Royal Artillery Heritage

RA Website Heritage Page

The Royal Regiment of Artillery has a history that extends over 300 years.  On this page you will find information about:

  • The Royal Artillery Heritage Strategy.
  • The Royal Artillery Museum.
  • The Royal Artillery Archive, Library and Records.
  • The Royal Artillery Historical Society and its lectures
  • Other useful online content.

Heritage

  • The RA Heritage Strategy exists to identify and, through collaboration between the Regiment and its heritage delivery organisations, to realise the value that heritage activities can provide to the serving regiment and the wider community that supports it. 
  • Its vision is that the Royal Artillery enhances its operational effectiveness by understanding, valuing, protecting and using its heritage to develop its fighting power.
  • The vision will beachieved through the coordinated delivery of heritage activities which will make a tangible, positive impact on the fighting power of the Regiment, by enhancing the will to fight, reinforcing the Values and Standards of the British Army, educating our people on how to fight, and developing the equipment, tactics and techniques to allow them to fight.

Royal Artillery Collection.

At the heart of the Royal Artillery Heritage Strategy is the Regiment’s internationally important historical collection of weapons, documents and artefacts.  The collection was established in 1778 to support Gunner training, located at the heart of the Regiment in Woolwich. It opened to the public in 1820 at the Rotunda on Woolwich Common. In 2001 the new Firepower Museum at the Royal Arsenal brought together the artillery collection from the Rotunda with the regimental history collection, medal collection, library and archive. The entire collection has Designated status under the Arts Council England scheme and is the foremost collection of artillery and related material in the UK.

Royal Artillery Museum

Also critical to the Strategy is the project to display the collection and celebrate the Regiment’s heritage by building a new museum on Salisbury Plain, where Gunners have trained for over a century.

Through inspiring exhibitions, live storytelling and hands-on activities, the Royal Artillery Museum will bring to life the history of the Royal Artillery and the bravery, sacrifice and ingenuity of its men and women. It will explore the evolution of artillery technology from the earliest medieval cannon to the latest rockets and drones.

The museum will also tell the story of the Army’s remarkable relationship with Salisbury Plain over the past 130 years, explaining why it bought land here in the first place, the training it undertakes here and the positive impact it has had on the area. 

We are currently working with the Army to identify the best site on which to build the new museum, and hope to have more news on this soon.

Visit the Royal Artillery Museum Website HERE

Royal Artillery Archive and Library

The combined archive and library is an exceptional resource containing technical, historical, regimental and personal documents and books. It is one of the largest military museum archives, with over a kilometre of shelving.  It includes official records of Royal Artillery units (such as the Great War and WWII war diaries) and the battery digests covering the pre-war and inter-war years. It also contains back copies of the RA Journal and Gunner Magazine.  Technical publications held include gun handbooks, training volumes and documents recording testing of different gun types and barrels.  Much of this material was collected by the Rotunda Museum, contributing to its original purpose as a training collection for the Royal Artillery.  The Archive also includes the personal papers, letters, memoirs, drawings and photographs donated by many individual Gunners, or their descendants, ranging from the diaries of Alexander Dickson (Wellington’s head of artillery during the Peninsular War) to Gunners serving in India in the Nineteenth Century, in the trenches of the Great War, in the jungles of Burma, and beyond.  Further information on the archive is available here.

Interested in finding out about a relative?  Guidance on finding out about a relative is available from the Royal Artillery Archive here and at the following other sites:

Records at the Royal Artillery Museum Archive.  Whilst a large portion of our collection is in deep storage and not accessible, the following are now at the Archive & Library at Larkhill:

  • Establishment Lists  
  • Battery Digests of Service (peace-time details of the activities of individual Batteries, c.1890-1939)
  • Annual Historical Returns (as with the Digests of Service, but c.1945 onwards)
  • Part of the WWI War Diary collection ·        
  • Part of the ‘MD’ collection (personal papers of former Gunners)
  • Part of the ‘AL’ collection (photos and photograph albums)
  • Gun Handbooks
  • Gun Training Pamphlets
  • Gunner Magazine (c. 1919)
  • Royal Artillery Journal (c.1860 )
  • Royal Artillery News (1899-1970)
  • Royal Artillery Distribution List (1868-1938)
  • Regimental ‘Blue’ Officers’ Lists (early copies, from 1904)
  • WWII Tracer Cards (on microfilm)

Royal Artillery Historical Society.

Also at the heart of the Regiment’s Heritage is the Royal Artillery Historical Society (RAHS).  The RAHS exists to encourage and promote an interest in the organisation, history and equipment of the Royal Artillery in particular and gunnery in general. Membership is open to all serving and retired, regular and volunteer ranks of the Royal Regiment of Artillery.  The Society normally meets for lectures three times a year and arranges regular webinars, summer visits and battlefield tours.  The lecture programme includes historical accounts of artillery actions that have contemporary lessons and are an opportunity to learn from the successes and failures of our forebears.

RAHS online content.  The following RAHS lectures are available for all to watch at the links below.

  • The Battle of Tugela Heights, 1900.  Dr Spencer Jones lectures on the Battle of Tugela Heights in February 1900 during the Second Boer War. Spencer. He sets the scene with a resume of the British campaign to invade the Orange Free State and the Transvaal. The Battle of Tugela Heights was the successful battle that enabled the siege of Ladysmith to be lifted. The lecture covers the ground, the forces and the artillery available on both sides before describing the battle including the first use of observers to direct artillery fire onto Boer positions.
  • The Gunners of 1914.  Dr Spencer Jones describes the state of the French and German artillery in 1914 and their equipment and tactics and how they related to the French and German experiences in the Franco Prussian war of 1870/71. He then explains the rather different viewpoint of the British artillery which was linked to their experience in the Boer War in South Africa. The importance of the revolutionary new 75 mm French quick firing gun is emphasised
  • Royal Artillery in the Great War.  Dr Spencer Jones explains the many factors that affected the Royal Artillery’s performance year by year through the First World War. He explains the revolution in warfare that took place with better observation including from the air, the introduction of new guns and technology, and the concept of the deep battle culminating in the significant part that the Gunners played in achieving the final victory.
  • The US Civil War.  Dr Spencer Jones explains the important part that artillery played in the US Civil War. Starting with very limited experience from the Mexican-American War of the 1840s and few guns, he describes the learning experience from the major battles that took place and the development of the range of gun used by both sides. The rifled gun is introduced but then withdrawn by the Union army. Surprisingly after the victory there is no tactical legacy for the Union army..
  • The Russo_Japanese_War.  Dr Spencer Jones explains the background and the conduct of the Russo-Japanese war in 1904/5. This was a notable as a step in military thinking towards the First World War and also because of the almost total annihilation of the Russian naval forces involved. There are similarities to the current situation in Ukraine, which makes this a particularly interesting talk
  • The Tsar’s Army 1914-17.  Dr Spencer Jones takes us through the historical background and motivation of the Tsars Army in 1914 and the influence that this has had on current events. He then describes the various engagements between the Russians and the Germans and the changing nature of the army and organisational failures. All this led to the Russian Revolution in 1917, after which the Russians dropped out of the war.
  • The Brusilov Offensive 1916.  Dr Spencer Jones gives us a memorable account of the Brusilov offensive in Russia which took place in 1916. He explained the background, the events leading up to the battle, the actions that took place and the reasons that the offensive ran out of steam.
  • The Indian Artillery in the Great War. In this webinar, the Regimental Historian Dr Spencer Jones gave the Royal Artillery Historical Society an interesting insight into The Indian Artillery in the Great War. Spencer’s talk was principally about the Indian Mountain Artillery as the Royal Artillery provided Field Artillery support to the Indian Army after the 1857 Mutiny. He covers the challenging terrain, climate and operations in which they were employed including not only the North West Frontier but also Gallipoli, East Africa and the Middle East. Spencer also covers the development of the mountain gun from the 2.5 in Gun used in the Boer War to the 3.7 in Howitzer which was still in service at the end WW2.

Other online content.

  • The Borneo Graveyard. This Podcast by Maj John Tulloch is about Borneo in 1941-45 based on his book: The Borneo Graveyard.  The book follows the raising of five Royal Artillery air defence regiments in 1939, their deployment in late 1942 to South East Asia, their short campaign in the Netherlands East Indies and eventual captivity as POWs in Java and North Borneo. The account describes the invasion of Borneo and the subsequent four years of Japanese occupation and depicts the sadistic treatment of Australian, British, Dutch and Indian POWs in the various POW camps in North Borneo.

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