Book Description

This two-volume history of the Royal Artillery is one of the earliest published on that subject, and covers the period from its formation in 1716 to Waterloo, a hundred years of history. Volume I takes the story of the Regiment from 1716 to the end of the American War of Independence and the Peace Treaty of 1783. The first few chapters describe the situation regarding artillery before the Regiment came into existence, when all Artillery details came under the care and superintendence of the Masters-General of the Ordnance and the Honourable Board of Ordnance. This Board, apparently, invariably interfered with the duties of the Artillery and "no amount of individual experience, no success, no distance from England, could save unhappy artillerymen from perpetual worry and incessant legislation." Apart from telling the story of the campaigns and battles in which the Regiment took part during its first seventy or so years of its existence, principally the Seven Years War, the Siege of Gibraltar and the American War of Independence, this volume contains plenty of 'domestic' detail including the development and growth of the Artillery, changes of organization, changes in establishments, pay and conditions of service, officer personalities, commanders and the foundation of the Royal Military Academy. The author was Superintendent of the Royal Artillery Regimental Records and was well placed to write a very full and interesting account of the Gunners during the first hundred years of their existence.