Royal Horse Artillery in the Second World War

This article looks at the Royal Horse Artillery during the Second World War. The page will explain what a regiment of the Royal Horse Artillery was, how the unit was structured and how to research both the units and those who served with them. This is one of a series of articles I’ve written to help you in your research:

I also offer a Second World War Soldier Research and Document Copying Service.

The Royal Horse Artillery in the Second World War

The Royal Horse Artillery was the most senior arm of the Royal Artillery which historically had provided artillery support to the cavalry. However, by the outbreak of the war, most of the British Army’s cavalry regiments had been mechanised, so the regiments of the Royal Horse Artillery were instead used to provide artillery support to armoured formations. There were only fourteen regiments during the war and each armoured division usually had two serving with them. For example, the 2nd and 11th Regiments spent the period between 24 August 1942 and 26 September 1944 serving with the 1st Armoured Division. However, the regiments were also used as corps and general headquarters troops. The equivalent unit in an infantry division was a field regiment which could also be found serving with armoured divisions.

Each Royal Horse Artillery regiment was commanded by a Lieutenant-Colonel with a Major as second-in-command. At the start of the war, a regiment was divided into a headquarters and two batteries. Each battery was divided into a battery headquarters and two troops, with each troop divided into a headquarters and two sections. Each battery had eight guns, giving a total strength of sixteen guns. Therefore, a regiment had:

  • One Headquarters
  • Two Batteries
  • Two Battery Headquarters
  • Four Troop Headquarters
  • Four Troops
  • Eight Sections
  • Sixteen Guns

During the war, the 25-pounder was used by regiments of the Royal Horse Artillery, though shortly before the outbreak of war the 3.7-inch howitzer was also used. All regiments had been mechanised prior to the outbreak of war.

Researching a Royal Horse Artillery Regiment

The most important document to research a regiment of the Royal Horse Artillery is its war diary. A war diary was written by an officer of a regiment and recorded its location and activities. They often contain appendices in the form of maps, orders, battle reports, etc. and are held at the National Archives in London. I offer a copying service for these documents. There may also be battery war diaries, though, there’s usually not a complete set. If you want to know what batteries served with a regiment, you can either consult an order or battle or look at one of its war diaries. There are also a small number of Royal Horse Artillery regiment light aid detachment and signal section war diaries. The first war diary of each Royal Horse Artillery regiment is listed below along with a link to its National Archives’ catalogue entry.

The extract below was taken from The Monthly Army List May 1939 which is a good pre-war resource for finding out where a regiment or troop of the Royal Horse Artillery was stationed. There were seven regiments of the Royal Horse Artillery at the time, along with four detached batteries. The three regular regiments were numbered 1st to 3rd while the four territorial units were the 11th (Honourable Artillery Company and City of London Yeomanry), 104th (Essex Yeomanry), 106th (Lancashire Yeomanry), and 107th (The South Nottinghamshire Hussars Yeomanry) Regiments. The Monthly Army Lists covering the period between January 1937 and May 1939 can be viewed and downloaded from the National Library of Scotland’s website. There are a few later editions but they aren’t of much use due to censorship unless you’re researching an officer. An important source for the inter-war years, is the Royal Artillery’s monthly journal The Gunner. This journal has a section where units serving in Britain or abroad could write in to report on their activities. Not all units appeared each month.

Royal Horse Artillery Locations May 1939 Army List

Another source of information for the Second World War is the war diary of the Commander Royal Artillery (C.R.A.) of the division a regiment was serving with. If a regiment was serving as corps troops, there will be a Corps Commander Royal Artillery (C.C.R.A.) war diary to consult. A unit’s war diary will often record which formation a regiment was serving with. Below is an extract from a field return of officers form the war diary of the 5th Regiment which shows it was serving with III Corps. You can also find out which formation a unit was serving with by consulting orders of battle at the National Archives. The easiest way to find out a regiment’s formation is to consult Orders of Battle: Second World War 1939-1945 by Lieutenant-Colonel H. F. Joslen which has been reprinted by the Naval and Military Press.

Royal Horse Artillery Regiment Field ReturnThe first war diary of each Royal Horse Artillery regiment are listed below with hyperlinks to their entry in the National Archives’ catalogue.

1st Regiment Royal Horse Artillery

On 21 November 1940, the 1st Regiment Royal Horse Artillery was stationed at Rudgwick, Horsham, Sussex.

  • Date: September 1939 – April 1940
  • Reference: WO 167/461
  • Notes:

2nd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery

On 21 November 1940, the 2nd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery was stationed at Rushden, Northamptonshire.

  • Date: September 1939 –  April 1940
  • Reference: WO 167/463
  • Notes:

3rd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery

  • Date: September 1939 – May 1940, then August – December 1940
  • Reference: WO 169/245
  • Notes:

4th Regiment Royal Horse Artillery

  • Date: September 1939 – May 1940, then August – December 1940
  • Reference: WO 169/246
  • Notes:

5th Regiment Royal Horse Artillery

On 21 November 1940, the 5th Regiment Royal Horse Artillery was stationed at Silsden, Keighley, Yorkshire.

  • Date: 09 November 1939 – 30 March 1940, then July – December 1941
  • Reference: WO 166/1457
  • Notes: There are a wide variety of appendices including documents relating to the formation of the Regiment and a list of those recommended for a mentioned in despatches.

6th Regiment Royal Horse Artillery

  • Date: November 1940 – December 1941
  • Reference: WO 166/1460
  • Notes:

11th Regiment Royal Horse Artillery

On 21 November 1940, the 11th Regiment Royal Horse Artillery was stationed at Abinger Hall, Abinger Hammer, Dorking, Surrey.

