Gunners at Larkhill – a history of the Royal School of Artillery

[wilkokcl]

Does anyone know how much of this book covers training at Larkhill in WWI? I'm tempted to buy a copy but it covers the whole history up to the present day and it would be good to have an idea how much there is on 1914-18.

James, NDG, 1983, Gunners at Larkhill – a history of the Royal School of Artillery, Griesham Books, Salisbury, 0946095086

Thanks,

Mark

[Moonraker]

I have a copy at home, Mark, and it's well worth having. Am currently away, but, from memory, it has a couple of chapters relating to WWI and goes up to 1980, and deals with the camp railway, early aviation (which at Larkhill actually ended in mid-1914) and so on. Some good pics and plans. I have extra info about Larkhill in WWI which I can send you electronically if you're interested, in which case you might like to send me your email address by personal message. (There will be a delay in my responding.)

My local branch library had a copy for many years, which I often consulted, but it got sold off, so had to buy my own second-hand copy. If you do buy your own copy and don't like it you could probably resell it easily enough.

Moonraker

[wilkokcl]

I have extra info about Larkhill in WWI which I can send you electronically if you're interested, in which case you might like to send me your email address by personal message.

That would be great thanks Moonraker: i'll PM you my email address. Based on your recommendation I will get a copy of the book second hand - maybe the one that your library sold off!

Much appreciated,

Mark.

[cahoehler]

Gunners at Larkhill almost totally ignores WW1 but is interesting apart from the author giving the coordinates for just about every feature in, on and around Salisbury Plain.

Thanks

Carl Hoehler

[wilkokcl]

Gunners at Larkhill almost totally ignores WW1.....

Oh well, ordered it last night on the internet! At least it may have some relevant background info.

Cheers,

Mark

[Moonraker]

Gunners at Larkhill almost totally ignores WW1 but is interesting apart from the author giving the coordinates for just about every feature in, on and around Salisbury Plain.

Thanks

Carl Hoehler

Still away from home, so can't check my copy, but I do recall frequently consulting it in my own researches (which admittedly include the pre-WWI period as well as the war itself, but not so much thereafter).

I know what Carl means in the second part of his comment - Jimmy James was a great one for minute detail, and both Gunners at Larkhill andPlain Soldiering show this. He perused various OS maps of the area, (some of which I'm now buying, thanks to eBay) and reported his findings conscientiously. His bibliographies were also very thorough, which has helped me consult for myself some of his sources.

But the two books remain the definitive ones for people studying the army in Wiltshire up to the 1980s.

Moonraker

[Moonraker]

Gunners at Larkhill almost totally ignores WW1 but is interesting apart from the author giving the coordinates for just about every feature in, on and around Salisbury Plain.

Carl Hoehler

Got back home this morning and checked my copy. Ch 4, "The First World War", runs from pp31 to 53, plus a couple of plans and some photos, which is hardly "almost totally" ignoring! My own notes on the camp weigh heavily on non-artillery units at Larkhill during WWI, including the Australians and RFC. I gather that many artillery units had a stint on Salisbury Plain before active service, but few members seem to have left behind their impressions - the notable exception being Dennis Wheatley, later to become a famous thriller writer, in one volume of his autobiography. But he was based on the western part of the Plain, Larkhill being in the central area.

Moonraker

[wilkokcl]

I now have a copy of this book and it does contain very comprehensive information for anyone studying Larkhill.

Carl & Moonraker are both correct in identifying the author's absolute precision on locations which at times make it read more like an orienteering manual than a history book: a page I have just been reading contains 14 grid references for different features which do break up the text a bit.

Interesting and informative though,

Mark

[cahoehler]

Guys

Indeed chapter 4 (pages 31 to 53) does cover the period of WW1 BUT

Larkhill only became synonomous with the Royal Artillery in 1920 when most of the other schools were amalgamated into the School of Artillery (see http://www.1914-1918.net/artillery_home.htm ) for the very comprehensive list prepared by our very own Chris Baker.

