Stations of the Royal Artillery in India

Sources for determining the locations of Royal Artillery batteries.

See also:

• Stations of British Army troops in India

Law's Tables

For the period 1716 to 1877 Battery Records of the Royal Artillery compiled by MES Laws (two volumes: Volume 1, 1716-1859 and Volume 2, 1859-1877, published in 1952 and 1970), is a comprehensive guide to battery stations that also helps navigate the frequent renumberings that took place.

[Volume 1] "starts off with a detailed explanation of the Royal Artillery and records at TNA. Each RA company is assigned a unique serial number to use throughout the book. This avoids complications as company names, numbers, and even battalion assigned to changed over time. The bulk of the book is organized by year and gives monthly location for each company, details of their moves and detachments, and lists deaths of officers. It also contains a gazetteer."

The two volumes are available to consult at the British Library, UIN: BLL01011540882 , on the open access library shelves at The National Archives and were available at the RA's Firepower Museum. A third volume covering the period following 1877 is unpublished, but was held by Firepower. Note: Firepower Museum has now closed, but see Part of Library and Archive now at Larkhill.
Volume 1 Battery Records of the Royal Artillery, 1716-1859 is available on the pay website TheGenealogist as part of the Diamond subscription, under Military/Battery Records.

Note that sometime in the period December 1888 to August 1889, probably 1 July 1889, the names of the Batteries in the Royal Field Artillery Brigades changed from an alphabetical to a numerical name.

The Nafziger Collection of Orders of Battle

The following table links to pdf documents from The Nafziger Collection of Orders of Battle, Combined Arms Research Library [CARL], (U.S. Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth USA) derived from sources such as The Army and Navy Gazette and containing information relating to the Royal Artillery in India. Some documents provide limited information.

Although there does not appear to be any information relating to British troops in India after 1904, there is information available prior to 1862 but whether it includes the Royal Artillery is not known. Prior to the Indian Mutiny (1857) there were only limited Royal Artillery troops in India. It appears that titles such as Distribution of the British Army (available 1836-1868, 1872, 1899-1903) and Stations of the British Army (available 1869-1904) will also contain details of Royal Artillery troops in India for at least some periods. Also see Stations of British Army troops in India.

Stations of the Royal Artillery in India 1863-1904

		4 April 1863	2 April 1864	1 April 1865
31 March 1866	2 November 1867	4 April 1868	10 April 1869
1 April 1871	5 March 1873	7 March 1874	3 April 1875	1 March 1876
7 March 1877 ?	4 January 1879	5 July 1879	4 September 1880	4 December 1880
2 April 1881	2 September 1882	2 December 1882	3 March 1883
2 February 1884	4 October 1884	7 March 1885	5 September 1885	3 July 1886
7 May 1887	3 March 1888	3 August 1889	1 March 1890	3 March 1891
23 July 1898	27 August 1898	21 September 1898	17 December 1898
July 1899	March 1900	May 1900	June 1900
April 1901	July 1901	August 1901	November 1901	December 1901
February 1902	April 1902	May 1902	July 1902	October 1902
December 1902	July 1903	19 November 1904

The New Annual Army List

The following information from the publication The New Annual Army List gives details of the location of Royal Artillery Batteries generally, including those based in India. Archive.org, with a few entries from the National Library of Scotland website. The title of this publication varied over time: 1881-1893, The New Annual Army List, Militia List, Yeomanry Cavalry List, and Indian Civil Service List; 1894-1901, The New Annual Army List, Militia List, and Yeomanry Cavalry List; 1902-1903, Hart's Annual Army List, Militia List, and Yeomanry Cavalry List; 1904-1908, Hart's Annual Army List, Militia List, and Imperial Yeomanry List. Online volumes are linked on the Fibiwiki page Military periodicals online.

Stations of the Royal Artillery including India 1883-1914

		1883, page 184	1884, page 184	1885, page 184
1886, page 184	1887, page 184	1888, page 184	1889, page 184	1890, page 184
1891, page 184	1892, page 184	1893, page 184	1894 page 184	1895, page 184
1896, page 184	1897, page 185	1898, page 185	1899, page 185	1900, page 187
1901, page 187	1902, page 187	1903, page 187	1904, page 187	1905, page 187
1906, page 187	1907, page 187	1908, page 187	1909, page 187	1910, page 229
1911, page 229	1912, page 213	1913, page 213	1914, page 213

Monthly Army List and Indian Army List

• See British Army - Locating a regiment for details of more information available, including in online editions of the Monthly Army List and Indian Army List.

