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Overview

The Royal Artillery Museum’s archive and library covers 300 over years of the Royal Regiment’s history. The archive is wide-ranging, fascinating and a nationally important collection in its own right. It is of interest to anyone studying the history of the Gunners, of artillery development or more widely of warfare and society. 

The library contains over 30,000 books including military and social histories as well as military biographies and tactical treatises. The archive includes a large collection of war diaries as well as the papers of numerous famous Gunners, notably those of Major General Sir Alexander Dickson, the Duke of Wellington’s Siege Train commander. There is a wealth of drawings, both technical and illustrative, many produced by soldiers in war time, hand-drawn maps, photographs and slides relating to artillery through the ages.

We have recently transferred our archive to a new storage facility near Larkhill, and most records are now available for research purposes. 

They include:     

  • Battery Digests of Service (peace-time details of the activities of individual Batteries, c.1890-1939)
  • Annual Historical Returns (details of the activities of individual Batteries and Regiments c.1945 onwards)     
  • WWI War Diaries and WWII War Diaries         
  • The ‘MD’ collection (personal papers of former Gunners)         
  • The ‘AL’ collection (photos and photograph albums)
  • Gun Handbooks and Training Pamphlets
  • Gunner Magazine (1919 - current date)
  • Royal Artillery Journal (c.1860 – current date)
  • Royal Artillery News (1899-1970)
  • Royal Artillery Distribution List (1868-1938)
  • Regimental ‘Blue’ Officers’ Lists (early copies, from 1904)       
  • Establishment Lists

 If you have an enquiry relating to our archive, wish to use our research or copying service or would like to arrange a visit please contact the Archivist via our online form.

Please note that due to the current situation our team is working from home and it may take longer to reply to enquiries than usual. We also have extremely limited access to the collection and archive at this time.