Background to the RHA of the Great War
The Royal Horse Artillery as it related to the period of the Great War came into existence in 1793. In 1899, a few months before tension in South Africa became the Second Boer War, it was grouped with the Royal Field Artillery and the two were considered as a single corps for the purposes of the Army Act.
The new Royal Garrison Artillery brought into a single corps the army’s coastal, mountain, heavy and siege artillery. The lighter and more mobile forces became the Royal Horse & Royal Field Artillery. Although the RHA was grouped with the RFA as a corps by the 1899 Army Orders, it retained its separate identity in its role (to provide fire support for the mounted forces) and its lighter armament. It had the same rank and pay structure as the RFA.
Expansion of the RHA during the Great War
| Units | 1914 | 1915 | 1916 | 1917 | 1918 | 1919 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| RHA Batteries | 26+14 | 27+22 | 27+17 | 28+18 | 28+18 | 28+14 |
| – of which, in France | 0 | 17+1 | 20+1 | 20+4 | 19+4 | 0+4 |
| – in Egypt | 0 | 3+4 | 0+8 | 0+8 | 0+10 | 0+6 |
| – in Mesopotamia | 0 | 2 | 2 | 2+1 | 3+1 | 2+1 |
| – in Germany | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 3+3 |
| – at home | 14+14 | 3+17 | 3+8 | 4+5 | 4+3 | 21 |
| – in India | 11 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 |
| – in colonies | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
The source of this table is “Statistics of the Military Effort of the British Empire during the Great War” , p.163. The figures shown are as of 1 August each year. Where two figures are shown, in the format “X+Y”, the X is regular army batteries and Y batteries of the Territorial Force. Quite where the 26 regular batteries said to exist on 1 August 1914 came from is not clear, as there were only 25. It may simply be an error.
It will be appreciated from the information in the table that the RHA was expanded during the Great War, but nowhere the extent experienced by the Royal Field and Royal Garrison Artillery. This is a reflection of the changing nature and technologies of the war, which limited the use of cavalry in favour of infantry and mechanised forces. It is noteworthy too, that the units of the Territorial Force RHA were largely deployed in the theatre of war in Egypt and Palestine, where the regular units were mainly sent to France.
RHA losses
It is very difficult to isolate RHA casualties from those of the rest of the artillery, but the records of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission database returns 1,589 dead through a simple search using “Royal Horse Artillery” as its term.
Further reading
Three volumes of “History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery” by General Sir Martin Farndale (London: Royal Artillery Institution, 1986-1989)
“History of the Royal Artillery – volume II – 1899-1914” by Major-General Sir John Headlam (Woolwich: Royal Artillery Institition, 1937) (free version at Archive.org)
“‘The Infantry cannot do with a gun less’: the place of the artillery in the British Expeditionary Force, 1914-1918” by Sanders Marble (New York: Columbia University Press, 2013) (free version at Archive.org)
“Artillery in the Great War” by Paul Strong and Sanders Marble (Barnsley: Pen & Sword Military, 2013)
Some of the RHA batteries have published histories. They are mentioned in Batteries of the Royal Horse Artillery