RAAHC - On This Day


1871

Tuesday 1st August 1871

Permanent Artillery The ‘permanent’ component of the Regiment was formed on 1 August 1871, when the New South Wales Artillery was raised. A component of this regiment was later designated A Battery and continues in service to this day as a FT sub-unit of the Australian Army.¹ The following States raised permanent batteries in the years indicated: a. Victoria - 1870, b. New South Wales - 1871, c. South Australia - 1882, d. Queensland - 1885, and e. Tasmania - 1886. f. Western Australia – 1893. The RAA came into being on 14 July 1899 when the permanent artillery units of New South Wales, Queensland, and Victoria were granted the title ‘Royal’ by Her Majesty Queen Victoria, becoming colonial Regiments of the RAA.²

Notes:

1.	‘It must be noted here that A Field Battery was not the first permanent Artillery unit raised. This distinction as stated in the official history of the Australian Artillery, "The Gunners" by David Horner, can be claimed by the ‘Victorian Artillery Corps’, which was established in 1870. It was however reduced in 1881 and its subsequent lineage was not deemed to commence until it was reformed as a garrison artillery battery in 1882. For that reason all gunners accept that A Field Battery by virtue of its longevity and proud history perpetuates the longest continually serving Permanent artillery unit.