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The 1st Fife Artillery Volunteers, later the Highland (Fifeshire) Heavy Battery was a volunteer unit first recruited in Fifeshire, Scotland, in 1860, which fought on the Western Front in the First World War. Its successor units expanded recruitment to Aberdeenshire and again fought in North West Europe during the Second World War. ==Volunteer Force (1859-1908)== The Volunteer Force came into existence in 1859 as a result of an invasion scare, and the subsequent enthusiasm for joining local Rifle, Artillery and Engineer Volunteer Corps.〔Beckett.〕 By 1863 there were 11 Artillery Volunteer Corps (AVCs) in Fifeshire, mainly in coastal towns:〔Beckett, Appendix VIII.〕 * 1st (Tayport) Fife Artillery Volunteers, formed at Ferryport on Craig, 26 January 1860 * 2nd (Newport) Fife Artillery Volunteers, formed at Newport-on-Tay, 13 April 1860 * 3rd (St Andrews) Fife Artillery Volunteers, formed on 6 March 1860 * 4th (Inverkeithing) Fife Artillery Volunteers, formed on 3 March 1860 * 5th (Kirkcaldy) Fife Artillery Volunteers, formed on 22 March 1860 * 6th (Burntisland) Fife Artillery Volunteers, formed on 20 February 1860 * 7th (Anstruther) Fife Artillery Volunteers, formed at Elie on 8 March 1860 * 8th (Leven) Fife Artillery Volunteers, formed two batteries on 24 July 1860 * 9th (Dysart) Fife Artillery Volunteers, formed on 19 September 1860 * 10th (Wemyss) Fife Artillery Volunteers, formed out of the overflow of the 8th on 16 January 1862. * 11th (Kinghorn) Fife Artillery Volunteers, formed on 30 April 1863 Together these units comprised the 1st Fifeshire Administrative Brigade based in St Andrews under the command of Lt-Col W.H.M. Dougall, a Royal Navy officer. The administrative brigade also included the 1st and 2nd Stirlingshire AVCs at Grangemouth and Stirling respectively. It retained its organisation of 13 corps (later companies) throughout the 19th century. They were not connected with the Fife Artillery, which was a Militia regiment based in Cupar.〔''Monthly Army List'' January 1866, January 1872.〕 Despite the ban on Volunteer involvement in politics, the band of the 5th Fife Artillery Volunteers illegally took part in a trade union demonstration in July 1873. This was a recurrent problem with the Volunteer bands, which were only nominally under military control.〔Beckett, p. 145.〕 At the time of the Childers Reforms in 1881, the Administrative Brigade was consolidated as the 1st Fifeshire Artillery Volunteers, covering Fifeshire and Stirlingshire, ranked 18th in the order of precedence of Artillery Volunteers. Later it was included in the Scottish Division of the Royal Artillery (RA).〔''Monthly Army List'' December 1880, January 1884.〕 In 1889 a position battery of 16-Pounder Rifled Muzzle Loading (RML) guns was issued to the Corps and manned by 3rd Battery.〔Lt Gen Sir James Moncrieff Grierson, Records of the Scottish Volunteer Force 1859-1908, William Blackwood & Sons Ltd, 1909. P141-142〕 In 1892 this became the 1st Position Battery, with the 1st (Tayport) Company becoming the 2nd Position Battery, whilst the 2nd Company became the 3rd Position Battery. In 1900 a new 14th Company was formed at Kirkaldy.〔Lt Gen Sir James Moncrieff Grierson, Records of the Scottish Volunteer Force 1859-1908, William Blackwood & Sons Ltd, 1909. P142〕 By the end of the century the Artillery Volunteers had been attached to the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA), with the 1st Fifeshire forming part of its Southern Division.〔''Monthly Army List'' January 1899.〕 In 1902 the unit was redesignated as 1st Fifeshire RGA (Volunteers). There was also an affiliated Cadet Corps at Kirkcaldy High School.〔''Quarterly Army List'' October 1907.〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア(Wikipedia)』 ■ウィキペディアで「1st Fife Artillery Volunteers」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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