E Battery Royal Horse Artillery was formed as E Troop on 1 November 1794.[1]
19th century
E Troop saw action in the Peninsular War in 1811 and also at the Battle of Waterloo. Between 1815 and 1856, the Troop saw service in England, Ireland and the Crimea. In 1859 Troops of the Royal Horse Artillery were designated as Batteries. By this time E Troop had been renamed D Troop. A further reorganisation of the artillery took place in 1877; D Troop was re-designated as E Battery RHA. In 1878, E Battery was deployed to the Second Afghan War.[2] The brigade system was finally abolished on 1 July 1889. Henceforth, batteries were designated in a single alphabetical sequence in order of seniority from date of formation.[3] Lieutenant Colonel Sherwood Dighton Browne, the Commanding Officer of 3rd Brigade, comprising D and E batteries, and his subordinates were at the Artillery Barracks, Chapeltown Road, Leeds as at the time of the 1911 census.[4]
World War I
The 13-pounder gun that fired the first British artillery round on the Western front leaves the Imperial War Museum to take part in the unveiling of the Royal Artillery Memorial in October 1925
In 1914, E Battery was sent to France as part of the BEF, equipped with QF 13-pounder guns. At 0930 hours on 22 August 1914, northeast of Harmignies in Belgium, No. 4 gun of E Battery fired the first British artillery rounds on the Western Front in World War I,[5] E Battery went on to fight in many of the battles on the Western Front and then joined the Army of Occupation.[6]
Between the World Wars
E Battery moved to India in 1926. In 1938, E Battery merged with the A Battery to form A/E Battery prior to the formation of 1 RHA.[7]
In 1946, E Battery deployed to Egypt and later The Battery went to Palestine. Between 1952 and 1965, E Battery was stationed in Germany. By 1965, E Battery deployed to the Aden Protectorate.[9] In 1990, the Battery provided soldiers for a combined A/B/E Battery which fought in the Gulf War.[9] Later, in 1992, E Battery moved to Assaye Barracks in Tidworth Camp and converted to the AS-90 artillery gun. In the late 1990s, E Battery deployed on to the Balkans.[9] In 2004, E Battery deployed on Operation Telic 4 to Basra, Iraq to train the Iraqi Border Police.[9] By 2005, E Battery deployed to Cyprus for UNFICYP operations[9] and in 2009, the Battery deployed as part of Operation Herrick 11 while in 2013, E Battery deployed as part of Operation Herrick 18.[9]
Future
Under the Army 2020 plan, the battery re-roled from a light gun battery to an AS-90 battery.[10]
Current Role
E Battery is currently a Close Support Battery which uses the AS-90Self-propelled artillery Guns. The Battery is sub-divided into four troops:
Gardiner's Troop: (Gun Troop)
Salamanca Troop: (Gun Troop)
Waterloo Troop: (Echelon Troop)
Mons Troop: (Observation Party Troop (Fire Support Teams and Joint Fires Cell)
^Tylden, G. (1 December 1964). "A Contemporary Account of E Battery, B Brigade, Royal Horse Artillery, at Maiwand, Afghanistan on 27 July 1880". Journal of the Society for Army Historical Research. 42 (172): 182–186. JSTOR44235031.
Clarke, W.G. (1993). Horse Gunners: The Royal Horse Artillery, 200 Years of Panache and Professionalism. Woolwich: The Royal Artillery Institution. ISBN09520762-0-9.
