The Edinburgh City Artillery was a part-time unit of Britain's Volunteer Force raised around Edinburgh in 1859. It was the parent unit for a number of batteries in the later Territorial Force, including heavy batteries of the Royal Garrison Artillery that fought on the Western Front during World War I. It later formed a heavy regiment that served in the Battle of France and the campaign in North West Europe during World War II, while a spin-off medium regiment fought in Sicily and Italy. Its successor units continued in the postwar Territorial Army until the 1960s.
Volunteers The enthusiasm for the Volunteer movement following an invasion scare in 1859 saw the creation of many Artillery Volunteer Corps (AVCs) composed of part-time soldiers eager to supplement the Regular Royal Artillery in time of need.Beckett.Grierson, pp. 1–12.Litchfield & Westlake, pp. 1–4.Spiers, pp. 163–8. The 1st Edinburgh (City) Artillery Volunteer Corps was raised around Edinburgh on 4 November 1859. Its members were mainly artists, and the first commanding officer (CO) was Captain Joseph (later Sir Joseph) Noel Paton, the illustrator and sculptor, with the painter John Faed as lieutenant. By October 1860, the unit had a strength of nine batteries:Beckett, Appendix VIII.Frederick, p. 656.Grierson, pp. 128–30.Litchfield & Westlake, pp. 62–5. No 1 Battery, raised 4 November 1859 No 2 Battery, raised 10 January 1860 No 3 Battery, raised 28 January 1860 No 4 Battery, raised 6 March 1860 No 5 Battery, raised 24 March 1860 No 6 Battery, raised 23 May 1860 No 7 Battery, raised 6 June 1860 No 8 Battery, raised 13 August 1860 No 9 Battery, raised 16 October 1860
The 2nd and 4th Batteries were mainly composed of artisans, but the members of the other batteries paid for their own uniforms and equipment. The unit's badges and accoutrements bore the inscription 'EDINBURGH CITY ARTILLERY'. Its headquarters (HQ) was established at 21 Castle Street (later at King's Stables Road, and then 28 York Place), Edinburgh, and it used the Argyle Battery (12-pounder guns) at Edinburgh Castle for drill. It carried out firing practice at a 32-pounder battery at Leith Fort, and for Carbine practice it used the Queen's Edinburgh Rifles' range at Hunter's Bog in Holyrood Park.Army List, various dates.
Once the unit reached full size, a retired professional officer, William M.G.M. Wellwood (formerly Captain in the 2nd Bengal Light Cavalry), was appointed CO with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel on 13 September 1860. He was succeeded by Thomas Bell on 4 April 1864, and then in turn by Sir William Baillie, 2nd Baronet, on 6 December 1866. Baillie remained in command until 1884.
From 1864, the 1st and 2nd Berwickshire AVCs were attached to the Edinburgh City Artillery. The 1st had been raised at Eyemouth on 6 April 1860, and the 2nd at Coldingham appeared in the Army List in February 1861 but no officers were commissioned into it until 10 July 1863.Litchfield & Westlake, p. 32. The 2nd Berwickshire AVC was disbanded in 1883.
The AVCs were intended to serve as garrison artillery manning fixed defences, but a number of the early units manned semi-mobile 'position batteries' of smooth-bore field guns pulled by agricultural horses. However, the War Office (WO) refused to pay for the upkeep of field guns and the concept died out in the 1870s. It was revived in 1888 when some Volunteer batteries were reorganised as 'position artillery' to work alongside the Volunteer infantry brigades. In February 1889, the 1st Edinburgh AVC was issued with two position batteries of 16-pounder rifled muzzle-loading guns, which were manned by four of the garrison batteries. In 1892, the two position batteries were numbered 1 and 2, and the remaining garrison batteries were redesignated Nos 3–7 Companies. The 16-pounders were replaced by 4.7-inch breechloading guns in February 1903, and position batteries were officially referred to as 'heavy' batteries from 1902.Beckett, pp. 178–9.Litchfield and Westlake, p. 6.
From 1 April 1882, the unit formed part of the Scottish Division of the Royal Artillery (RA); on 1 July 1889, the Volunteer artillery were regrouped into three large divisions, the 1st Edinburgh being assigned to the Southern Division. In 1899, the artillery Volunteers were transferred to the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA), and when the divisional structure was abolished on 1 January 1902 the Edinburgh unit became the 1st Edinburgh (City) RGA (V) with the 1st Berwickshire RGA (V) still attached.Litchfield and Westlake, pp. 3–6. By the early 20th Century the unit carried out its gun practice from the Inchkeith Batteries. In 1907, the unit's detachment won the King's Prize at the National Artillery Association meeting at Lydd.
