The Western Division, Royal Artillery, was an administrative grouping of garrison units of the Royal Artillery, Artillery Militia and Artillery Volunteers within the British Army's Western District from 1882 to 1902.
Organisation
Under General Order 72 of 4 April 1882 the Royal Artillery (RA) broke up its existing administrative brigades of garrison artillery (7th–11th Brigades, RA) and assigned the individual batteries to 11 new territorial divisions. These divisions were purely administrative and recruiting organisations, not field formations. Most were formed within the existing military districts into which the United Kingdom was divided, and for the first time associated the part-time Artillery Militia with the regulars. Shortly afterwards the Artillery Volunteers were also added to the territorial divisions. The Regular Army batteries were grouped into one brigade, usually of nine sequentially-numbered batteries and a depot battery. For these units the divisions represented recruiting districts – batteries could be serving anywhere in the British Empire and their only connection to brigade headquarters (HQ) was for the supply of drafts and recruits. The artillery militia units (sometimes referred to as regiments) already comprised a number of batteries, and were redesignated as brigades, losing their county titles in the process. The artillery volunteers, which had previously consisted of numerous independent Artillery Volunteer Corps (AVC) of various sizes, sometimes grouped into administrative brigades, had been consolidated into larger AVCs in 1881, which were now affiliated to the appropriate territorial division.
Composition 1882–89
Western Division, RA, listed seventh in order of precedence, was organised within Western District with the following composition:
Headquarters (HQ) at Plymouth
1st Brigade
HQ at Devonport
1st Bty at Fort Carlisle, Cork Harbour – formerly 19th Bty, 7th Bde
2nd Bty at Spike Island, Cork Harbour – formerly 8th Bty, 8th Bde
3rd Bty at Camden Fort, Cork Harbour – formerly 19th Bty, 10th Bde
4th Bty at Devonport – formerly 20th Bty, 7th Bde
5th Bty at Gwalior – formerly 2nd Bty, 8th Bde
6th Bty at Morar Cantonment – formerly 12th Bty, 9th Bde
7th Bty at St Helena – formerly 10th Bty, 7th Bde
8th Bty at Cape of Good Hope – formerly 8th Bty, 7th Bde
9th Bty at Mauritius – formerly 11th Bty, 7th Bde** 10th Bty – new Bty formed 1887 Depot Bty at Devonport – formerly Depot Bty, 8th Bde 2nd Brigade at Falmouth – formerly Cornwall and Devon Miners Artillery Militia (4 btys) 3rd Brigade at Devonport – formerly Devon Artillery Militia (5 btys) 1st Devonshire Artillery Volunteers at Exeter 2nd Devonshire Artillery Volunteers at Devonport 1st Cornwall (Duke of Cornwall's) Artillery Volunteers at Bodmin
Reorganisation 1889–1902
In 1889 the garrison artillery was reorganised again into three large territorial divisions of garrison artillery and one of mountain artillery. The names of the divisions seemed arbitrary, with the Scottish units being grouped in the Southern Division, for example, but this related to where the need for coastal artillery was greatest, rather than where the units recruited. The artillery militia units regained their county designations. From 1 August 1891 garrison artillery batteries were termed companies, and some were grouped into double companies at this time before reverting to their previous numbers in March 1894. HQ at Devonport