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72-489: The first artillery unit formed amid the enthusiasm that created the British Volunteer Force in the mid-19th Century was the 1st Northumberland Artillery Volunteer Corps (AVC), which was raised after a public meeting at Tynemouth on 7 May 1859. The meeting was held in response to statements by Commander Bedford Pim , Royal Navy, that a modern ironclad warship could do untold damage to the towns of Tyneside due to

144-542: A royal commission chaired by Viscount Eversley was appointed "to inquire into the condition of the volunteer force in Great Britain and into the probability of its continuance at its existing strength". According to the report, as of 1 April 1862, the Volunteer Force had a strength of 162,681 consisting of: Their report made a number of recommendations and observations on funding and training: To carry into effect

216-474: A County". On acceptance, the corps would be deemed lawfully formed. Existing corps were to continue under the new Act, although the power was given to the Crown to disband any corps. The constitution of a permanent staff consisting of an adjutant and serjeant instructors was permitted for each corps. The grouping of two or more corps into administrative regiments was recognised, and a permanent staff could be provided for

288-604: A massive increase in Britain's coast defences. In addition to the existing fixed defences, a number of Coast Defence Emergency Batteries were established in May and June 1940, including: Park, Gloucester and Frenchman's batteries were initially established by the Royal Navy and transferred to the RA when sufficient coastal gunners had been trained. The expansion of the RA's coast defence branch led to

360-643: A new 64th (Northumbrian) Anti-Aircraft Brigade based at North Shields. This unit could therefore be considered an indirect offshoot of the Tynemouth Volunteer Artillery. It saw service in World War II during the Battle of Britain and the Newcastle Blitz , North Africa , Italy , Yugoslavia and the occupation of Germany. The TA was expanded in the years of tension leading up to World War II , and

432-619: A new 152 Heavy Battery was formed in October 1937. In 1938 the TA replaced wits traditional unit designation of 'brigade' with 'regiment', and the unit was redesignated the Tynemouth Heavy Regiment on 1 October. On the outbreak of war on 3 September the regiment was responsible for manning one 9.2-inch and four 6-inch guns. The invasion threat after the Dunkirk evacuation and Fall of France led to

504-534: A position battery and six companies: In 1893, the batteries at Tynemouth Castle were equipped with modern 6-inch breech-loading guns on hydro-pneumatic disappearing carriages , and the Tynemouth Volunteer Artillery immediately began training to operate them. This was reflected in the War Office Mobilisation Scheme for that year, which allocated the unit to the Tynemouth fixed defences. On 1 June 1899

576-471: A short while before Royal Artillery blue was adopted. When the Home Service helmet was adopted, the upper scroll on the helmet plate read 'THE TYNEMOUTH' and the lower read 'TYNEMOUTH ARTILLERY VOLUNTEERS' with the RA motto 'QUO FAS ET GLORIA DUCUNT' with the royal crown. The unit wore brass shoulder titles with the lettering in three tiers: 'THE/RA/TYNEMOUTH'. From 1952, 404 (Tynemouth) Coast Regiment wore

648-509: A wider European conflict. On 12 May 1859, the Secretary of State for War , Jonathan Peel issued a circular letter to lieutenants of counties in England, Wales and Scotland, authorising the formation of volunteer rifle corps (VRC, a.k.a. corps of rifle volunteers and rifle volunteer corps), and of artillery corps in defended coastal towns. Volunteer corps were to be raised under the provisions of

720-463: Is composed of Arms to which their use is not appropriate". The large number of small independent corps proved difficult to administer, and, by 1861, most had been formed into battalion-sized units, either by "consolidation": increasing an existing corps to battalion size (usually in large urban areas), or by forming administrative battalions or brigades by the grouping of smaller corps (in rural areas). An official book of drill and rifle instructions for

792-579: The Armistice with Germany the Tynemouth RGA was placed in suspended animation in 1919. The battery was formed on 12 July 1915 at Sheerness from a cadre provided by the Tynemouth RGA and Regular RGA gunners brought back from the defences of Gibraltar and Malta . It went out to the Western Front on 24 January 1916, manning two 12-inch railway howitzers and was involved in the preparatory bombardment for