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 personnel of the Edinburgh City Artillery was distributed to several new units:London Gazette 20 March 1908.Frederick, pp. 678, 684.Litchfield, pp. 295–8. Lowland (City of Edinburgh) Heavy Battery, RGA Some personnel merged with parts of the 1st Argyll RGA and the 1st Renfrewshire RGA to form the Forth & Clyde RGA, a coast defence unit based at Edinburgh The 1st (City of Edinburgh) Battery was formed in the 1st Lowland Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, the rest of which came from the 1st Midlothian RGA Members of Edinburgh University who had served in Left Half, 1st Heavy Battery, transferred to the Edinburgh University contingent of the Senior Division of the Officers' Training Corps (OTC) 1st Berwickshire RGA (V) was disbanded
Subsequently, the Lowland (City of Edinburgh) RGA became the Lowland (City of Edinburgh) Heavy Battery, RGA, based at McDonald Road, Edinburgh, with its own ammunition column.Frederick, pp. 696–701.Lothians at Great War Centenary Drill Halls. It formed part of the Lowland Division of the TF.Becke, Pt 2a, pp. 111–4.Conrad, 1914.52 Div at Long, Long Trail.
World War I Mobilisation On the outbreak of war on 4 August 1914, the Lowland Hvy Bty began mobilising at Edinburgh with its four 4.7-inch guns, under the command of Major J.B. Cameron.RGA (TF) at Regimental Warpath. Almost immediately, 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 them 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. The 2/1st Lowland (City of Edinburgh) battery was formed in the 2nd Lowland Division.Becke, Pt 2b, p. 6.Becke, Pt 2b, pp. 64–5.65 Div at Long, Long Trail.
1/1st Lowland (City of Edinburgh) Heavy Battery The battery and ammunition column completed mobilisation on 14 August and moved out to its war station at Stirling in the Scottish Coastal Defences the following day. When the Lowland Division (numbered as the 52nd (Lowland) Division) embarked for the Gallipoli Campaign in May and June 1915, its heavy battery remained training in Scotland. It moved from Stirling to Cupar on 25 October, then on 26 January 1916 it moved south to the RA depot at Woolwich to prepare for overseas service.MacDonald, Offensive Spirit, pp. 199–20.MacDonald, Pro Patria, pp. 178–9.
1/1st Lowland Hvy Bty was sent to join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front, disembarking at Le Havre in France on 16 February. Two days later, it joined XVII Brigade, RGA, at Authie.'Allocation of Heavy Batteries RGA', The National Archives (TNA), Kew, file WO 95/5494/2. The RGA brigades were renamed Heavy Artillery Groups (HAGs) shortly afterwards, and the policy was to move batteries between HAGs as required. 1/1st Lowland Hvy Bty moved to 16th HAG on 3 March, then to 48th HAG on 17 April.Farndale, Western Front, Annex E.
Gommecourt
48th Heavy Artillery Group was assigned to support VII Corps' Attack on the Gommecourt Salient in the forthcoming 'Big Push' (the Battle of the Somme). The battery was ordered to Berles-au-Bois north of Gommecourt at the beginning of May and spent a week preparing positions for its guns. It was then ordered to hand these over to 116th Hvy Bty, which would move in during June, so for several weeks the battery's gunners had to labour both to finish these positions for 116th Hvy Bty, and their own new positions, including a shell store for 400 rounds. Throughout May and through most of June, the battery fired on German positions around Adinfer Wood.
48th Heavy Artillery Group's main role was Counter-battery fire to destroy the German artillery facing 56th (1st London) Division's attack front, although the Territorials' 4.7-inch guns could not actually reach the German heavy gun positions in the rear, and accuracy of the 4.7-inch batteries was generally poor. The planned seven-day bombardment of the German positions began on 24 June but 1/1st Lowland Hvy Bty did not begin registering its guns on Bucquoy until 27 June (X Day). Later, the guns practised a six-minute 'hurricane' bombardment on the German positions in which the battery fired 68 rounds. Y Day was spent shelling German gun positions, but the weather was poor for observation, and the battery only fired 20 rounds. Because of the weather, the attack was postponed for two days, and the additional days (Y1 and Y2) were used for further bombardment. The battery was silent on Y1. On Y2, 48th HAG engaged 18 separate targets, and 1/1st Lowland Hvy Bty fired 220 rounds, but this was far below the 400 per battery permitted, because of continuing difficulties of observation. Many of these rounds were wide of their intended targets. The failure to neutralise the German guns would have disastrous results for the attacking infantry.MacDonald, Pro Patria, pp. 192–6.Edmonds, 1916, Vol I, p. 460.Farndale, Western Front, p. 148.Ward, pp. 34 and 45.