The Honourable Artillery Company

Star (Christchurch), Issue 18380, 4 February 1928, Page 17 (Supplement)

The Honourable Artillery Company

Britain s Oldest Regiment ... The" Fraternity or Guylde of Saint George."

THE WARATAIIS, the New South Wales Rugby football team, which has .just completed its tour of England, was highly privileged to be allowed the use of the grounds, for training purposes, of the historic Honourable Artillery Company, which can justly make the proud boast that it is the oldest regiment in the British Army. While it is known that various 'military societies existed in England before the time of Ilenry YJII., it is impossible to say when the first volunteer corps came into being. Until then the military force of the country was raised by the old feudal method, or were recruited at the time they were wanted. There were no regular troops beyond a few guards in castles, such as the Yeomen of the Guard at the Tower of London. However, in 1537. King Henry VIII. granted a charter to the “ Fraternity or Guylde of Saint George: Maisters and Rulars c i the said Science of Artillary as

aforesaid rehearsed ' for long-bowes, Cros-bowes and hand-gonnes.” This ancient corps is now the Honourable Artillery Company. It has always been a distinct association, and was at one time, during the Great Rebellion, for instance, a centre of instruction for the train-bands or militia of London. The regiment was at first formed as a special bodyguard for the Lord Mayor of London, and for a couple of centuries it continued to be so, until it was eventually absorbed into the military organisation of the country. It has recently equipped a platoon of pikemen in the uniform, weapons and armour of three hundred years ago. And these picturesque figures, with their steel morions and breastplates, and 18ft pikes, have frequently been seen at great civic functions. Nevertheless, they have a practical side, and scarlet and gold, and pike and sword will always be ready to give way to khaki and webb equipment, to rifle, bayonet and eighteen-pounder. The 11.A.C. consists of a battalion of infantry and a battery of artillery.,

It is the corps d’elite of the English Territorial Army. During the Great War, the unit saw some service as a unit, but was very soon withdrawn from the front to act as an officers’ training corps. Of the regular army, it might be said that its birthday was February 15, 1645, when there was a big concentration in Windsor Park, and the now familiar scarlet uniform made its first appearance. Then came Cromwell and the New Model Army, which proved itself a match for the best soldiers of Europe, and with Cromwell came the hatred of a standing army that has its result to this day in England in the Army (Annual) Act. When the Restoration came, the army, numbering about 80,000, was disbanded, all save one corps. Monk’s regiment of foot, now the Coldstream Guards, and at the same time Charles 11. raised a regiment of guards as household troops, now the Ist Grenadier Guards. But this was 1660, and the 11.A.C. was then over 120 years old. The Book of Remembrance. The late Lord Mayor, Sir Roland Blades, as one of the last public duties of his civic reign, unveiled the -memorial of the lion. Artillery Company, which for nearly four centuries has been intimately identified with the city. The ceremony, which was made part of the annual regimental church parade, took place in the recently restored and handsomely renovated church of St Botolph in Bishopsgrie. It was in this parish that the 11.A.C. first had its headquarters and drilled, from the times of Henry VIII. onwards, as a band of citizen archers,

and the association of the regiment with the church itself, though it began at a much later date, has now its chief outward symbol in the beautiful Chapel of St George. It is in this chapel that the impressively simple w 7 ar memorial has now been placed. Behind an ornamental screen, and in front of a side window w-hich is itself an earlier regimental memorial, there has been deposited for all time the Book of Remembrance, containing the names of the 1676 members of the H.A.C. w ho fell in the war, out of a full fighting strength of over 14,000. Every dav the book is to be reverently opened, every day a *iew page of it is to be turned, and in front of it an unobtrusive light is to be kept perpetually burning. Some 250 present officers and men, accompanied by their band, took part in the parade and formed the main congregation. The Lord Mayor attended in civic state, and with him, in addition to the Sheriffs, were the Alderman and Councillors of Bishopsgate ward and others representing the corporate life of the city. The Earl of Denbigh, as Colonel Commandant, was there to invite the chief magistrate to perform the unveiling, and amongst other high officers were MajorGeneral Tsacke (O.C. 56th Division, London Territorials), Lieutenant-Col-onel P. Forester (City of London Horse Artillery Brigade), Lieutenant-Colonel M. G. Douglas (in command of the parade). Lieutenant-Colonel P. R. Simner. Lieutenant-Colonel W. Evans, and Captain R. A. Robinson (quartermaster). Empire significance was added to the occasion, a fact noted by the hon. chaplain in his address, by ‘l.o