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864-448: The Battle of the Somme later that year. The battery remained in action throughout the Somme fighting of 1916. Thereafter the heavy howitzers were in great demand it was frequently shifted around the railway network behind the Western Front from one army to another. It ended the war attached to Fifth Army supporting the great Allied Hundred Days Offensive . 44th Siege Battery continued in

936-707: The British Army provided close artillery support for the infantry. It was created as a distinct arm of the Royal Regiment of Artillery on 1 July 1899, serving alongside the other two arms of the regiment, the Royal Horse Artillery (RHA) and the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA). It ceased to exist when it was amalgamated with the Royal Garrison Artillery in 1924. The Royal Field Artillery

1008-752: The Crimean War , it was painfully clear to the War Office that, with half of the British Army dispositioned around the Empire on garrison duty, it had insufficient forces available to quickly compose and despatch an effective expeditionary force to a new area of conflict, unless it was to reduce the British Isles' own defences. During the Crimean War , the War Office had been forced to send militia and yeomanry to make up

1080-559: The Haldane Reforms of 1908, the Tynemouth RGA was intended to combine with the 1st Durham RGA to form a Northumberland and Durham RGA (and spin off a battery and ammunition column for the local RFA brigade). These plans were radically changed, so that by 1910 the Tynemouth and 1st Durham elements had formed their own units. The Tynemouth RGA (TF) was designated as a Defended Ports unit with the following organisation: The unit formed part of North Eastern Coast Defences, which also included

1152-525: The Isle of Man , and consequently the 7th (Isle of Man) Volunteer Battalion of The King's (Liverpool Regiment) continued to serve as the only remaining unit of the Volunteer Force until disbandment in 1922. (1868–1922) According to the Territorial Year Book 1909 , the Volunteer Force had the following strength over its existence: Royal Field Artillery The Royal Field Artillery ( RFA ) of

1224-467: The Napoleonic Wars compared with the linear tactics of the standing army. Many units initially favoured green and grey (colours until then used by British and German rifle units in the army) rifleman uniforms as opposed to the red coats of the infantry and engineers of the army and militia. In turn, the army was glad not to have amateur volunteers wear the scarlet of the regulars . The provisions of

1296-696: The Reserve Forces , most of these had been allowed to lapse after the Napoleonic Wars, although the Yeomanry was maintained to potentially support the civil authorities against civil unrest, as at the 1819 Peterloo massacre , the Militia remained as a paper tiger , and rifle clubs were encouraged as the backbone against which the Volunteer force might be re-raised. The Militia and Volunteer Force were both re-organised in

1368-556: The Second Boer War , when the prolonged campaign necessitated an increase in the size of British forces in South Africa. Volunteer Battalions formed Volunteer Active Service Companies that joined the regular battalions of their county regiments. Following the war, the battle honour "South Africa 1900–02" was awarded to the volunteer units that provided detachments for the campaign. By 1907, when its civilian administration teetered on

1440-531: The Volunteer Act 1804 ( 44 Geo. 3 . c. 54), which had been used to form local defence forces during the Napoleonic Wars . Alfred Tennyson captured the spirit of the time by publishing his poem Riflemen Form in The Times on 9 May 1859. As a basis for the units, many communities had rifle clubs for the enjoyment of the sport of shooting. Originally corps were to consist of approximately 100 all ranks under

1512-443: The War Office refused to pay for the upkeep of field guns for Volunteers and they had largely died in the 1870s. In 1888 the 'position artillery' concept was revived and some Volunteer companies were reorganised as position batteries to work alongside the Volunteer infantry brigades. The Tynemouth Volunteer Artillery were re-equipped with 20-pounder field and 40-pounder fort guns in 1889 and on 14 July 1892 they were reorganised as

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1584-617: The bombs used in the attack manufactured in Birmingham . The perceived threat of invasion by the much larger French Army was such that, even without sending a third of the army to another Crimea, Britain's military defences had already been stretched invitingly thin. On 29 April 1859 war broke out between France and the Austrian Empire (the Second Italian War of Independence ), and there were fears that Britain might be caught up in

1656-520: The 1850s. These forces were originally local-service, embodied during wartime or emergency, and placed under the control of Lords-Lieutenant of counties, and, in British colonies , under the colonial governors . After the British Army's Regular Reserve was created in 1859, by Secretary of State for War Sidney Herbert , and re-organised under the Reserve Force Act 1867 ( 30 & 31 Vict. c. 110),

1728-527: The 1st Devonshire Rifle Volunteers (and were often referred to as the 1st Rifle Volunteer Corps), and the Victoria Rifles (descended from the Duke of Cumberland's Sharpshooters , formed in 1803) who became the 1st Middlesex Rifle Volunteers. An order of precedence was established for ninety-two other counties, depending upon the date of establishment of the first corps in the county. The most senior artillery corps

1800-740: The British Army when the Board of Ordnance was abolished in 1855). and the Reserve Forces . After the 1855 consolidation of the Regular Forces (ignoring minor forces such as the Yeomen Warders and the Yeomen of the Guard ) into the Regular Force (i.e., the British Army ), there still remained a number of British military (not to be confused with naval ) forces that were not part of the British Army; specifically

1872-627: The Corps of Rifle Volunteers and volunteer regulations were published in 1859 and 1861 respectively. From 1860 Cadet Corps were also formed, consisting of school-age boys, which were the forerunners of the Army Cadet Force and Combined Cadet Force . Like the adult volunteers, the boys were supplied with arms by the War Office, for which they had to pay a fee, which reduced the longer they remained members. Cadet Corps were usually associated with private schools. They paraded regularly in public. In 1862,

1944-505: The Force. The lord-lieutenant of a county, or the commanding officer of a corps or administrative regiment was empowered to appoint a court of inquiry into any corps, officer, non-commissioned officer or volunteer. Part II of the Act dealt with "Actual Military Service". The terms for calling out of the force were altered: this would now happen in "the case of actual or apprehended invasion of any part of

2016-521: The RA was split into Royal Field Artillery and Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA), which was responsible for all coastal and fortress artillery; the Volunteers were affiliated to the RGA. On 1 January 1902 the RA abandoned its divisional organisation and the unit changed its designation to Tynemouth Royal Garrison Artillery (Volunteers) . When the Volunteers were subsumed into the new Territorial Force (TF) under

2088-765: The Regular Army after the Armistice, becoming 16th Medium Battery in 4th Medium Brigade, RGA, in 1920. The Tynemouth RGA reformed on 7 February 1920 and when the TF was reconstituted as the Territorial Army (TA) the following year, it was redesignated as the Tynemouth Coast Brigade , becoming the Tynemouth Heavy Brigade in 1924 when the RGA was subsumed into the RA. It had the following organisation: In 1926 it

2160-471: The Regular Army. This culminated in the Childers Reforms of 1881 which nominated rifle volunteer corps as volunteer battalions of the new "county" infantry regiments, which also consisted of regular and militia battalions within a defined regimental district. Over the next few years many of the rifle volunteer corps adopted the "volunteer battalion" designation and the uniform of their parent regiment. This

2232-581: The Regulars of Nos 12 and 47 Companies RGA at Tynemouth. These units were responsible for the manning the following guns in the Tyne defences: On the outbreak of war, the Tynemouth Volunteer Artillery deployed to its war stations in the Tyne Garrison. Shortly after the outbreak of war on 4 August 1914, TF units were invited to volunteer for Overseas Service, and they began forming Second Line units (distinguished from

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2304-688: The Reserve forces, to avoid confusion, were generally known as the Auxiliary Forces or Local Forces . The Regulation of the Forces Act 1871 removed the Lord-Lieutenant as head of the county reserve forces and they were increasingly integrated with the British Army. A large number of Volunteer Corps were formed during the French Revolutionary War but were stood down afterwards. Following

2376-534: The Special Reserve, which provided a body of trained men available for drafting to regular battalions as required during wartime). The total cost of the TF was to be met in future by central government. In addition to the introduction of terms of service for volunteers, most of the units lost their unique identities, becoming numbered territorial battalions of the local army regiment, albeit with distinctive badges or dress distinctions. The 1907 act did not extend to

