Editing Royal Artillery (section)

===Formation to 1799===

Artillery was used by English troops as early as the [[Battle of Crécy]] in 1346, while [[Henry VIII]] established it as a semi-permanent function in the 16th century.<ref name=garrison>{{cite web|url=https://www.thegarrison.website/|title=Home page|website=The Garrison Artillery Volunteers|access-date=9 January 2021|archive-date=1 January 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180101053952/http://www.thegarrison.org.uk/history/index.php|url-status=live}}</ref> Until the [[British Civil Wars]], the majority of military units in Britain were raised for specific campaigns and disbanded when they were over.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Chandler David |first1=Beckett Ian |title=The Oxford History Of The British Army |date=1996 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-280311-5 |page=52 |edition=2002}}</ref> An exception were gunners based at the [[Tower of London]], [[Portsmouth]] and other forts around Britain, who were controlled by the [[Ordnance Office]] and stored and maintained equipment and provided personnel for field [[artillery]] 'traynes' that were organised as needed.<ref name="Hogg63">{{cite book|last1=Hogg|first1=Brigadier O.F.G.|title=The Royal Arsenal|date=1963|publisher=Oxford University Press|pages=302–344}}</ref>

These personnel, responsible in peacetime for maintaining the forts with their ''garrison artillery'' (or [[coastal artillery]]), were the first regular artillerymen, organised in 1540 under the Master-General and Board of Ordnance, but paid directly by the [[Exchequer]]. The regular artillerymen of the District Establishments were responsible for upkeep of the fort and maintenance of equipment, and would be brought up to strength in wartime with untrained personnel drafted in from the British Army or the Militia. The post of ''Captain of Fort'' was replaced (at least in England, if not in its colonies) with that of ''Governor'' following the [[Stuart Restoration|Restoration]]. When [[John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough|Marlborough]] was restored as [[Master-General of the Ordnance]] in 1714, he initiated a series of reforms, which included splitting the existing Ordnance Service into artillery and [[Sapper|sappers or engineers]].<ref>{{cite ODNB |last1=Latcham |first1=Paul |title=Armstrong, John |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/659 |year=2004 }}</ref> The artillery were formed into two marching [[Company (military unit)|companies]], each of 100 men, in 1716.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/royal-artillery|title=Royal Artillery|publisher=National Army Museum|access-date=21 September 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://royalartillerymuseum.com/|title=Royal Artillery Museum|access-date=21 September 2023}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.royal.uk/speech-queen-royal-artillery-tercentenary-parade-26th-may-2016|title=A speech by The Queen at the Royal Artillery Tercentenary Parade on 26 May 2016|date=26 May 2016|publisher=Royal UK|access-date=21 September 2023|archive-date=23 September 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230923182342/https://www.royal.uk/speech-queen-royal-artillery-tercentenary-parade-26th-may-2016|url-status=live}}</ref>

These marching companies were renamed the "Royal Artillery" in 1720.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.theraalewes.co.uk/history|title=History|publisher=RA Association, Lewes Branch|access-date=21 September 2023|archive-date=9 October 2023|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231009170416/https://www.theraalewes.co.uk/history|url-status=live}}</ref> These were increased to four companies and on 1 April 1722 grouped with independent artillery units at [[Gibraltar]] and [[Menorca]] to form the Royal Regiment of Artillery; the first commander was Colonel [[Albert Borgard]], a Dane who served in the British army since 1698.<ref name=garrison/>

Aside from the Master Gunner of England, the detachments in each fort formed a ''District Establishment'' that included a ''Captain of Fort'', a Master-Gunner or Chief-Gunner, and a number of other ranks, including Gunners, Gunner's Mates, Quarter-Gunners, and Matroses. Their numbers were extremely small; as late as 1720, the total establishment for the whole of Britain was 41 [[Master gunner#Historical usage|master gunners]] and 178 gunner assistants.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Duncan |first1=Francis |title=History of the Royal Regiment of Artillery: Volume I |url=https://archive.org/details/historyroyalreg05duncgoog |date=1872 |publisher=John Murray |page=435 |edition=1879}}</ref> Although the Royal Artillery increasingly involved itself with the coastal artillery in Britain, also, the District Establishments remained independent until February 1771, when the Royal Artillery formed eight Invalid Companies (made up of personnel no longer fit for expeditionary service) into which they were absorbed (although the District Establishments would still rely on drafts of sailors, British Army soldiers, Militia infantrymen, or Volunteers to bring the batteries up to wartime strength until the formation of [[Militia Artillery units of the United Kingdom and Colonies|Militia Artillery]] and Volunteer Artillery in the 1850s).<ref>{{cite book |last=Maurice-Jones |first=Colonel K. W. |author-link= |date=1959 |title=History of Coast Artillery in the British Army |url= |location=London |publisher=Royal Artillery Institution |page= |isbn=}}</ref>

