The Royal Artillery Mounted Rifles are detachments of the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

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 ...

when deployed as

mounted infantry Mounted infantry were infantry who rode horses instead of marching. The original dragoons were essentially mounted infantry. According to the 1911 ''Encyclopædia Britannica'', "Mounted rifles are half cavalry, mounted infantry merely specially m ...

. The unit was first developed towards the end of the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the Sout ...

which was characterised by guerrilla warfare. There was little call for traditional units of field or horse artillery but high demand for mounted infantrymen to counter the highly mobile

Boer commando The Boer Commandos or "Kommandos" were volunteer military units of guerilla militia organized by the Boer people of South Africa. From this came the term "commando" into the English language during the Second Boer War of 1899-1902 as per Costica ...

s. By the end of the war around 2,000 artillerymen were acting in the mounted infantry role. A similar force was deployed to Ireland in the early 1920s to counter guerrilla tactics used by Irish republicans.

Second Boer War

The final year of the

(1899–1902) was characterised by guerrilla warfare fought between mounted

s and British mobile columns. With little use for heavy calibre weaponry in such an environment both sides stood down much of their artillery units. With a large number of artillerymen gathering at depots awaiting return to England or deployment on garrison duty in India, British commander Lord Kitchener decided to form them into units of

. The artillerymen were suited to this task as they were trained to a good standard of horsemanship and tended to be of above average intelligence and discipline. Additional rifle shooting practice was arranged for the men, as this was not usually a core aspect of their training. The Royal Artillery Mounted Rifles were formed into independent columns of around 750 men commanded by a Royal Artillery lieutenant-colonel. One such column was commanded by

Thomas Baldock Major-General Thomas Stanford Baldock (January 1854 – August 1937) was a British Army officer. Military career Baldock was born Portsea, Portsmouth, Hampshire, in January 1854, the son of William Baldock. Ater being educated at Cheltenham Col ...

, who would later become a Major-General. In addition to mounted infantry the columns contained a light pom-pom artillery unit and their own signals and scout sections. The men were not issued with swords and so relied on rifles with fixed bayonets when required to carry out cavalry-style charges. The units remained under the administration of the

Royal Regiment of 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 ...

who retained responsibility for forming and equipping the units, supply, remounts, staffing and signals. The columns were particularly active in the final six months of the war during which time they undertook many long distance "drives" to clear the countryside of Boer guerrillas. The units were so successful that Kitchener requested a further 1,000 gunners from the Indian government to deploy in the role; this was refused but a comparable number of artillerymen were instead supplied by the British Army. By the end of the war around 2,000 artillery personnel were serving as mounted infantry. At the time they were formed, British General Ian Hamilton stated that the artillerymen were keen to carry out their new role. However, Colonel H. Rowan-Robinson, writing in 1921, claimed that the decision was viewed with horror by a large number of the artillerymen due to the unconventional nature of the deployment.

Kipling poem

The unit is commemorated in

Rudyard Kipling Joseph Rudyard Kipling ( ; 30 December 1865 – 18 January 1936)''The Times'', (London) 18 January 1936, p. 12. was an English novelist, short-story writer, poet, and journalist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. ...

's 1903 poem ''Ubique'' which commemorates the Royal Artillery's service in the war (Ubique is the regimental motto). The poem includes the lines: This refers to the re-roling of the artillery as a mounted infantry force without their guns. Kipling refers to the unit as "infantillery", a

portmanteau A portmanteau word, or portmanteau (, ) is a blend of wordsIrish War of Independence The Irish War of Independence () or Anglo-Irish War was a guerrilla war fought in Ireland from 1919 to 1921 between the Irish Republican Army (IRA, the army of the Irish Republic) and British forces: the British Army, along with the quasi-mil ...

, another largely-guerrilla war. The bulk of the XXX Brigade, Royal Field Artillery (RFA) and XXXVI Brigade RFA, attached to the 5th Infantry Division, were deployed as mounted rifles or else as composite artillery/infantry units. For a brief period in early 1922 they reverted to the traditional artillery role. The

I Brigade, Royal Horse Artillery I Brigade, Royal Horse Artillery was a brigade of the Royal Horse Artillery which existed in the early part of the 20th century. It was dissolved at the outbreak of World War I as its constituent batteries were posted to other formations. Pos ...

(RHA)also deployed to Ireland as mounted infantry while the XXXIII Brigade RFA operated as a mixed armoured car/infantry unit. Four formal regiments were organised for service in Ireland, with squadrons made up of personnel drawn from various brigades:J.B.M. Frederick, ''Lineage Book of British Land Forces 1660–1978'', Vol II, Wakefield: Microform Academic, 1984, ISBN 1-85117-009-X, p. 977. * 1st Regiment, Royal Artillery Mounted Rifles – formed 23 June 1921 ** A Squadron – V Brigade, RFA ** B Squadron – VI Brigade, RFA ** C Squadron – XII Brigade, RFA * 2nd Regiment, Royal Artillery Mounted Rifles – formed 1 July 1921 ** A Squadron – V Brigade, RFA and N Battery, RHA ** B Squadron – VIII Brigade, RFA ** C Squadron – IX or XXXVII Brigades, RFA * 3rd Regiment, Royal Artillery Mounted Rifles – formed 17 June 1921 ** A Squadron – VII Brigade, RFA ** B Squadron – XV Brigade, RFA ** C Squadron – XXXV Brigade, RFA * 4th Regiment, Royal Artillery Mounted Rifles – formed 1921 ** A Squadron – IV Brigade, RFA ** B Squadron – XIV Brigade, RFA ** C Squadron – XXXIV Brigade, RFA
All four regiments were disbanded in 1922, the 4th Regiment on 31 January.

References

{{Reflist, 30em Units and formations of the Royal Artillery Military units and formations of the Second Boer War