2448-579: The TA was reduced into the Territorial and Army Volunteer Reserve in 1967, 439 (Tyne) LAD Rgt became the HQ Battery of the amalgamated 101 (Northumberland) Regiment RA (V), the battery regaining its subtitle 'Tynemouth Volunteer Artillery' in 1993. In July 2006, the battery was disbanded, but the name was perpetuated in the Radar (Tynemouth Volunteer Artillery) Troop, of 204 Battery, RA (V). The original uniform of

2520-512: The TF RGA companies that had volunteered for overseas service were also supplying trained gunners to RGA units serving overseas and providing cadres to form new units, although complete defended port units never went overseas. Thus the siege batteries formed in late 1915–early 1916 were a mixture of Regular and TF gunners from the RGA coast establishments together with new recruits. 44th Siege Battery formed at Sheerness in 1915 had its cadre provided by

2592-420: The Tyne defences contained the following guns: All three regiments came under the command of IX Corps HQ by May 1942. By then the threat from German attack had diminished and there was demand for trained gunners for the fighting fronts. A process of reducing the manpower in the coast defences began. 265/509 Coast Bty was placed in suspended animation on 20 June, just before 397 Bty arrived, and 261/508 Coast Bty

2664-557: The Tynemouth Artillery Volunteers was the same as the Rifle Volunteers of the area: a silver-grey tunic with black braid and scarlet facings , grey trousers with black stripes, and black belts with bronze ornaments for other ranks, silver for officers wore. The headdress was a grey Shako with scarlet plume. The artillery wore a gun badge on the shako and pouch in place of the riflemen's bugle. This uniform only lasted

2736-681: The Tynemouth Heavy Regiment being split into three coast regiments on 14 July 1940: Formed with A, B and C Batteries. On 31 December it was joined by 348 Coast Bty from 554th Coast Rgt at Poole , Dorset . On 1 April 1941 A Bty was split up and the regiment was reorganised as: Formed with A and B Batteries. On 31 December it was joined by 312 and 314 Coast Btys, and on 1 April 1941 A and B Btys were numbered: Formed with A Bty, joined by 311 (formed at Gloucester Battery) and 313 Coast Btys on 31 December 1940: At their height in September 1941,

2808-526: The Tynemouth RGA (1/1st, 1/2nd/ 1/3rd and 1/4th) were reduced to three (1st, 2nd and 3rd) albeit with a slightly larger establishment of five officers and 100 men, and were to be kept up to strength with Regular recruits. By early 1918 the companies were serving in No 18 Coastal Fire Command based at Tynemouth. In April 1918 the following guns were in place around the Tyne: Tyne Garrison Following

2880-402: The Tynemouth RGA, while a number of others formed at Tynemouth (14 batteries in 1916 alone) may have included men from the Tynemouth RGA among the Regulars and recruits, although the War Office or Army Council Instructions did not specifically order this. Under Army Council Instruction 686 of April 1917, the coastal defence companies of the RGA (TF) were reorganised. The four serving companies of

2952-619: The UK into infantry battalions, primarily for line of communication and occupation duties in North West Europe, thereby releasing trained infantry for frontline service. On 15 January 1945, all the remaining Tyne batteries were transferred to the command of 526th (Durham) Coast Rgt , while RHQ 508th Coast Rgt and Tynemouth Fire Control HQ were converted into 616 (Tynemouth) Regiment, RA . After infantry training in Scotland with 301st Infantry Brigade ,

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3024-512: The United Kingdom (the occasion being first communicated to both Houses of Parliament if parliament is sitting, or declared in council and notified by proclamation if parliament is not sitting.)" As well as being entitled to pay and billets, relief was also to be given to the wives and families of volunteers. A bounty of one guinea was to be paid to volunteers on release from actual military service, such release being notified in order by writing by

