Our collection of historical documents and other archive material is of great importance to anyone researching the history of the Royal Artillery or the men and women who have served in the Regiment. The records from official sources include military reports and establishment lists, as well as accounts completed by Royal Artillery units such as the WWI and WWII War Diaries, and the Battery Digests covering the pre-WWI and inter-War years. Records of particular use to family historians include the WW2 Tracer Cards, which, along with our other personnel-related records, have mostly been digitised.
The largest part of the Archive collection are the personal papers, letters home and memoirs donated to us by individual Gunners or their descendants. Among the most notable of these are the diaries of Alexander Dickson – Wellington’s head of artillery during the Peninsular War. However, the vast majority show the wide-ranging experiences of ordinary Gunners, from service in India in the 19th century to the trenches of WW1 and the jungles of Burma in WW2. We also have thousands of photographs, including some excellent albums put together by serving Gunners from different dates and showing many different parts of the World. As well as paper materials, we hold everything from photographic slides to film, video and various audio formats.
