The 1st Wiltshire Battery, Royal Field Artillery, and its successors, were part-time Territorial Force units of the British Army from 1908 to 1950. It carried out garrison duties in India during World War I and saw active service in the Third Afghan War. It served in various units in the interwar years, finally becoming a full regiment (as 112th (Wessex) Field Regiment) in time for World War II. It saw action with 43rd (Wessex) Infantry Division in the campaign in North West Europe, including Operations Epsom, Jupiter and Bluecoat in Normandy, the crossing of the Seine, the battle for Arnhem (Operation Market Garden) in the Low Countries, and then Operations Clipper, Blackcock, Veritable and Plunder across Germany. Its short-lived postwar successor unit had little or no Wiltshire connection.
Territorial Force When the Territorial Force was created in 1908 under the Haldane Reforms, it included the Wessex Division covering the south-western counties of England. Most of its components came from the former Volunteer Force, but a number of new units had to be created to complete the division. One of these was the 1st Wiltshire Battery of the Royal Field Artillery, recruited from the mainly rural county of Wiltshire that had not previously had any artillery volunteers. The battery was raised on 7 July 1908 based at the railway town of Swindon and together with the 6th Hampshire and 1st Dorsetshire Batteries constituted III (or 3rd) Wessex Brigade, RFA. The brigade headquarters (HQ) was also based at Swindon, taking over The Armoury at 62 Prospect Place previously used by two Volunteer companies of the Wiltshire Regiment.Litchfield, p. 244.Frederick, p. 682.Becke, Pt 2a, pp. 43–8.Swindon at Drill Hall Project.43rd Divisional Artillery at Long, Long Trail.
III Wessex Brigade, RFA Brigade HQ at The Armoury, Swindon 6th Hampshire Bty at Victoria Drill Hall, Lansdowne Road, BournemouthBournemouth at Drill Hall Project. Dorsetshire Bty at Barrack Street, St Michael's Lane, BridportBridport at Drill Hall Project. Wiltshire Bty at The Armoury, Swindon 3rd Wessex Ammunition Column at Malmesbury, Wiltshire
The Commanding Officer (CO) of III Wessex Bde was Lieutenant-Colonel E.H. Bedford-Pim, a retired major in the Regular Army. The Officer Commanding (OC) of 1st Wiltshire Bty was Major the Earl of Suffolk, a former captain in the 4th Battalion (Royal North Gloucestershire Militia), Gloucestershire Regiment.Monthly Army List, various dates.Suffolk at Winchester College at War.
Before World War I, TF field batteries were each armed with four obsolescent 15-pounder guns.
World War I Mobilisation On 29 July 1914, the Wessex Division was on Salisbury Plain carrying out its annual training camp when 'precautionary orders' were received, and next day the division took up emergency war stations in Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. The order to mobilise arrived on the evening of 4 August. Between 10 and 13 August, the division concentrated on Salisbury Plain and began war training.43rd (1st Wessex) Division at Long, Long Trail.
On 24 September, at the special request of the Secretary of State for War, Earl Kitchener of Khartoum the Wessex Division accepted liability for service in British India to relieve the Regular Army units there for service on the Western Front. The division's infantry battalions and artillery brigades (without their brigade ammunition columns) embarked at Southampton on 8 October and were convoyed to Bombay, disembarking on 9 November. Each battery went ashore with 5 officers and 140 other ranks. The battalions and batteries were immediately distributed to garrisons across India, and the Wessex Division never saw service as a whole, though it was formally numbered the 43rd (1st Wessex) Division in 1915.Forgotten Fronts, pp. 354–5.
All those Territorials who had not volunteered for overseas service, together with the recruits who were flooding in, formed reserve or 2nd Line units, the titles of which were the same as the original, but distinguished by a '2/' prefix. The 2/III Wessex Brigade formed immediately after the 1st Line sailed for India. Recruitment and training for the 2nd Wessex Division proceeded so quickly that, on 25 November, it was decided to send that to India as well, and most units embarked on 12 December 1914, becoming the 45th (2nd Wessex) Division in 1915. The remaining Home Service men remained with 3rd Line training units.Becke, pp. 55–60.45th (2nd Wessex) Division at Long, Long Trail.45th Divisional Artillery at Long, Long Trail.