3096-499: The brigade transferred to 21st Army Group on 9 May 1945, and landed on the Continent on 15 May (a week after VE Day ), where it came under the command of First Canadian Army . The regiment was placed in suspended animation on 31 October 1945, completing the process on 24 November. When the TA was reconstituted on 1 January 1947, 508 and 509 Coast Rgts were reformed as 404/405 (Tynemouth) Coast Regiment in 103 Coast Brigade, while 510

3168-573: The brink of insolvency, the Volunteer Force had become indispensable to British defence planning, as well as an enabler of the Regular Army's drawing its own forces away from home defence stations. Consequently, the government passed the Territorial and Reserve Forces Act 1907 , which merged the Volunteer Force with the Yeomanry to form the Territorial Force in 1908 (while the Militia was re-organised as

3240-402: The command of a captain, with some localities having subdivisions of thirty men under a lieutenant. The purpose of the rifle corps was to harass the invading enemy's flanks, while artillery corps were to man coastal guns and forts. Although not mentioned in the circular letter, engineer corps were also formed, principally to place underwater mines for port defence. Stretcher-bearers attached to

3312-593: The definite article 'The'). The unit became part of the RA's Northern Division on 1 April 1882, then the Western Division on 1 July 1889. By now the unit had eight batteries. In the early years, the volunteer gunners practised on whatever guns were available, including those at Tynemouth Castle. But in addition to manning fixed coast defence artillery, some of the early Artillery Volunteers manned semi-mobile 'position batteries' of smooth-bore field guns pulled by agricultural horses. The Tynemouth Artillery Volunteers were supplied with light 9-pounder field guns in 1869. But

3384-490: The grouping. However the individual corps were to continue to exist. As in the earlier legislation, a volunteer could resign with fourteen days notice, with the addition that if a commanding officer refused to remove a volunteer from the roll of the corps, then he could appeal to two justices of the peace of the county. An annual inspection by an officer of the regular army was instituted, and efficiency standards were to be set by Order in Council , as were regulations for governing

3456-426: The hands of care and maintenance parties. On 18 October 1944, 510th Coast Rgt was placed in suspended animation and its units (264, 312, 314, 397 Coast Btys, 68 COD) were transferred to 508th Coast Rgt, and the positions manned by 259, 260, 262, 263 and 444 Coast Btys were placed under care and maintenance. Then, in January 1945, the War Office began to reorganise surplus anti-aircraft and coastal artillery regiments in

3528-409: The lord-lieutenant. If disabled on service, officers and volunteers were to receive a pension. Part III dealt with discipline and part IV with the rules and property of the corps. Part V dealt with the process of acquiring land for shooting ranges. Apart from the corps taking ownership of the land, a municipal corporation or private company could grant a licence to the volunteers to use their land for

3600-436: The lord-lieutenant. The Isle of Man was also to dealt with as if it were a county of England, with the Lieutenant-Governor performing the same role as a county lord-lieutenant. In 1872, under the provisions of the Regulation of the Forces Act 1871, jurisdiction over the volunteers was removed from the county lord-lieutenants and placed under the Secretary of State for War . Volunteer units became increasingly integrated with

3672-402: The original First line by a '2/' prefix). By October 1914, the campaign on the Western Front was bogging down into Trench warfare and there was an urgent need for batteries of siege artillery to be sent to France. The War Office decided that the TF units were well enough trained to take over many of the duties in the coastal defences, releasing Regular RGA gunners for service in the field. Soon

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3744-438: The part-time Reserve Forces , which had at various times included the Honourable Artillery Company , Militia Force (also referred to as the Constitutional Force , and originally an infantry force), the Yeomanry Force (made up of mounted units, organised similarly to the Volunteer Force), Volunteer Force , and Fencibles . Equivalents were also raised in the Crown Dependencies and many colonies. Known collectively as

3816-511: The poor state of their defences. The unit was raised by Edward Potter of Cramlington , a local coal mining engineer. By 25 May 1859, the first drill was held for Rifle and Artillery volunteers at Tynemouth, formal enrolment for the 1st Northumberland Artillery Volunteers opened on 2 August, and the corps was formally accepted on 16 August 1859. In November 1859, the new unit held its first gun practice, on two 70-year-old muzzle-loading smoothbore cannon at Tynemouth Castle . A 2nd Northumberland AVC

