97 Battery (Lawson's Company) Royal Artillery

97 Battery (Lawson's Company) Royal Artillery was formed on 13 September 1803 as Captain H. Douglas's Company, 8th Battalion Royal Artillery and is currently a tac battery within 4th Regiment Royal Artillery based in Alanbrooke Barracks, Topcliffe, North Yorkshire. The battery was until recently a gun battery but was reduced to a tactical or tac battery in 2013 following its last operational tour of Afghanistan. It is now one of three tac batteries that call in artillery fire from 4th Regiment Royal Artillery's two remaining gun batteries. The battery has been known by a variety of names during its existence and moved between different Royal Artillery Regiments or Battalions due to reorganisations of the Royal Regiment of Artillery and changes in role. In the First World War it fought as 87th (Howitzer) Battery, Royal Field Artillery.

History

Formation and preparation for war

The battery was formed in 1803 as part of the newly formed 8th Battalion, Royal Regiment of Artillery during a period of expansion for the regiment. As was the custom at the time each of the battalion's new companies took the name of their company commander. The battery was first known as Captain Douglas's Company and stationed at Woolwich. It remained garrisoned at the Royal Arsenal until November 1805, after which it marched to Exeter and then onto Plymouth in May 1807. Captain T S Hughes then took command of the company for the subsequent embarkation to Gibraltar.

Captain Hughes' command did not last long as he died in Gibraltar on 18 May 1808, and was replaced by Captain Robert Lawson who was dispatched from England. The company was in the process of deploying to war for the first time and before their new commander could arrive and the company was split with half, under command of the 2nd Captain Captain H. T. Fauquier, being ordered to join a British force being sent to fight in Sicily. The remaining part of the company fell under the command of Captain W Morrison, and it was dispatched on the Transport Ship ''Hornby'' to Mondego Bay in Portugal as part of the British force being assembled there. The half of the unit sent to Sicily was never to rejoin them and was later absorbed into another Royal Artillery unit.

Peninsular War

Lawson's Company held the unique record of having been the only Royal Artillery unit to serve throughout the entire Peninsular War, from 1808 until 1814. At least three diaries of unit officers covering this period have survived until the present day, that of Captain Lawson himself, that of Lieutenant Ingilby and finally that of Captain Johnson.

Owing to the shortage of draught horses and stores, it was found impossible to equip this half company, so the 6-pounders were left in the stores at Mondego Bay. The officers and men made amends with some captured enemy pieces with the army advancing against the French towards Lisbon. The Company took part in the famous crossing of the Douro river, the capture of Porto, the pursuit of Marshal Soult's army to Braga and the desperate fight at the Battle of Talavera. On 27 and 28 July, during this battle the 2nd Captain, Taylor, was severely wounded and captured.

In the winter of 1809, the unit was based at Badajoz, however, the next year the Battery accompanied the now Lord Wellington in his campaign, which included the encounter at the Battle of Bussaco and also the retreat of the Lines of Torres Vedras. In 1811, Lawson advanced the company from the Lines and saw action at the Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro in May 1811. The battery was replenished six months later with 6-pounders, and fought a hard battle at Salamanca, suffering casualties whilst in action, and at the Siege of Burgos, before the retreat to Portugal. At the commencement of the 1813 campaign, Lawson's Company was part of the 6th Division.

During the advance of the Army that summer, it was alternatively with the 5th Division at the battle of Vittoria. The battery took part in the Siege of San Sebastián where Capt Johnson and a number of men from the unit were sent into the breach with the infantry in order to seize enemy artillery pieces. Capt Johnson's diary provides graphic details of this action. Lawson's Company – then equipped with 9-pounders – took part in the Passage of Bidassoa in October 1813, and in the battle of Nivelle. 2nd Captain Mosse was in command of the company when it repulsed the French attacks on 10 and 11 December. Captain Robert Lawson's Company, 8th Battalion Royal Artillery, left Spain on 22 July 1814 on board bound for Plymouth.