1/III Wessex Brigade On arrival in India, the batteries of 43rd Divisional Artillery were sent to separate stations (those of 1/III Bde apparently to Ambala, Bareilly and Delhi). Here, they continued their training, and by 1915 were providing reinforcement drafts to the Mesopotamian Front. It was not until 1916 that the units received any reinforcements from the UK to replace these drafts, and these replacements then had to be trained. In 1916, the old 15-pounder guns were replaced with modern 18-pounders and the TF brigades were given numbers – 1/III Wessex Brigade became CCXVII (or 217) Brigade RFA – while the batteries were designated A, B and C.Frederick, p. 695.
The three batteries were redesignated again in 1917, becoming 1091 (1/6th Hampshire), 1092 (1/1st Dorsetshire) and 1093 (1/1st Wiltshire). 1092 Battery was then disbanded, providing a two-gun section to each of the other batteries to bring them up to six guns. CCXVII Bde was attached to 16th Indian Division from April 1917, when 1091 and 1093 Btys were at Lahore. In June 1917 the brigade was joined by 79 (Howitzer) Bty transferred from VI (Howitzer) Bde, a Regular unit that had remained in India and was also attached to 16th Indian Division, giving the following organisation:Perry, pp. 137–40. 1091 Bty (1/6th Hampshire + half 1/1st Dorsetshire) 1093 Bty (1/1st Wiltshire + half 1/1st Dorsetshire) 79 (Howitzer) Bty
2/III Wessex Brigade The 45th Division also remained in garrison in India, supplying drafts to the First Line and other theatres throughout the war until its units had virtually disappeared. The batteries of 45th Divisional Artillery were eventually re-equipped with 18-pdrs during 1916 and were numbered, 2/III Wessex Bde becoming CCXXVII (227) Brigade, RFA and the batteries A, B and C. The batteries were numbered in 1917 as 1102, 1103 and 1104, and then 1102 was broken up to bring the others up to six guns, In April 1917, 1104 Bty left and two others arrived giving the following organisation for the brigade: 1098 Bty (2/2nd Hampshire) – from 2/I Wessex Bde 1103 Bty (2/1st Dorsetshire + half 2/6th Hampshire) 1105 (H) Bty (2/1st Devonshire) – from 2/IV Wessex (H) Bde; stationed at Aden until March 1919
1104 Bty (2/1st Wiltshire + half 2/6th Hampshire) at Kamptee transferred from 45th Division to CCXVI Bde (the former 1/II Wessex), which had joined 5th (Mhow) Division. In December 1917 the battery moved to Delhi and joined CCXVIII Bde (the former 1/IV Wessex) in 16th Indian Division.Perry, pp. 67–71.
Other fronts Officers and men from both 43rd and 45th Divisions were continually being posted all over India to fill various posts. In addition they provided reinforcement drafts, mainly to Mesopotamia. The Earl of Suffolk, OC 1/1st Wiltshire Bty, took command of a battery in Mesopotamia in 1916 and was killed in action on 21 April 1917.Suffolk at CWGC Records.
The III Wessex also supplied drafts to the Western Front. One of these was Sergeant William Gosling, a Swindon man, who was attached to V/51 Heavy Trench Mortar Battery in 51st (Highland) Division, when he won the Victoria Cross on 5 April 1915 during the bombardment for the Battle of Arras.Gosling in Gliddon.