During the 18th century, the British regular military forces, including the Board of Ordnance's military corps (the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers and later the Royal Sappers and Miners) and the British Army (composed mostly of infantry and cavalry) became increasingly professional (various reserve, or ''local'', forces also existed, including: the Militia, or old Constitutional Force, normally made up of infantry units; the mounted Yeomanry; and Volunteer units of various types, normally raised only during wartime), particularly in the fields of artillery and engineering; Britain lagged behind others in this area, with [[Sébastien Le Prestre de Vauban|Vauban]] establishing the French ''Corps royal des ingénieurs militaires'' as far back as 1690.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mousnier |first1=Roland |title=The Institutions of France Under the Absolute Monarchy, 1598-1789 |url=https://archive.org/details/institutionsoffr0000mous |url-access=registration |date=1979 |publisher=University of Chicago Press |isbn=978-0226543277 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/institutionsoffr0000mous/page/577 577–578]}}</ref>

[[File:A Review of the London Volunteer Cavalry and Flying Artillery in Hyde Park in 1804.tif|thumb|left|[[Royal Horse Artillery]] units, Hyde Park, 1804]]
A cadet company was formed at the [[Royal Military Academy, Woolwich|Royal Military Academy or RMA Woolwich]] in 1741; this trained artillery and engineering officers for the regiment, the [[East India Company's Army|East India Company]] and the [[Royal Irish Artillery]].<ref name=garrison/> In 1757, it split into two [[battalion]]s, each of twelve companies; by 1780, it contained 32 companies in four battalions, two "invalid companies" used solely for garrison duties and the [[Royal Artillery Band]], with a total strength of 5,241 men and officers.<ref>{{cite book |title=Journals of the House of Commons, Volume 37; November 1778 to August 1780 |date=1803 |publisher=HMSO |page=487}}</ref>

Originally based in the Royal Arsenal, beginning in 1770 the regiment was rehoused in the [[Royal Artillery Barracks]] on Woolwich Common.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Saint, Andrew |first1=Guillery, Peter |title=Survey of London; Woolwich Volume 48 |date=2012 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0300187229 |pages=26–28 |url=https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/architecture/sites/bartlett/files/48.3_the_royal_arsenal.pdf |access-date=26 March 2019 |archive-date=26 March 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190326111833/https://www.ucl.ac.uk/bartlett/architecture/sites/bartlett/files/48.3_the_royal_arsenal.pdf |url-status=live }}</ref> A major innovation in 1793 was the establishment of the [[Royal Horse Artillery]], designed to provide mobile fire support for cavalry units.<ref name=garrison/>  The same year saw the foundation of the [[Corps of Royal Artillery Drivers]] to provide transport for the artillery.<ref>{{cite web |title=Royal Artillery Drivers, 1812 |url=https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=1950-11-33-25 |website=National Army Museum |access-date=10 October 2019 |archive-date=6 October 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191006185613/https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=1950-11-33-25 |url-status=live }}</ref>

Fixed [[Coastal Artillery]] batteries were generally manned in peacetime by a handful of Royal Artillery personnel primarily responsible for maintenance, who were reinforced in wartime by drafts of infantrymen from the British Army or the Militia, or by temporarily-raised Volunteer Artillery corps. This was to remain the case through the Naploeonic Wars.<ref>''History of The Coast Artillery in the British Army'', by Colonel KW Maurice-Jones, DSO, RA. Royal Artillery Institution. 1959</ref>