General duties 19th century

The post war period was a quiet one for the company. The company was not sent overseas to fight at the Waterloo, but moved in 1821 to Gibraltar and later to Corfu, then part of the British governed United States of the Ionian Islands. It was based there during the Greek War of Independence and a period of tense relations with the Ottoman Empire which lead to a number of engagements at sea in the area. The company afterwards was stationed at Woolwich, Leith, Bermuda, Ireland and Ceylon, before returning to Woolwich in 1856. On the introduction of the brigade system, the company was converted into a field battery as 'H' Battery, 8 Brigade in 1861. It then went to India in 1867.

Ten years later, the Company became 'H' Battery, 3 Brigade Royal Artillery, and in 1884 was converted into a Depot Field Battery for 3 Brigade Royal Field Artillery at Hillsea. Only later, in 1895, did the Company recover its status as a service battery under the designation of 87 Field Battery Royal Artillery. The battery was deploy to South Africa for the Boer War in December 1900 and saw action Eastern Transvaal mostly in sections or single guns working with small mobile columns. In 1914 the Battery – then equipped as a howitzer battery and based in Ireland – was deployed to France again with XII (12th) Brigade.

World War I

Known as 87 Battery Royal Field Artillery, and based in Ireland, when the First World War broke out the battery were immediately mobilised along with the rest of 12th (Howitzer) Brigade Royal Field Artillery, under the 6th Division. It spent the war fighting in the relatively small battlefields of France and Belgium, in extremely poor conditions in the trenches of the First Battle of the Aisne, Somme, Ypres, Cambrai and the Hindenburg Line. During the Battle of Aisne, the battery fired throughout the day and night for 48 hours in the Aisne heights. A month later, the Battle of Armentières began. In August 1915, the battery saw action at the Battle of Hooge. The battery then moved to fight in the Somme. In May 1916, 87 Battery was transferred from the 12th (Howitzer) Brigade Royal Field Artillery to the 2nd Brigade Royal Field Artillery. The Battery split again, one section was peeled off to form D Howitzer Battery after joining with another section from 43 Howitzer Battery. The Battery then fought in the Battle of the Somme on 15 September 1916 to the end on 22 April 1917.

Between 23 and 28 November, the battery supported units in the Capture of Bourbu Wood and continued to engage throughout the German counterattack from 30 November until 3 December. Between 21 and 22 March 1918, the battery returned to the Somme and helped win a crushing defeat on the Kaiser's army at the Battle of St. Quentin (1918). From there, it moved onto the Battle of the Lys, which started on 13 April. On 18 September, it moved to engage the enemy at the Battle of Épehy, and then to the Battle of St Quentin Canal on 24–30 September. It saw further action in the second Battle of Cambrai (1918), and what was to become known as the Battle of the Hindenburg Line, fighting with the Fourth Army, in the IX (9) Corps as part of 2nd Brigade Royal Field Artillery. 87 Field Battery took part in the Final Advance in Picardy, notably at the Battle of the Selle from 17 to 25 October 1918. During the war the battery was an early adopter of air land integration; working on several occasions with 6 Squadron Royal Flying Corps (now No. 6 Squadron RAF) who would support artillery spotting.

The Irish War of Independence

The battery returned to their barracks in Ireland just as the Irish War of Independence broke out and were involved in fighting the rebels as part of flying columns. At the end the conflict, it returned to the British mainland. In 1926, the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) branch of the Royal Artillery was amalgamated with the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) branch. As a result, all RFA and RGA battery's simply became Royal Artillery battery's. In the same year the battery applied for the honour title 'Lawson's Company' in recognition of its heroism and service during the Peninsular War. This was granted by order 20/Arty/4544/AG6a on 18 Oct 1926Page 89: ''Royal Regiment of Artillery; The Blue List 2015'', by Royal Regiment of Artillery. Royal Artillery, Larkhill, 2015. and the battery was from then on known as 87 Battery (Lawson's Company) Royal Artillery.

World War II

Between 1939 and 1940, the battery was in France as part of I Corps with the new 25-pounder guns. It was evacuated from Dunkirk

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