Cap badge of the Royal Horse Artillery, c1936.
NAM. 2008-10-14Introduction
In 1793 Great Britain declared war on revolutionary France and later that year the Royal Horse Artillery was formed to provide mobile fire support for the British cavalry. This gives it the highest precedence in the British Army, even above its parent unit the Royal Artillery, with only the Life Guards and the Blues and Royals ranking above it.
The Royal Horse Artillery's horses were not used for cavalry charges, but to tow its guns into action and the unit has always been part of the Royal Artillery not the cavalry.
The new unit expanded in 1801 when the Royal Irish Artillery was amalgamated into it – this gave a total of 12 Royal Horse Artillery troops. They fought in the Napoleonic Wars and the Crimea before absorbing all the artillery regiments formerly under the command of the East India Company in 1861. This brought it to 30 batteries, each designated with a letter.
A Royal Horse Artillery battery at the gallop in 1911, wearing the uniform still used ceremonially by the King’s Troop.
NAM. 1972-05-6-2In 1899 the Royal Artillery was split into two groups, with the Royal Horse Artillery joining the Royal Field Artillery as part of the first group, while retaining its separate identity. Four men from its Q Battery alone won the Victoria Cross during the Boer War.
The two-group arrangement lasted throughout the First World War until 1924, when the two groups were amalgamated back into a single unit known as the Royal Artillery. With horses now irrelevant as a weapon of war, the Royal Horse Artillery's batteries then served both with armoured troops and other artillery units during the Second World War.
The best-known part of the unit is the King’s Troop, Royal Horse Artillery. This was formed in 1945 under King George VI, after whom it is still named – it was considered renaming it the Queen’s Troop when George was succeeded by his daughter Elizabeth II in 1952, but she personally vetoed this in honour of her father. It fires royal salutes at the Tower of London and Hyde Park using 13-pounder guns from the First World War, but its troops are also trained for frontline duties and six of them are deployed on active service at any one time.
Key facts
Mottos:
- 'Ubique' (meaning 'Everywhere' - like the Royal Artillery, in recognition of their participation in every theatre of war)
- 'Honi Soit Qui Mal Y Pense ' (meaning 'Shame on Him Who Thinks This Evil')
Nicknames:
- The Right of the Line (on parade their guns take up this position, even though the regiment ranks below the Household Cavalry)
- The Galloping Gunners
- The Four-Wheeled Hussars (each gun and limber they drew had a total of four wheels)
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