rounds per day. During 15 May feint bombardments mimicking the moment of assault were carried out, but the actual attack was made after dark with some success. The fighting went on for several days, and 47th (2nd L) Division made its own first attack on the night of 25 May. The leading brigade captured the German front and support trenches, but were then pinned down by accurate German artillery fire and could advance no further. This effectively ended the battle. The heavy rate of fire during the battle was too much for the old 15-pdrs: by 26 May, 11 out of 36 guns in the division were out of action.Edmonds, 1915, Vol II, pp. 44–76.Farndale, Western Front, pp. 107–10.Maude, pp. 14–20.
Loos In June 47th (2nd L) Division took over trenches in front of Loos-en-Gohelle from the French. This was the sector selected for the next major British attack (the Battle of Loos), for which a complex artillery plan was developed. The guns supporting 47th (2nd L) Division on the southern flank of the attack were split into three groups, with Lt-Col Massy of V London Bde commanding one of these ('Massy's Group'): V London Bde, RFA (12th, 13th, 14th London Btys) – 12 x 15-pdrs 23rd Siege Bty, RGA – 4 x 6-inch 30 cwt howitzers (a New Army unit, only arrived in France on 20 August)'Allocation of Siege Batteries RGA', The National Archives (TNA), Kew, file WO 95/5494/4. G Battery, RHA – 6 x 13-pounder guns