Bermuda Militia Artillery

The Bermuda Militia Artillery
Cap Badge of the Royal Artillery
Country	Bermuda (United Kingdom overseas territory)
Branch	British Army
Type	Coastal artillery
Garrison/HQ	St. David's Battery
Anniversaries	1 September, 1965 (amalgamation into Bermuda Regiment)

The Bermuda Militia Artillery was a unit of part-time soldiers organised in 1895 as a reserve for the Royal Garrison Artillery detachment of the Regular Army garrison in Bermuda. The unit was embodied during both world wars, fulfilling its role within the garrison, and also sending contingents overseas to more active theatres of the wars.

Bermuda had maintained its own militias (in which all able-bodied, adult males, free or enslaved, were required to serve) since colonisation officially began in 1612. With the buildup of the Royal Naval Dockyard and the attendant Regular Army garrison in the years following the American War of Independence, however, the Government of Bermuda quickly lost interest in funding a militia that seemed superfluous. Following the American War of 1812, it ceased to renew the Militia Act, and the military reserve was allowed to lapse. For the next eight decades, the Secretary of State for War, and the Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Bermuda implored the local government in vain to raise a military reserve force as vast funds were channelled into building up the colony's defences. The colonial government, however, feared being saddled with the entire cost of maintaining the garrison, and was also concerned of the social discord that would result from raising either racially integrated or segregated units.

Major General Sir William Reid, Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Bermuda from 1839 to 1846, was forced to raise a regiment of voluntary reserve soldiers without the assistance of the local government, which recruited without racial discrimination, although relatively few white Bermudians enlisted. This was trained as light infantry, with an emphasis on amphibious operations.