The 2nd (Seaham) Durham Artillery Volunteer Corps was a part-time unit of Britain's Royal Artillery raised in County Durham by the Vane-Tempest family during an invasion crisis in 1860. It became a permanent part of the Volunteer Force and later the Territorial Force, and fought as field artillery on the Western Front in World War I. Before World War II it became an anti-aircraft unit that served in the Battle of Britain, the Blitz and in the Far East where it converted to medium artillery in the Burma Campaign. Postwar, it continued to serve in the air defence role in the Territorial Army until 1955.
Letterhead of the 2nd (Seaham) Durham Artillery Volunteers, c1890
Territorial shoulder title worn by the Northumbrian (County of Durham) Brigades RFA.
15-pounder gun, known to the gunners in France as the 'pip-squeak'.
18-pounder preserved at the Imperial War Museum.
The West Riding Heavy Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery was a part-time unit of Britain's Territorial Force formed in 1908 in the West Riding of Yorkshire. It fought on the Western Front during World War I, and served on in the Territorial Army until the eve of World War II.
Cap Badge of the Royal Artillery
4.7-inch gun on 'Woolwich' carriage, ca 1914.
4.7-inch gun on the Somme, 1917.
Moving a 60-pounder gun out of its emplacement, 1917.