3888-446: The purpose. Justices of the peace were given the power to close rights of way adjacent to ranges. The Act concluded by defining the counties to which the corps were to belong: for the purposes of the Act the Isle of Wight , the Tower Hamlets and the Cinque Ports were separate counties, with the Governor of the Isle of Wight, the Constable of the Tower of London and the Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports commissioning officers in place of

3960-410: The recommendations of the commission, and to replace the 1804 legislation, the Volunteer Act 1863 ( 26 & 27 Vict. c. 65) was passed. Part I of the Act dealt with the organisation of the Volunteer Force. It became lawful for "Her Majesty to accept the services of persons desiring to be formed under the Act into a Volunteer Corps, and offering their services to Her Majesty through the Lieutenant of

4032-416: The rifle corps subsequently formed volunteer medical detachments affiliated to the Army Medical Corps . In a handful of counties, units of light horse or mounted rifles were formed. Two volunteer units whose services had been accepted by Queen Victoria during the early 1850s became the two senior rifle corps of the new force. These were the Exeter and South Devon Volunteers , formed in 1852, who became

4104-423: The shortfall of soldiers in the Regular Army . The situation had been complicated by the fact that both auxiliary forces were under the control of the Home Office until 1855. Tensions rose between the United Kingdom and France following the Orsini affair , an assassination attempt on Emperor Napoleon III on 14 January 1858. It emerged that the would-be assassin, Felice Orsini had travelled to England to have

4176-407: The units of volunteers became increasingly integrated with the British Army after the Childers Reforms in 1881, before forming part of the Territorial Force in 1908. Most of the regiments of the present Army Reserves Infantry , Artillery , Engineers and Signals units are directly descended from Volunteer Force units. Prior to the Crimean War , the British military (i.e., land forces )

4248-423: The vacated position as 2nd. A new 3rd Northumberland AVC of two batteries was formed at Blyth on 23 November 1860, but was disbanded in January 1864. In September that year the Newcastle members of the Tynemouth Volunteers left to form a separate 2nd Newcastle AVC and in January 1865 the Willington Quay men became the 3rd Northumberland AVC . The 1st Administrative Brigade of Northumberland Artillery Volunteers

4320-403: The volunteers having to purchase their own rifles and uniforms was felt by some to exclude the lower classes. Unlike regular rifle regiments, the volunteer units had colours often made and presented by the women of the community. These were unauthorised, however, with the Volunteer Regulations stating "Neither Standards nor Colours are to be carried by Corps on parade, as the Volunteer Force

4392-399: The word 'TYNEMOUTH' inserted beneath the 'ROYAL ARTILLERY' on their red-on-blue shoulder badge. The following served as Honorary Colonel of the unit. Volunteer Force (Great Britain) The Volunteer Force was a citizen army of part-time rifle, artillery and engineer corps, created as a popular movement throughout the British Empire in 1859. Originally highly autonomous,

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4464-582: Was abolished and the number of AA units reduced on 10 March 1955, 405 (Tynemouth) HAA Rgt was amalgamated into 324 (Northumbrian) HAA Regiment (successor to the 1st Northumberland Artillery Volunteers from which the Tynemouth had separated in 1884 see above ). The RA's Coast Artillery branch was also abolished the following year, and 404 (Tynemouth) Coast Rgt amalgamated into 439 Light AA Regiment (the old Tyne Electrical Engineers) at Tynemouth on 30 October 1956, forming P (Tynemouth) Battery . The regiment became 439 (Tyne) Light Air Defence Regiment in 1964. When

4536-516: Was added to the Admin Brigade in 1873. The Volunteers were consolidated into larger units in 1880, and the Administrative Brigade became the 1st Northumberland and Durham Artillery Volunteers on 23 July with its HQ at Newcastle: However, the Tynemouth Volunteers were withdrawn to become independent again in April 1884. They were supposed to become the new 3rd Northumberland, but objected to the title, asserting their primacy, and in August were renamed The Tynemouth Artillery Volunteers (with emphasis on