North West Frontier and Afghanistan 16th Indian Division was formed in December 1916 as a reserve for the North West Frontier. CCXVII and CCXVIII brigades were both assigned to it by 1918 and were still with it in 1919 after World War I had ended. Field artillery was of relatively little use on the Frontier because of its flat trajectory and the need for large teams of horses to move the guns, with consequent forage problems. Their mobility was constrained by the rough terrain.Robson, pp. 26–7. Nevertheless, 1091 (1/6th Hampshire), 1093 (1/1st Wiltshire) and 1104 (2/1st Wiltshire) Btys were all deployed in the Third Afghan War.Robson, p. 281. When war broke out on 6 May 1919, a lack of transport initially prevented 16 Division from carrying out its task and deploying forward from its base at Lahore to allow 1st (Peshawar) Division to advance on Jalalabad. Eventually a brigade group was sent up to Peshawar by train on 20 May. However, an Afghan incursion into the Kurram Valley on 27 May halted the advance on Jalalabad and 16th Division was diverted to Kohat, beginning to arrive on 30 May. The Afghan advance threatened Thall and a brigade group was sent out as a relief force. The Amir of Afghanistan suspended operations on 2 June. None of the TF artillery batteries were directly involved with these operations.Robson, pp. 57, 77, 86, 99–103. The remaining TF units in India were progressively demobilised and the last unit cadres returned home before the end of 1919.
Interwar
When the TF was reconstituted on 7 February 1920, the Wiltshire part of III Wessex Bde reformed as a battery of 2nd Wessex Brigade along with three Hampshire batteries. The following year, the TF was reorganised as the Territorial Army (TA) and the units were renumbered:Frederick, pp. 489–95Frederick, p. 516.Litchfield, pp. 93–5. 55th (Wessex) Field Brigade Brigade HQ at the Drill Hall, Ryde, Isle of Wight 217, 218, 219 (Hampshire) Btys 220 (Wiltshire) Bty at Swindon
220 (Wiltshire) Bty was commanded by the Marquess of Ailesbury, DSO, TD. The RFA was subsumed into the Royal Artillery in 1924 and its units were redesignated 'Field Brigades' and 'Field Batteries'.
During 1927, the brigade was reorganised: two of the Hampshire batteries left to join 95th (Hampshire Yeomanry) Field Bde and were replaced by two batteries formed in 1920 from the West Somerset Yeomanry, which had been serving in 94th (Dorset and Somerset Yeomanry) Field Bde. On 23 August 1927, 217 Bty was reformed at Swindon as a howitzer battery:Frederick, p. 524.Litchfield, pp. 208–9.
Brigade HQ & 373 (West Somerset Yeomanry) Field Bty at Taunton 217 (Wiltshire) Field Bty (H) at Swindon 220 (Wiltshire) Field Bty at Swindon 374 (West Somerset Yeomanry) Field Bty at Glastonbury, later Shepton Mallet
The brigade continued as 'Army Troops' in 43rd (W) Divisional Area.Titles & Designations 1927. The establishment of a TA field artillery brigade was four 6-gun batteries, three equipped with 18-pounder guns and one with 4.5-inch howitzers, all of World War I patterns. However, the batteries only held four guns in peacetime. The guns and their first-line ammunition wagons were horsedrawn and the battery staffs were mounted. Partial mechanisation was carried out from 1927, but the guns retained iron-tyred wheels until pneumatic tyres began to be introduced just before the outbreak of World War II. A few Quad gun tractors were issued to TA batteries in early 1939. The rearmament programme of 1938 introduced the Ordnance QF 25-pounder gun-howitzer, initially in the form of the hybrid 18/25-pounder consisting of a 25-pdr gun mounted on a converted 18-pdr carriage, but these were only just being issued to Regular units when war broke out, and TA units had to wait.Farndale, Years of Defeat, p. 4.Sainsbury, Chapter 2: 'The Development of Field Artillery Tactics, Organisation and Equipment, 1920–1945', pp. 13–29.
In 1938, the RA modernised its nomenclature and a lieutenant-colonel's command was designated a 'regiment' rather than a 'brigade'; this applied to TA field brigades from 1 November 1938.
112th (Wessex) Field Regiment
Mobilisation