The II (or 2nd) Wessex Brigade was a howitzer unit of the Royal Field Artillery in Britain's Territorial Force (TF) that was formed on the Isle of Wight in 1908. It served in India and the Middle East during World War I, one of its batteries being captured at the Siege of Kut in Mesopotamia in 1916, and another seeing active service in the Third Afghan War of 1919. Although reformed after the war, the unit was broken up in 1927.
Origin
When the Volunteer Force was subsumed into the Territorial Force (TF) in 1908 under the Haldane Reforms, the 2nd Hampshire Royal Garrison Artillery (Volunteers) was reorganised to provide two Royal Field Artillery (RFA) brigades for the TF's new Wessex Division: the I (or 1st) Wessex Brigade at Southsea (from HQ and Nos 1–8 Companies) and the IV (or 4th) Wessex Brigade on the Isle of Wight (from Nos 10 and 11 Companies). Generally, the fourth RFA brigade in each TF division was equipped with howitzers, and the Wessex was no exception. However, by 1910 seniority had been asserted, and the IV Wessex was redesignated II Wessex (Howitzer) Brigade, RFA, with the following organisation: Headquarters (HQ) at Ryde, Isle of Wight (IoW) 4th Hampshire (Howitzer) Battery at Zig-Zag Road, Ventnor, IoW 5th Hampshire (Howitzer) Battery at Freshwater, IoW, with a drill station at Drill Hall Road, Newport, IoW 2nd Wessex (Howitzer) Ammunition Column at Ryde
Each TF howitzer battery was equipped with four obsolescent 5-inch howitzers. On the eve of World War I the brigade was commanded by Lieutenant-Colonel H.L. Powell, a retired Regular Army major.
World War I
Mobilisation
On 29 July 1914 the Wessex Division was on Salisbury Plain carrying out its annual training camp when 'precautionary orders' were received, and next day the division took up emergency war stations in Somerset, Devon and Cornwall. The order to mobilise arrived on the evening of 4 August. Between 10 and 13 August the division concentrated on Salisbury Plain and began war training.
On 24 September, at the special request of the Secretary of State for War, Earl Kitchener of Khartoum the Wessex Division accepted liability for service in British India to relieve the Regular Army units there for service on the Western Front. The division's infantry battalions and artillery brigades (without their brigade ammunition columns) embarked at Southampton on 8 October and were convoyed to Bombay, disembarking on 9 November. Each battery went ashore with 5 officers and 140 other ranks. The battalions and batteries were immediately distributed to garrisons across India, and the Wessex Division never saw service as a whole, though it was formally numbered the 43rd (1st Wessex) Division in 1915.
Meanwhile, those men who had been left behind, together with the recruits who were flooding in, formed reserve or 2nd Line units, the titles of which were the same as the original, but distinguished by a '2/' prefix. The 2/II Wessex Brigade formed immediately after the 1st Line sailed for India. Recruitment and training for the 2nd Wessex Division proceeded so quickly that on 25 November it was decided to send that to India as well, and most units embarked on 12 December 1914, becoming the 45th (2nd Wessex) Division in 1915. However, the 2/II Wessex Brigade was one of the units left behind in England.
1/II Wessex (H) Brigade
On arrival in India the 1/II Wessex (H) Brigade was stationed at Lucknow and reverted to peacetime conditions. By early 1915 the need was growing for troops to be sent to various theatres of war, and the first units of the 1st Wessex Division to go on active service were 1/5th Hampshire (H) Battery and 1/4th Battalion Hampshire Regiment, which were sent to Mesopotamia in March.