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Following an [[Siege of Pondicherry 1748|inglorious siege]] of the nearby French stronghold of [[Pondicherry]], news arrived that the war in Europe had ended. The soldiers of the Royal Artillery, facing discharge and an uncertain future back in England, were offered employment as Artillerymen with the now fledgling Madras Army. This is taken as the foundation of the Madras Artillery.
A number of individual Artillerymen who transferred to the Madras Artillery are identified in this [httphttps://www.search.fibis.org/frontis/bin/aps_browse_sources.php?mode=browse_components&id=721&s_id=221 FIBIS Search dataset].
They were well-trained professional artillerymen and able to train both other soldiers volunteering from the Task Force and further recruits trickling in from England. Until the demise of the Company’s Army in 1861, the Madras Artillery always had European Officers and European soldiers, except for the ‘Golundauze’ Battalion which employed Indian soldiers.
===FIBIS resources===
*[httphttps://www.search.fibis.org/frontis/bin/aps_browse_sources.php?mode=browse_components&id=135&s_id=14 Transcription of Officers Service History, 1748 - 1861] from Leslie's ''List of Officers who have Served in the Madras Artillery''*[httphttps://www.search.fibis.org/frontis/bin/aps_browse_sources.php?mode=browse_components&id=721&s_id=221 Royal Regiment of Artillery 1747-1749], a list of Artillerymen from Major John Goodyere's Company who sailed to India in 1747 with [[Edward Boscawen|Admiral Edward Boscawen]]'s Fleet
*"The Life of a Madras Artilleryman: The William Porter Letters" by Peter Bailey [[FIBIS Journals|''FIBIS Journal Number 3 (Spring 2000'')]]. FIBIS members may read this article online.
:Extracts from "The Private Letters of William Porter, Gunner, 3rd Batt., Madras Artillery (1826-1857) (Mss Eur. G128, British Library)", including time spent in [[Burma]]