  • Date: March 1940 – August 1941
  • Reference: WO 166/1461
  • Notes:

12th Regiment Royal Horse Artillery

On 21 November 1940, the 12th Regiment Royal Horse Artillery was stationed at New House, Kingston Bagpuize, Abingdon.

  • Date: June 1939 – December 1941
  • Reference: WO 166/1462
  • Notes:

13th Regiment Royal Horse Artillery

On 21 November 1940, the 13th Regiment Royal Horse Artillery was stationed at Denbigh.

  • Date: November 1940 – December 1941, February 1941 is missing
  • Reference: WO 166/1463
  • Notes:

14th Regiment Horse Artillery

102nd Regiment Royal Horse Artillery

  • Date: January – October 1941
  • Reference: WO 169/1433
  • Notes:

104th Regiment Royal Horse Artillery

  • Date: September 1939 – December 1940
  • Reference: WO 169/247
  • Notes:

106th Regiment Royal Horse Artillery

  • Date: September 1939 – November 1940
  • Reference: WO 169/248
  • Notes:

107th Regiment Royal Horse Artillery

  • Date: September 1939 – December 1940
  • Reference: WO 169/249
  • Notes:

Researching a Soldier who Served in the Royal Horse Artillery

The most important document to research a soldier who served with the Royal Horse Artillery is their service record. A service record should list all the units a soldier served with which will allow you to find the correct unit war diaries. Often, the troop a soldier was serving in was recorded rather than just the regiment. Though, troops were sometimes detached. In addition to the units a soldier served with, a service record will provide a wide variety of information that isn’t recorded elsewhere from a description on enlistment to their promotion dates. By combining a soldier’s service record with the war diaries of the unit/s he served with, you can usually build up a comprehensive history of their service during the war.

As there were only fourteen Royal Horse Artillery regiments during the war, you may be able to work out which one the soldier you’re researching served with if you already have a lot of information. This is especially the case if you’re researching an officer, as they frequently appear in war diaries. When a regiment was abroad, you’ll usually find a Field Return of Officers completed each week listing the officers serving with the regiment. The extract below is from the 3rd Regiment’s Field Return of Officers dated 10 March 1945. Not every column on the form has been filled out, with “Personal Number” and “Date taken on Strength” left blank. The latter column is particularly useful as it allows you to quickly trace an officer’s service with the unit. The date an officer was commissioned and subsequent promotion dates can be found by searching the London Gazette or viewing Army Lists.

Royal Horse Artillery Field Return of Officers

There are only a small number of digitized resources available online for researching soldiers who served in the British Army during the Second World War. Fortunately, a lot of them relate to those who served with the Royal Artillery. The most important are the Royal Artillery Tracer Cards, 1939-1948 which have been digitized by Ancestry. There are over 300,000 tracer cards but many soldiers who don’t have one. A tracer card will record which unit a soldier was serving with allowing you to start your research into them without viewing their service record. They can be quite hard to read, so use my page on abbreviations and acronyms. A service record will contain a lot more information than is found on a tracer card.


Another important source of information is the Royal Artillery attestation records covering the period between 1883 and about mid-1942. These are available on Findmypast and cover soldiers who served in the ranks rather than as officers. Unfortunately, from about 1929 onwards, the amount of information they record decreases. Instead of providing a wide variety of information, date and place of attestation, trade on enlistment etc., from this date only three columns appeared. The first recorded a soldier’s army number, the second their name in full and the third titled “Transfers to other Corps or cause of becoming non-effective and record of re-enlistment (if any) (Including date)”. Sometimes, additional information is recorded and a soldier’s initial unit may be written in pencil in the army number column.

FindmyPast also has the Royal Artillery Other Ranks Casualty Cards 1939-1947 for soldiers who died. In most cases, these cards won’t provide much more additional information than what is found in a soldier’s casualty list or Commonwealth War Graves Commission entry. The documents are divided up into two parts with the first having eight columns: Army number, Rank, Name in full, age, country of birth, date of death, place of death and cause of death. Part 2 had seven lines for: Decorations, parent corps at time of death or regiment on 1 September 1939, rank held at time of death, place of birth, place of domicile, date of death and theatre or country where fatal wound sustained or death occurred. Often, you’ll find not every part of the card has been filled out. Where the cards can be particularly useful is in the cause of death column if a soldier died from disease or in an accident, as specific information can be recorded. For example, malaria, accidental gunshot wound, sudden heart failure, road accident, etc.

An important source of information for soldiers who became casualties while serving with the Royal Horse Artillery are the British Army casualty lists. These documents are held at the National Archives but have been digitized and are available to search and download on Findmypast. They record soldiers who were killed, died of wounds, died, were wounded, went missing, were taken prisoner, and repatriated. The unit a soldier served with when they became a casualty was usually recorded but sometimes a soldier will just appear in a list of Royal Artillery casualties. Once you have the date a casualty occurred, you can turn to the regiment’s war diary to find out more information. If you’re researching a casualty it’s worthwhile searching the digitized British Newspaper Archive which is also available on Findmypast. Unfortunately, only a fraction of newspapers from 1939-1945 have been digitized but more are constantly being added.

If you’re researching a soldier who died serving with a regiment of the Royal Horse Artillery between 3 September 1939 and 31 December 1947, you can find where they are buried or commemorated on the Commonwealth War Graves Commission’s website. There will also be a variety of information including a soldier’s number, date of death if known, often their unit and sometimes which battery they were serving with. Other information often encountered includes any honours or gallantry awards, information relating to their next of kin and the epitaph on their grave if there was one.