85 (Ulster) Signal Squadron was a military communications unit of the

British Territorial Army The Army Reserve is the active-duty volunteer reserve force of the British Army. It is separate from the Regular Reserve whose members are ex-Regular personnel who retain a statutory liability for service. The Army Reserve was known as the Ter ...

, which formed part of the

Royal Corps of Signals The Royal Corps of Signals (often simply known as the Royal Signals – abbreviated to R SIGNALS or R SIGS) is one of the combat support arms of the British Army. Signals units are among the first into action, providing the battlefield communi ...

. The squadron was one of four signal squadrons which formed part of 40th (Ulster) Signal Regiment until its disbandment in 2009.

Formation

On 1 April 1947, 107th (Ulster) Independent Infantry Brigade was formed as the first Territorial Army (TA) brigade in

Northern Ireland Northern Ireland ( ga, Tuaisceart Éireann ; sco, label= Ulster-Scots, Norlin Airlann) is a part of the United Kingdom, situated in the north-east of the island of Ireland, that is variously described as a country, province or region. Nort ...

. The new brigade oversaw all TA troops in

(except those of

Anti-Aircraft Command Anti-Aircraft Command (AA Command, or "Ack-Ack Command") was a British Army command of the Second World War that controlled the Territorial Army anti-aircraft artillery and searchlight formations and units defending the United Kingdom. Origin ...

and coastal defence/regular units). 107th (Ulster) Independent Infantry Brigade Signal Squadron was formed shortly after to provide communications support to the brigade and its subordinate units.Lord & Watson, pp. 184–185. In 1959 the

went through an internal reorganisation, in which the numbering system in-place was completely revamped. This would bring the corps in-line with the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

and

Royal Engineers The Corps of Royal Engineers, usually called the Royal Engineers (RE), and commonly known as the ''Sappers'', is a corps of the British Army. It provides military engineering and other technical support to the British Armed Forces and is heade ...

, which this reform was mostly based on. Troops of the TA within the corps were also reorganised along these same lines, in which all TA signal units below the level of divisional signal regiments became numbered in the 300 series. As part of this change, the squadron was retitled as 302 Signal Squadron. In 1961 when the TA was reduced and reorganised, the squadron added a prefix for their role, becoming 302 Signal Squadron (Infantry Brigade Group), though its role remained the same through these changes.

Post-1967

Finally, in 1967 as part of the

1966 Defence White Paper The 1966 Defence White Paper (Command Papers 2592 and 2901) was a major review of the United Kingdom's defence policy initiated by the Labour government under Prime Minister Harold Wilson. The review was led by the Secretary of State for Defence, ...

, the Territorial Army, and former Army Emergency Reserve (AER) were both disbanded and completely reorganised along new organisational lines. This resulted in the disbandment of all signal regiments, which were concurrently reduced to squadrons, adopting their old regimental number. One of the new regiments was 40th (Ulster) Signal Regiment, which was formed through the amalgamation of the 66th (City of Belfast) Signal Regiment, 81st Signal Regiment (AER) and ''302 Signal Squadron (Infantry Brigade Group)''. This new regiment consisted of a regimental headquarters, pipes and drums, and four squadrons, later reduced to just three. 302 Signal Squadron was itself redesignated as 85 (Ulster) Signal Squadron based in Clanover Park,

Belfast Belfast ( , ; from ga, Béal Feirste , meaning 'mouth of the sand-bank ford') is the capital and largest city of Northern Ireland, standing on the banks of the River Lagan on the east coast. It is the 12th-largest city in the United Kingdo ...

and

Lurgan Lurgan () is a town in County Armagh, Northern Ireland, near the southern shore of Lough Neagh. Lurgan is about south-west of Belfast and is linked to the city by both the M1 motorway and the Belfast–Dublin railway line. It had a population ...

.Watson & Rinaldi, p. 145.Drenth, p. 66. In the squadron's role as part of 40th Signal Regiment, they would provide rear communications support to I (British) Corps in

West Germany West Germany is the colloquial term used to indicate the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG; german: Bundesrepublik Deutschland , BRD) between its formation on 23 May 1949 and the German reunification through the accession of East Germany on 3 O ...

if mobilised. Eventually, as part of the 1998 Strategic Defence Review, the TA was again revamped and massively reduced. Although the squadron's role and size didn't change, it did gain a new lineage becoming 85 (Ulster and Antrim Artillery) Signal Squadron through the disbandment of the 74th (Antrim Artillery) Engineer Regiment. The squadron also moved location to Bangor, the location of the old 74th (AA) Engineer Regt's headquarters.

Disbandment

In 2009 as part of the wider reorganisation of the

, many of the old TA signal regiments were reduced to squadron size much like the 1966 reorganisations. Because of the removal of the old signal equipment, four regiments were disbanded, including 40th (Ulster) Signal Regiment. As part of the changes, the squadrons in these regiments were reduced to troops (platoon sized), with 40th (Ulster) Signal Regiment becoming 40 (Ulster) Signal Squadron in

and

Newtownards Newtownards is a town in County Down, Northern Ireland. It lies at the most northern tip of Strangford Lough, 10 miles (16 km) east of Belfast, on the Ards Peninsula. It is in the Civil parishes in Ireland, civil parish of Newtownard ...

. This marked the disbandment of the squadron, and its lineage transferred to 591 (Antrim) Independent Field Squadron in the

, causing it to gain (Antrim Artillery) as their new subtitle.Watson & Rinaldi, p. 322. In 2018, 40 (Ulster) Signal Squadron was reduced to 840 (Ulster) Signal Troop, and 69 (North Irish Horse) Signal Squadron redesignated as 40 (NIH) Sig Sqn in the same location. 40 Signal Squadron's headquarters are today in Clanover Park,

the old location of 85 Signal Squadron.

Uniform

On formation, the squadron adopted a unique uniform which consisted of the standard

uniform in addition to the following: dark blue

Caubeen The caubeen is an Irish beret, formerly worn by peasants.Terence Patrick Dolan: A Dictionary of Hiberno-English. Gill and MacMillan, Dublin. 1999. William Carleton: Willy Reilly, 1856, Chap. XIII, etc. It has been adopted as the head dress ...

with a hackle incorporated the corps colours.

Cadet affiliations

The squadron maintained a number of cadet affiliations: * Bangor Detachment,

Army Cadet Force The Army Cadet Force (ACF), generally shortened to Army Cadets, is a national youth organisation sponsored by the United Kingdom's Ministry of Defence and the British Army. Along with the Sea Cadet Corps and the Air Training Corps, the ACF mak ...

* Dundonald Detachment, Army Cadet Force * Bangor Grammar School Combined Cadet Force

Footnotes

Notes Citations

References

* Wienand Drenth, ''The Territorial Army 1967–2000'', 2000, Einhoven, Kingdom of the Netherlands. * * {{Cite book, last=Graham E. Watson, first=and Richard A. Rinaldi, title=The Corps of Royal Engineers: Organization and Units 1889–2018, publisher=Tiger Lilly Books, year=2018, isbn=978-1717901804, location=United Kingdom Military units and formations established in 1947 Military units and formations disestablished in 2009 Squadrons of the Royal Corps of Signals Military units and formations in Northern Ireland Military history of Northern Ireland