4608-522: Was decided that the coast defences of the UK would be manned by the TA alone. On 1 October 1932, 152 Heavy Battery at Seaton Delaval left to be converted into 152 Medium Battery in 55th (Northumbrian) Medium Brigade . Then on 1 April 1934 150 Heavy Battery at North Shields also left to be converted into 150 Medium Battery in 51st (Midland) Medium Brigade . However, on 10 December 1936 these two batteries left their new brigades and were converted again into 179 and 180 (Tynemouth) Anti-Aircraft batteries forming

4680-530: Was disbanded 10–17 October. 322/510 Coast Bty went to War Office Control on 7 May 1943, but was replaced by 444 Coast Bty, newly formed at Gloucester Battery. 420/508 Coast Bty was disbanded on 20 September 1943. IX Corps HQ left for North Africa ( Operation Torch ) and was replaced by Corps Coast Artillery HQ, Northumbrian District, by the end of 1942. The manpower requirements for the forthcoming Allied invasion of Normandy ( Operation Overlord ) led to further reductions in coast defences in April 1944. 509th Coast Rgt

4752-413: Was far from universal, however, with some corps retaining their original names and distinctive dress until 1908. The artillery volunteers were similarly remodelled as reserve formations of the Royal Artillery , eventually being redesignated as Royal Garrison Artillery (Volunteers) in 1902, while the Engineer Volunteers became Royal Engineers (Volunteers). The volunteers finally saw active service during

4824-527: Was formally disbanded. 404 and 405 Regiments, based at North Shields and Blyth respectively, had recruited sufficiently to become separate units by September 1948, but as it had been decided to reduce the number of TA coast regiments, 405 Coast Rgt was converted into 405 (Tynemouth) Heavy Anti-Aircraft Regiment that year. On 1 January 1954, 405 HAA Rgt absorbed 464 (Northumbrian) HAA Rgt (the successor of 64th (Northumbrian) HAA Rgt formed in 1936, see above ) providing RHQ, P and Q Btys. When Anti-Aircraft Command

4896-450: Was formed at Tynemouth on 12 January 1860 but in May 1860 it was absorbed into the 1st as its second battery; four other batteries were raised at Willington Quay , Newcastle upon Tyne and North Shields . Other AVCs were also being formed in the area: the Percy Artillery , raised from tenants of the Duke of Northumberland and named after a previous volunteer unit of 1805, was formed as the 3rd Northumberland AVC on 22 March 1860, then took

4968-411: Was formed at Tynemouth on 4 April 1866 and included the 1st Northumberland (Tyneside Volunteers) and both its offshoots, the 2nd Newcastle and the 3rd Northumberland. (The 1st Newcastle and 2nd Northumberland (Percy Artillery) AVCs remained independent.) The 2nd Newcastle was absorbed into the 3rd Northumberland in 1868, in which year the brigade's HQ moved from Tynemouth to Newcastle. The 1st Durham AVC

5040-486: Was made up of multiple separate forces, with a basic division into the Regular Forces (including the British Army , composed primarily of cavalry and infantry, and the Ordnance Military Corps of the Board of Ordnance , made up of the Royal Artillery , Royal Engineers , and the Royal Sappers and Miners though not including the originally civilian Commissariat Department , stores and supply departments, all of which, with barracks and other departments, were absorbed into

5112-461: Was placed in suspended animation on 1 April 1944 and its remaining batteries (264, 312, 314, 397) were regimented with 508th Coast Rgt. 70 Coast Observer Detachment was also disbanded in April 1944. As the campaign in North West Europe progressed after D Day , the manpower demands of 21st Army Group led to further reductions in coastal artillery. By this stage of the war many of the coast battery positions were manned by Home Guard detachments or in

5184-465: Was the 1st Northumberland formed at Tynemouth on 2 August 1859. Initially, there were attempts at class distinction with the middle class seeing the formation of rifle units as a contrast with the strict class divide between the officers of the gentry and the other ranks of the working class and farm labourers of the militia and the standing army. Some also compared the initiative, small unit tactics and marksmanship principles of rifle regiments of

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