The 2nd Devonshire Artillery Volunteers was a unit of the British Volunteer Force and Territorial Army. The unit and its successors defended Plymouth Dockyard and the Devon coast from 1861 to 1961.
Origin
The 2nd Administrative Brigade, Devonshire Artillery Volunteers was formed at Devonport, Plymouth on 3 January 1861 as a headquarters for a number of Artillery Volunteer Corps (AVCs) that had been raised in Devonshire in response to the invasion scare of 1859. A 1st Administrative Brigade had been formed the previous year, but the number of units in the county had continued to grow and they were split between the two headquarters. The 2nd Admin Brigade took the units in the western part of the county and was based at Devonport, Plymouth, with the following composition: 6th (Dartmouth) Devonshire AVC, raised 25 January 1860; transferred from 1st to 2nd Administrative Brigade in January 1861 10th (Salcombe) Devonshire AVC, raised 7 July 1860; transferred from 1st to 2nd Administrative Brigade in January 1861 12th (Devonport Dockyard) Devonshire AVC, raised 20 December 1860; transferred from 1st to 2nd Administrative Brigade in February 1862 13th (Keyham) Devonshire AVC, raised 7 December 1860; the nucleus came from the Keyham Steam Factory
The unit's HQ moved from Devonport to Dartmouth in 1874 before returning three years later. The commanding officer from 1864 was Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Hayne, who was also a captain in the South Devon Militia. He was succeeded by Lt-Col Alex Ridgway, a former captain in the 1st Devon Militia (appointed 1873). By 1866 the 12th AVC had four companies and the 13th had two. A cadet corps was attached to the unit from 1871 to 1879.
In February 1880, the AVCs were consolidated, and the 2nd Devonshire Administrative Brigade became the 6th (soon changed to 2nd) Devonshire AVC with the following composition: No 1 Battery at Dartmouth, former 6th Corps No 2 Battery at Salcombe, former 10th Corps Nos 3, 4, 5 & 6 Batteries at Devonport, former 12th Corps Nos 7 & 8 Batteries at Keyham, former 13th Corps
In 1893 the HQ and Nos 1 and 3–9 Companies were based at 14 Paradise Place at Stoke in Devonport, and No 2 Company was at Ridge Park Road, Plympton, and Fore Street, Salcombe at Fore Street, Salcombe. In the same year the War Office Mobilisation Scheme had allocated the 2nd Devonshire Artillery Volunteers to the Plymouth fixed defences.
The corps was attached to the Western Division of the Royal Artillery (RA) in April 1882 and changed its name to 2nd Devonshire Volunteer Artillery in November 1891. All the artillery volunteers were attached to the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) in 1899, and when the divisional structure was abolished the units were retitled, the unit was retitled 2nd Devonshire RGA (Volunteers) on 1 January 1902. A new cadet corps was formed at Plymouth and Mannamead College in 1900, but was transferred to the 2nd (Prince of Wales's) Volunteer Battalion, Devonshire Regiment in 1907.
Territorial Force
When the Volunteers were subsumed into the new Territorial Force (TF) under the Haldane Reforms of 1908, the 2nd Devonshire RGA became simply the Devonshire RGA as a Defended Ports unit with the following composition: HQ at Lambhay Hill, Plymouth No 1 Heavy Battery at Drill Hall, Avenue Road, Ilfracombe, with Left Section detached at Lynmouth No 2 Heavy Battery at Devonport, with detachments at Plympton and Salcombe Nos 3 & 4 Companies at Plymouth Nos 5 & 6 Companies at Devonport
Until 1908, the battery at Ilfracombe (two new 6-inch breechloading guns were installed at Beacon Point in 1905) had been the responsibility of No 10 Battery of the 1st Devonshire RGA (V), which was converted into a field artillery unit under the Haldane Reforms.
The companies were responsible for manning the batteries of fixed coastal guns, while the heavy batteries were mobile and responsible for the landward defences (TF heavy batteries were usually armed with obsolescent 4.7-inch guns).
World War I
The unit was mobilised in the South Western Coast Defences on the outbreak of World War I in August 1914, and raised two additional companies, Nos 1 & 2. Although the unit did not serve overseas, it is probable that volunteers did serve with other RGA units, and there is a memorial to men of the unit who died during the war.
On the outbreak of World War I, together with Nos 36 and 45 Companies of the Regular RGA in the Eastern Section and Nos 38 and 41 Companies in the Western Section, the Devonshire RGA manned the following coast guns in the Plymouth defences: 8 x 9.2-inch 13 x 6-inch 3 x 4.7-inch 15 x 12-pounders