ROYAL ARTILLERY HISTORICAL SOCIETY
Summer Meeting
18th and 19th June 2007
A Tour with the Chairman
WOOLWICH – HOME OF THE ROYAL ARTILLERY 1716-2007
The Summer meeting of the Royal Artillery Historical Society has, for the past five years, taken the
form of a battlefield tour, in previous years visiting Ypres, Mons, Waterloo, Verdun and Dunkirk. The
2007 Meeting followed the custom of having a tour, but this year the tour was of Woolwich, the
Regiment’s Home for the last 291 years, led by the Chairman, Brig Ken Timbers. 52 Members of the
Society, 20 with wives, and 12 guests attended the Tour, on Monday 18th and Tuesday 19th June.
The tour assembled at Woolwich in time for lunch and prompt at 1400 hrs gathered on the steps of the
RA Mess for the start of Brig Ken’s tour of the Royal Artillery and Woolwich Common, starting with
a description of the RA Barracks and the Front Parade and the stories of the Dickson and Crimea
Memorials and the Bhurtpore and Italian guns, the site of the RA Theatre which used the Officers
Mess Room, and the Royal Artillery Institution building which was destroyed by German bombing in
November 1940.
The Tour went on to the ruins of the Royal Garrison Church which was destroyed by a German V1
Flying Bomb on 13 July 1944, and the RA VC Memorial (Figure 1) which adorned the east end of the
Church and survived the damage, then, passing Connaught Barracks and Government House, which
had been the Garrison Headquarters and has now been replaced by flats, reached the site of the statue
of the Prince Imperial which overlooked the front of the Royal Military Academy where hundreds of
Gunner and Sapper, and later RTR and Royal Signals officers had been trained between 1806 and
1939.
Ken then led the Tour across Woolwich Common, once used as a range, for “mock battles” and as a
racecourse, to the Woolwich Stadium opposite the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, created by the energy of
Maj George Hamilton-Jones, better known as “Stadium” Jones, where tattoos and open days had been
held up until the 1970s. He pointed out that the Hospital itself had been built on the site of Shrapnel
Barracks, a hutted camp dating from the Crimea and home originally to cavalry units stationed in
Woolwich and later the field artillery brigade.
The Tour then went on to pass the Ha-Ha wall, the South Africa Memorial and the Railway Gun to the
Rotunda, the Polygon Room tent presented by the Prince Regent to Colonel Congreve in 1820 to house
his collection and the first military museum open to the public (Figure 2).
Throughout, Brigadier Ken was a fount of knowledge and information but the Tour was enhanced by
the personal reminiscences of those attending, some of whom had trained at Woolwich or been
stationed there, or in the case of one wife, had been born there.
The Tour then returned to the Mess for tea, after which Col Martin Cooper, a former Regimental
Colonel, gave a talk on the history of the RA Mess and a description of its contents.
The Tour reassembled in the ante-room (Figure 3) at 1930 for the customary Tour Dinner which was
held in the Dining Room, still looking as splendid as ever (Figure 4). The DRA, Brig C W Tadier,
and Mrs Tadier were the guests of the Society and the orchestra of the RA Band provided the music.
Being Waterloo Day, the menu was Beef Wellington and, after the Loyal Toast, a toast was drunk to
the Heroes of Waterloo. It was a superb evening and we were very well looked after by Colette and
the staff.
After breakfast next morning, the Tour moved down to the Royal Arsenal where Bob and Ray from the
Royal Arsenal Woolwich Historical Society gave a fascinating account of the origins and development
of the Arsenal. Lt Col Simon West had arranged a visit to the Royal Brass Foundry (Figure 5) and the
Tour went on to see the Royal Laboratory, the Royal Carriage Department, the Verbruggens House,
Dial Square, the Beresford Gate, and ended at Tower Place, the Old Royal Military Academy and the
Committee Room of the Ordnance Board and the Regiment’s original headquarters. The tour finished
with coffee at the Museum café, after which members were able to visit the Regimental Museum
before dispersing.
It was a tour that many wished the Society had held before, rather than in the last months before the
Regiment’s departure. It was nostalgic, but fascinating. The Society plans a similar tour of Larkhill at
some future date.
A Souvenir Brochure “Woolwich – Home of the Royal Artillery 1716-2007” was distributed to
members with the 2006 Proceedings and a book, “The Royal Artillery: Woolwich, A Celebration” by
our Chairman, Brigadier Ken Timbers, will be published in 2008.