Specific years

Stations in 1859

• Her Majesty’s British Forces in the Bengal and North-Western Provinces, corrected to 1st July 1859 , page 9 The Quarterly Army List of Her Majesty's British and Indian Forces on the Bengal Establishment corrected to 5 July 1859 and page 20

Stations in 1869

The Indian Army and Civil Service List July 1869 Google Books

• Brigades of Royal Artillery in Madras Presidency
• Brigades of Royal Artillery in Bombay Presidency

1867-1876

1867-1874

Pages from various Army Medical Department: Report for the Year.. See Military periodicals online - Army Medical Department Report. The tables include information for "Stations during the Year". Google Books, Archive.org, Hathi Trust Digital Library

Stations during the Year

1867 * Bengal Madras Bombay

1868 * Bengal Madras Bombay

1869 - Madras Bombay

1870 Bengal Madras Bombay

1871 Bengal Madras Bombay

1872 Bengal Madras Bombay

1873 Bengal Madras Bombay

1874 Bengal Madras Bombay

* Pages require rotation.

1871-1876

From the publication Vital statistics of India. Vol. IV, Annual returns from 1871 to 1876. British Army of India, Native Army and jails of Bengal from the National Library of Scotland’s online collection “Medical History of British India”.

Details of the number of soldiers are also included.

Information is provided at the end of June for each year, during the summer, so some regiments are at hill station cantonments.

Note: pdf links may be slow to open.

Distribution of the European Army of the Bengal Presidency

1871 (file page 72) htm pdf

1872 (file page 204) htm pdf

1873 (file page 336) htm pdf

1874 (file page 466) htm pdf

1875 (file page 592) htm pdf

1876 (file page 722) htm pdf

Distribution of the European Army of Madras and Bombay

1871 (file page 73) htm pdf

1872 (file page 205) htm pdf

1873 (file page 337) htm pdf

1874 (file page 467) htm pdf

1875 (file page 593) htm pdf

1876 (file page 723) htm pdf

Afghanistan 1878-1882

Refer Stations of British Army troops in India

Stations in 1902

• The British Army 1902 by Graham E.Watson from Orbat.com, now archived. Select pages 6 and 7 of the document for India.

Stations in 1910, 1913, 1914

• Stations of Units of the Regular Forces, Militia, Special, Reserve, and Territorial Force by [Great Britain] War Office. His Majesty’s Stationery Office (HMSO)
  • Royal Artillery page 6, No.27. 1st January 1910. Archive.org.
  • Royal Artillery page 6, No.28. 1st April 1910. Archive.org.
  • Royal Artillery page 6, No.29. 1st July 1910. Archive.org.
  • Royal Artillery page 6, No.40. 1st April 1913. slv.vic.gov.au
  • Royal Artillery page 6, No.45. 1st July 1914. Image 91 of digital file for April 1913. slv.vic.gov.au

University of Oxford seems to have most editions No. 1-27, 29-40, 42-45 (not digitised), from  the catalogue entry and further links. No 45 is perhaps the last publication. 

Stations in 1911

The following list is derived from the 1911 England and Wales Census which included overseas military bases, taken from The National Archives RG 14/34978-34992, 34995, 34997 catalogue entry. There are indications it may not be a complete list of all regiments which were actually in India at the time.

• India, Ambala, N Battery Royal Horse Artillery.
• India, Lucknow, U Battery Royal Horse Artillery.
• India, Lucknow, C Ammunition Column Royal Horse Artillery.
• Punjab, India, Jullundur, 16th Brigade RFA Staff.
• India Hyderabad 18th Field Artillery Brigade Staff.
• India, Hyderabad, No 4 Ammunition Column Royal Field Artillery.
• Unknown, Unknown, 12th Battery, Royal Field Artillery. This entry appeared with others relating to India.
• India, Cawnpore, 19th Battery Royal Field Artillery.
• India, Lucknow, 20th Battery Royal Field Artillery.
• India, Hyderabad, 59th Battery RFA
• India, Belgaum, 84th Battery Royal Field Artillery.
• Punjab, India, Jullundur, 89th Battery Royal Field Artillery.
• Punjab, India, Multan, 90th Battery RFA.
• Baluchistan, India, Quetta, Royal Garrison Artillery Staff.
• India, Jutogh, No 5 Mountain Battery RGA.
• Baluchistan, India, Quetta, No 7 Mountain Battery RGA.
• India, Quetta, No 8 Mountain Battery, RGA.
• India, Quetta, 51 Company RGA.
• Punjaub, India, Multan, 90th Heavy Battery Royal Garrison Artillery.
• Baluchistan, India, Quetta, No 101 Company RGA.

Great War Forum topic by Black Sapper (Peter Holden) "1911 Census for Military – Overseas" contains pdf links to 1911 Overseas Military Census data on Ancestry including that for India, in post 13. Royal Artillery data from India is included. Note the pdf images are only available to logged in members of GWF. To actually access the information in the pdf files, you must be logged in to Ancestry, a pay site.

Also see Great War Forum topic "Military Units in India - 1911 Census Index".