Stations of the Royal Artillery in India
Sources for determining the locations of Royal Artillery batteries.
See also:
Contents
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. It is available to consult at the British Library, the RA's Firepower Museum and on the open access library shelves at The National Archives. A third volume covering the period following 1877 is unpublished, but held by Firepower. Note: Firepower Museum has now closed, and there is no current access to its collection.
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], United States Army, 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. For information about searching for documents on this website, see Stations of British Army troops in India.
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.
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
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
| 1867 * | 1868 * | 1869
- |
1870 | 1871 | 1872 | 1873 | 1874 |
* 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.
| 1871 (file page 72) | 1872 (file page 204) | 1873 (file page 336) | 1874 (file page 466) | 1875 (file page 592) | 1876 (file page 722) |
| 1871 (file page 73) | 1872 (file page 205) | 1873 (file page 337) | 1874 (file page 467) | 1875 (file page 593) | 1876 (file page 723) |
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 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 thread by Black Sapper (Peter Holden) 1911 Census for Military – Overseas contains pdf links to 1911 Overseas Military Census data on Ancestry.com, 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.com, a pay site.
