The enthusiasm for the Volunteer movement following an invasion scare in 1859 saw the creation of many units composed of part-time soldiers eager to supplement the Regular British Army in time of need.

[1] It is not clear what happened to the 1st Essex Artillery Volunteer Corps (AVC), which was apparently formed in November 1859 but was short-lived.

Similarly, the original 3rd Essex at Barking was renumbered 2nd; its officers were commissioned on 13 September and it moved to Grays in November.

No administrative brigade was formed for the Essex AVCs, which were attached to various other units for administration:[2][3][4][5][6][7] A major reorganisation of the Volunteer Force in 1880 saw the 1st Norfolk Admin Brigade consolidated into a single unit, with the 1st Essex AVC due to become No 5 Battery at Harwich.

But the War Office refused to pay for the upkeep of field guns for Volunteers and they had largely died out in the 1870s.

[16] When the Volunteers were subsumed into the new Territorial Force (TF) under the Haldane Reforms of 1908,[10][17][18] the Essex RGA (V) was split up.

When the order to mobilise was given on 4 August, the units had to return to their headquarters by train and then move to their war stations.

On 15 August 1914, the War Office issued instructions to separate those men who had signed up for Home Service only, and form these into reserve units.

In August it joined the 2nd East Anglian Division at Thetford and Brandon, Suffolk, rearmed with modern 18-pounder guns and handed over its obsolete 15-pounders to the 2nd Line batteries.

The divisional artillery rejoined 54th (EA) Division at Mena Camp near Cairo and in April moved into No 1 (Southern) Section of the Suez Canal defences, where it began training for desert warfare.

It next moved to Beirut, where it was concentrating when the Armistice of Mudros was signed with Turkey and hostilities ended on 31 October.

[24] In late November 1918 the division was ordered to return to Egypt, the artillery proceeding by sea and arriving in mid-December.

In March and April, when its guns had been handed in and about one-third of its men had left, 54th Divisional Artillery was converted into an ad hoc cavalry regiment to act as mounted police during disturbances in Cairo.

Training for the 2nd Line artillery was hindered by the shortage of equipment, and several months passed before guns, horses and harness were received.

Early in 1915 the 2nd East Anglian Division (which was numbered 69th in August 1915) concentrated round Thetford, where it formed part of First Army in Central Force.

[36][37] At the beginning of May 1917 69th (2nd EA) Division moved to Nottinghamshire, remaining in Northern Command, with the artillery at Welbeck Camp.

Partial mechanisation was carried out from 1927, but the guns retained iron-tyred wheels until pneumatic tyres began to be introduced just before World War II.

[7][39][42][43] In 1938 the RA modernised its nomenclature and a lieutenant-colonel's command was designated a 'regiment' rather than a 'brigade'; this applied to TA field brigades from 1 November 1938.

[46] One of the lessons learned from the Battle of France was that the two-battery organisation did not work: field regiments were intended to support an infantry brigade of three battalions.

85th (East Anglian) Field Rgt later served in Persia and Iraq Command (PAIFORCE) and then converted to mountain artillery, in which role it fought in the Italian Campaign.