ABSTRACT
Regimental history It was only in 1716 that the British army acquired a permanent force of artillery. Up to that time artillery had been raised for any particular campaign by the signature of a royal warrant authorizing the establishment of a train of artillery. This was a time-consuming and ultimately impractical system, as proved by the Jacobite rebellion of 1715, when the train of artillery was not ready for service until after the suppression of the rebellion. In May 1716, therefore, it was authorized by royal warrant that a permanent artillery regiment should be raised, and two companies of field artillery were established at Woolwich. In 1722 these two companies were unified with the independent trains in Gibraltar and Minorca to form the Royal Regiment of Artillery. During the last three-quarters of the eighteenth century the regiment was expanded greatly, and from February 1793 was complemented by the Royal Horse Artillery, which was formed (initially as two troops, later batteries) in response to the increasingly mobile nature of that period's warfare, and the need to provide cavalry with heavy fire support. In 1801 the Royal Regiment of Artillery brought under its aegis the Royal Irish Artillery, which had been raised in 1755 as
