Scottish Division, Royal Artillery

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Scottish Division, RA
Cap Badge of the Royal Regiment of Artillery
Active4 April 1882–1 July 1889
Country United Kingdom
Branch British Army
TypeAdministrative division
Part ofRoyal Artillery
Garrison/HQLeith

The Scottish Division, Royal Artillery, was an administrative grouping of garrison units of the Royal Artillery, Artillery Militia and Artillery Volunteers within the British Army's Scottish District from 1882 to 1889.

Organisation[edit]

Under General Order 72 of 4 April 1882 the Royal Artillery (RA) broke up its existing administrative brigades[a] of garrison artillery (7th–11th Brigades, RA) and assigned the individual batteries to 11 new territorial divisions. These divisions were purely administrative and recruiting organisations, not field formations. Most were formed within the existing military districts into which the United Kingdom was divided, and for the first time associated the part-time Artillery Militia with the regulars. Shortly afterwards the Artillery Volunteers were also added to the territorial divisions. The Regular Army batteries were grouped into one brigade, usually of nine sequentially-numbered batteries and a depot battery. For these units the divisions represented recruiting districts – batteries could be serving anywhere in the British Empire and their only connection to brigade headquarters (HQ) was for the supply of drafts and recruits. The artillery militia units (sometimes referred to as regiments) already comprised a number of batteries, and were redesignated as brigades, losing their county titles in the process. The artillery volunteers, which had previously consisted of numerous independent Artillery Volunteer Corps (AVC) of various sizes, sometimes grouped into administrative brigades, had been consolidated into larger AVCs in 1881, which were now affiliated to the appropriate territorial division.[1][2][3][4]

Composition[edit]

Scottish Division, RA, listed as eighth in order of precedence, was organised within Scottish District with the following composition:[1][2][3][5][6][7][8]

South Gatehouse of Leith Fort, headquarters of Scottish Division, RA.

Disbandment[edit]

On 1 July 1889 the garrison artillery was reorganised again into three large territorial divisions of garrison artillery (Eastern, Southern and Western) and one of mountain artillery. The assignment of units to them seemed geographically arbitrary, with the Scottish units being grouped in the Southern Division, for example, but this related to where the need for coastal artillery was greatest, rather than where the units recruited. The regular batteries were distributed across most of the divisions and completely renumbered.[1][2][3][6][8][9][10][11]

See also[edit]

Footnotes[edit]

  1. ^ In RA terminology, a 'brigade' was a group of independent batteries grouped together for administrative rather than tactical purposes, the officer in command being usually a lieutenant-colonel rather than a brigadier-general or major-general, the ranks usually associated with command of an infantry or cavalry brigade.

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ a b c Frederick, pp. 567–73, 985.
  2. ^ a b c Litchfield, Militia Artillery, pp. 4–6; Appendix 5.
  3. ^ a b c Litchfield & Westlake, pp. 4–6.
  4. ^ Maurice-Jones, p. 150.
  5. ^ Hart's Army List, 1883.
  6. ^ a b Lawes, Vol II, Index.
  7. ^ Maurice-Jones, p. 162.
  8. ^ a b Monthly Army Lists.
  9. ^ Frederick, pp. 574–9, 891–2.
  10. ^ Hart's Army List, 1890.
  11. ^ Maurice-Jones, p. 151.

References[edit]

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