The Manchester Artillery is a Volunteer unit of the British Army first raised in the City of Manchester in 1860, whose successors continue to serve in the Army Reserve today. It became a brigade of the Royal Field Artillery in the Territorial Force in 1908, and in World War I it served in Egypt in 1915–17 before being broken up. Its second line unit went to the Western Front in 1917, seeing action at Ypres, against the German Spring Offensive, and leading the pursuit in the Allies' victorious Hundred Days Offensive. Just before World War II the Manchester Artillery again formed a duplicate. While the parent regiment served in the Battle of France including the Dunkirk evacuation, and later in the Middle East and the Italian campaign, its duplicate fought in Normandy and North West Europe. Both regiments were reformed postwar, but after a number of amalgamations they and several other Manchester-based units were reduced into 209 (Manchester Artillery) Battery in the present-day Army Reserve.
Volunteer Force
The enthusiasm for the Volunteer movement following an invasion scare in 1859 saw the creation of many Volunteer Corps composed of part-time soldiers eager to supplement the Regular British Army in time of need. A large number of independent Artillery Volunteer Corps (AVCs) were formed across Lancashire, including the 19th (Manchester) AVC, formed as a subdivision in Manchester on 17 August 1860, becoming a full battery by the following month. It formed a 2nd Battery on 14 December 1860, a 3rd and 4th on 22 January 1861, and the 5th and 6th on 6 May 1863, when John Isaac Mawson (director of the Lancashire Steel Company and designer of Blackpool's Central Pier) was commissioned as Lieutenant-Colonel in command. While many smaller AVCs were grouped into administrative brigades, the 19th Lancashire was large enough to stand on its own, and the single-battery 15th (Garston and Hale) Lancashire AVC (formed at Garston, Liverpool on 2 April 1860) was attached to it between 1863 and 1867. The 1st (Manchester) Lancashire Light Horse Volunteers (formed on 22 March 1860 as the 1st Lancashire (Manchester) Mounted Rifle Volunteers) was also attached to the 19th AVC from 1871 until its disbandment in 1873.
On 4 February 1870 Lt-Col Mawson became the unit's Honorary Colonel and Major Thomas Sowler (a newspaper proprietor who had first joined the 19th AVC as a gunner) was promoted to lt-col to succeed him as commanding officer (CO). On 14 June 1876 Maj Ralph Peacock (of the Manchester locomotive manufacturers Beyer, Peacock & Company) was promoted to the command in turn (Sowler later succeeded Mawson as Hon Col). By this time the unit's headquarters (HQ) was given as Hyde Road, Manchester. When the Volunteers were consolidated in 1880 the 19th Lancashire AVC became the 7th Lancashire AVC, and the following year its full title became 7th Lancashire (The Manchester Artillery) AVC. The unit became part of the Lancashire Division of the Royal Artillery (RA) from 1 April 1882. When the RA's divisional structure was reorganised on 1 July 1889, the 7th Lancashire became part of the Southern Division.
As well as manning fixed garrison artillery, some of the early Artillery Volunteers manned semi-mobile 'position batteries' of smooth-bore field guns pulled by agricultural horses. But the War Office refused to pay for the upkeep of field guns for Volunteers and they had largely died out in the 1870s. In 1888 the 'position artillery' concept was revived and some Volunteer companies were reorganised as position batteries to work alongside the Volunteer infantry brigades. By 1890 the whole of the 7th Lancashire Volunteer Artillery was organised as position batteries. Lieutenant-Col Richard K. Birley took over as CO on 25 March 1891.
On 1 June 1899 all the Volunteer artillery units became part of the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) and with the abolition of the RA's divisional organisation on 1 January 1902, the unit became the 7th Lancashire (The Manchester Artillery) Royal Garrison Artillery (Volunteers). 'Position artillery' was redesignated 'heavy artillery' in May 1902.
Territorial Force
When the Volunteers were subsumed into the new Territorial Force (TF) under the Haldane Reforms of 1908, the unit became the II (or 2nd) East Lancashire Brigade, Royal Field Artillery (TF), consisting of the 15th, 16th and 17th Lancashire Batteries and the II East Lancashire Brigade Ammunition Column. The brigade formed part of the divisional artillery for the TF's East Lancashire Division and was equipped with four 15-pounder field guns to each battery From 23 March 1913 the brigade was commanded by Lt-Col Harry Sowler, son of Sir Thomas, the former Hon Col.