See the quotation on pages 48 and 49 (given below) for sentences that possibly encapsulate the problems with understanding the RESULTS of artillery - this lack of understanding resulted in that disasterous opening barrage (surely somebody should have seen the lack of results) during the last week of June 1916.

".... Gunnery and Artillery schools sprang up all over the place in all theatres; and some of them taught some very queer gunnery."

".... the Overseas Artillery School (shortly after renamed the Chapperton Down Artillery School) .... taught no observation of fire; a great deal of shooting took place but it all took the form of demonstration."

90 years on it is difficult to comprehend this lack of understanding that, in bmac's inimitable words, "Such concentrations were unlikely to cause major damage to the Germans lurking in their deep dug outs, unconfortable, frightened and hungry though they may have been. But dead they certainly were not" (Pro Patria Mori page 192)

Carl Hoehler

[Moonraker]

I quite welcomed James' "precision on locations" because I explored Salisbury Plain by bicycle (within the limits of permitted public access) and am interested in its topography. The author was following (unwittingly) in the tradition of military correspondents for The Times who pre-WWI mentioned farms, barns, copses etc when describing the movements of units during manoeuvres. Readers would have needed intimate knowledge of the Plain to have got much out of the articles. No doubt those who had served there would have been able to draw on their local experience.

Carl is correct in observing that Larkhill became identified with the Royal Artillery only after WWI. Prewar it was a summer camping-site mostly for Volunteers and Territorials; Territorial artillery units camped mainly at Fargo (to the south west of Larkhill) and Bulford. During the war it housed mainly infantry.

Prewar, Larkhill is best known as the birthplace of military powered aviation; the original hangars still stand close to a public road.

Moonraker

[wilkokcl]

Larkhill only became synonomous with the Royal Artillery in 1920 when most of the other schools were amalgamated into the School of Artillery

I have a reference to a soldier I'm researching serving in 3A Reserve Brigade Royal Field Artillery in 1915. Going by Chris' information on The Long Long Trail (admittedly it says 1918):

"3A Reserve Brigade consisting of 13, 14 and 15 Batteries. Larkhill"

I have therefore assumed that after leaving RMA Woolwich, my man went to Larkhill to train with the RFA in 1915. Am I correct or has 2+2=5?

Mark

[Moonraker]

I have therefore assumed that after leaving RMA Woolwich, my man went to Larkhill to train with the RFA in 1915. Am I correct or has 2+2=5?

Mark

Mark: this is a very fair assumption, as I've come across many brief references to artillery units training at Larkhill during WWI, the snag being that these references are only brief. Nearly all the detailed accounts I've come across relate to infantry units.

The War Office started buying up much of Salisbury Plain in 1897 to provide a large area for large-scale manoeuvres and, in the central (Larkhill) section, artillery practice. In WWI there were 30 individual camps at Larkhill, plus four at nearby Rollestone, so the complex could accommodate more than 30,000 men, and I guess that some of these would be artillerymen.

See p52 of Gunners at Larkhill concerning newly-formed RFA units practising in the locality. You will also find several references to the Hamilton Battery, which was sited a bit too close to the main camp for the comfort of soldiers based there.

Moonraker

[wilkokcl]

Thanks again Moonraker. I think he must have been training at Larkhill but started wondering when there was more mention of events with the artillery after WWI. I'll look at page 52 when I get home tonight.

Mark

[Guest dingbat]

I am interested in the Army Veterinary Corps Hospital located at Larkhill. Does anyone have any info please, paarticularly where exactly it was?

[Moonraker]

Are you thinking of the purported horse isolation hospital that we discussed

here?

Apart from the references mentioned in that thread, I've never come across any specific references to an AVC hospital. Bear in mind that up to Autumn 1914 Lark Hill was a summer camping site with very few permanent structures, though there must have been provision for sick or injured horses. During the Great War, hundreds of huts were built there, mostly for infantry and artillery units; again, there must have been provision to treat horses.

Moonraker

Edit: I suggest that any further discussion on the Army Veterinary Corps Hospital and horse isolation hospital be continued on the thread to which I've linked; this may save repetition here of the content there.