Durham Artillery Militia


The Durham Artillery Militia was a part-time reserve unit of Britain's Royal Artillery based in County Durham from 1853 to 1909. Volunteers from the unit served in the Second Boer War where they distinguished themselves fighting as infantry in the defence of Fort Prospect.

Background

The long-standing national Militia of the United Kingdom was revived by the Militia Act of 1852, enacted during a period of international tension. As before, units were raised and administered on a county basis, and filled by voluntary enlistment. Training was for 56 days on enlistment, then for 21–28 days per year, during which the men received full army pay. Under the Act, Militia units could be embodied by Royal Proclamation for full-time service in three circumstances:
The 1852 Act introduced Artillery Militia units in addition to the traditional infantry regiments. Their role was to man coastal defences and fortifications, relieving the Royal Artillery for active service.

History

Under the 1852 reorganisation, County Durham's quota was assessed as 2000 men, to consist of two infantry regiments and an artillery corps. The new artillery unit was raised in July 1853 as the Durham Artillery Militia, with four batteries. Its headquarters was at Bishop Auckland until 1861 when it moved to Hartlepool. A fifth battery was raised in 1874.
The Marquess of Londonderry, as Lord Lieutenant of the County Palatine of Durham, appointed Henry Stobart, a Half-pay Lieutenant in the RA, to be Captain Commandant of the Durham Artillery Militia on 20 July 1853, and he was promoted to Lieutenant-Colonel on 4 October 1854. Colonel Henry Stobart was the proprietor of Etherley Colliery, a director of the Stockton and Darlington Railway, and later of the North Eastern Railway. He remained in command until 6 September 1859 when he became Honorary Colonel and was succeeded as Lt-Col Commandant by Major George Hall of the Royal Lancashire Militia Artillery and formerly of the Madras Artillery.
The Artillery Militia was reorganised into 11 divisions of garrison artillery in 1882, and the Durham unit, with a sixth battery, became the senior Militia unit in the new Northern Division, taking the title of 2nd Brigade, Northern Division, RA. When the Northern Division was abolished in 1889 the title was altered to The Durham Artillery RA. The unit's HQ transferred from Hartlepool to Sunderland Barracks in 1895.
From 1902 most units of the Militia artillery formally became part of the Royal Garrison Artillery, the unit at Sunderland taking the title of The Durham RGA .

Embodiments

The Durham Artillery Militia was twice embodied for full-time service to release Regular RA units for overseas service:
Under the Militia Acts, units could also volunteer for overseas service. The Durham Artillery did so in 1900, and was one of the six Militia Artillery units permitted to form a Service Company of volunteers to serve in South Africa alongside the Regulars.
The service company of the Durham Artillery, consisting of five officers and 170 other ranks, sailed on 24 March 1900 and landed at Durban. On arrival they were combined with the service company of the Duke of Edinburgh's Own Edinburgh Artillery, the composite unit being designated the Durham & Edinburgh Division RGA, under the command of Lt-Col H.P. Ditmas of the Durham Artillery. Harold Ditmas was a solicitor and longtime auxiliary officer, first as a lieutenant with the 3rd Yorkshire Artillery Volunteers, later with the Durham Artillery, which he had commanded since 1895.
In July 1900 the composite company moved to Eshowe in Zululand, where they were engaged in preventing Boer border raids. In September a 3000-strong Boer Commando under Louis Botha threatened Zululand, and a 51-strong detachment of the company without guns was sent to Fort Prospect, near Melmoth, to prepare defences. Assisted by 35 men of B, Company, 5th Division Mounted Infantry, and all under the command of Capt A.C. Rowley of 2nd Battalion Dorsets, they dug trenches and constructed stone sangars.
At 04.15 on 26 September, the detachment at Fort Prospect were warned by a native that hundreds of Boers were on their way. Fifteen minutes later the position was attacked under cover of mist by 400–500 men of the Ermelo Commando or the Carolina Commando, led by General Cecil 'Cherry' Cheere Emmett. The brunt of the attack fell on two sangars on the north and west of the position held by the Durham Company acting as infantry. Although the Boers broke through the Wire obstacle and got within of the sangars, they held out and Rowley was able to repulse the attack with the aid of a Maxim gun. The Boers drew off at 06.30 and contented themselves with rifle fire against the completely surrounded fort. A second attack at 10.00 got as far as the rear trench where they were driven off by Serjeant F. Doyle's party. About that time a party of 14 Nongqayi under Serjeant Gumbi fought their way through the Boer lines to join the defenders. The Boer fire slackened off towards evening, and they withdrew at about 18.30.
One Bombardier and five gunners of the Durham Artillery were wounded in this action. Lieutenant-General Neville Lyttelton recommended Lt R.G.M. Johnson for the Distinguished Service Order and Sjt Doyle and two Bombardiers of the battery for the Distinguished Conduct Medal for their actions, but these awards were not made. However, all four were later Mentioned in dispatches. Later in the war, Lt-Col Ditmas, Major James Gowans, Capt Hugh Streatfeild and Company Serjeant Major O'Neill of the Durham Artillery were also mentioned in dispatches, and Maj Gowans was awarded a DSO at the end of the war.

Disbandment

After the Boer War, the future of the Militia was called into question. There were moves to reform the Auxiliary Forces to take their place in the six Army Corps proposed by St John Brodrick as Secretary of State for War. Some batteries of Militia Artillery were to be converted to field artillery. However, little of Brodrick's scheme was carried out.
Under the sweeping Haldane Reforms of 1908, the Militia was replaced by the Special Reserve, a semi-professional force whose role was to provide reinforcement drafts for Regular units serving overseas in wartime. Although the majority of the officers and men of the Durham RGA accepted transfer to the Special Reserve Royal Field Artillery, all these units were disbanded in March 1909.
In World War I, Ditmas was re-employed as a Temporary Lt-Col until 1917.

Equipment

Although the 19th Century role of the Militia Artillery was usually to man guns in fixed fortifications, photographs of the Durham RGA at its annual training camp at Southsea in 1906 show the men working with horsedrawn 4.7-inch heavy guns, as was being done with the Volunteer batteries in Brodrick's scheme.

Honorary Colonels

The following served as Honorary Colonel of the unit: