1st Fife Artillery Volunteers
| 1st Fife Artillery Volunteers | |
|---|---|
| Active | 1860–1967 |
| Country |
 United Kingdom
|
| Branch |
 Territorial Army
|
| Type | Artillery Regiment |
| Role | Garrison Artillery (1860–1908) Heavy Artillery (1908–1920) Medium Artillery (1920–1956) Field Engineers (1956–1967) |
| Engagements | First World War: Western Front Second World War: Battle of France Dunkirk evacuation Normandy |
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.
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. By 1863, there were 11 Artillery Volunteer Corps (AVCs) in Fifeshire, mainly in coastal towns:
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.
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.
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).
In 1889, a position battery of 16-Pounder Rifled Muzzle Loading (RML) guns was issued to the Corps and manned by 3rd Battery. 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.
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