It became the senior unit of the 5th Administrative Battalion of West Yorkshire RVCs when that was formed at Huddersfield on 18 September 1862 with the following organisation (dates are for first officers' commissions):[2][3][4] The annual inspection of the battalion was a major social event: two or three thousand people attended the 1869 parade, when the Huddersfield Rifles, Holmfirth Volunteers, and Mirfield and Meltham Companies were inspected, and the Saddleworth Volunteers 'kept the ground' with the police.

[6] On 1 June 1880 the 5th Admin Bn was consolidated as a new 6th Yorkshire West Riding RVC with the following organisation:[3][4][7] On 1 July 1881, as part of the Childers Reforms, the corps became a Volunteer Battalion of the Duke of Wellington's (West Riding) Regiment and on 1 February 1883 was designated as the 2nd Volunteer Battalion of the regiment.

[3][4] Under the mobilisation scheme introduced by the Stanhope Memorandum of December 1888 the units of the Volunteer Force were assigned to either garrisons or mobile brigades.

[8] Volunteers from the battalion served in the 2nd Boer War, gaining the unit its first Battle Honour: South Africa 1900–02.

[11][12][13] On 5 November they were relieved and moved to billets in Doncaster,[12][13] where the division formed part of Central Force of Home Defence, and began to train for active service.

[14] On 31 March 1915 the West Riding Division was informed that it had been selected to proceed to France to join the British Expeditionary Force, and the infantry embarked at Folkestone,[11] the 1/5th Bn landing at Boulogne on 14 April 1915.

[11][12][13] The battalion now underwent more than a year of trench warfare with few notable events except a peripheral part in the Battle of Aubers Ridge (9 May 1915) and sustaining the First German phosgene attack on British troops (19 December 1915).

Ground conditions were atrocious, the approach routes were under enemy shellfire, and the men only just reached their jumping-off line before Zero hour.

Meanwhile, the troops trained in the Dukeries area of Nottinghamshire and in south and east Yorkshire until November 1915, when it moved to Newcastle upon Tyne, where it dug an entrenched defence line.

[12][19] The division was not involved in the great Ypres offensive of 1917, and was therefore fresh when it was selected to take part in the tank attack at Cambrai on 20 November.

Men of the Duke's were reported to have advanced firing Lewis guns from the hip during street fighting in Anneaux.

The last attack on Bourlon village was made on 27 November, when 2/5th Bn was checked by heavy machine-gun fire and was unable to link up with the flanking division.

[19][26] It then reverted to British command for the Allied Hundred Days Offensive, beginning with the Second Battle of Bapaume, when the division effectively exploited a pre-dawn attack by 2nd Division on 25 August, and then attacked again in the afternoon of 29 August, when the 5th Bn was recorded as having followed the Creeping barrage and achieving a great success 'with the bayonet'.

A fresh barrage at 18.00 allowed the battalion to renew its advance to the final objective, the support trench of the German Marcoing Line.

At this point the centre and left companies were heavily counter-attacked, and were fired at from the rear where insufficiently guarded prisoners had picked up weapons and returned to the fight.

[30] Private Henry Tandey, a pre-war Regular soldier, had joined the battalion from 12th Bn Green Howards on 26 July.

In a single month he won a Distinguished Conduct Medal at Vaulx Vraucourt on 28 August, a Military Medal at Havrincourt on 12 September and finally a Victoria Cross at Marcoing on 28 September (when he was wounded), making him the most highly decorated private soldier of the British Army in the war.

After some hard fighting they pushed on to their objective, forming a defensive flank to cover the capture of Solesmes by the rest of the brigade.

[33] Afterwards, the division remained in the front line and fought its way toward Maubeuge, passing through the southern outskirts and crossing the River Sambre on 9 November.

[46][48][49][50][51][52] The regiment supplied a cadre of experienced officers and men to 238th S/L Training Rgt at Buxton where it provided the basis for a new 544 S/L Bty formed on 16 January 1941.

[59] By early 1944 AA Command was being forced to release manpower for the planned Allied invasion of Normandy (Operation Overlord), and all Home Defence searchlight regiments were reduced by one battery.

85 Group RAF was to be responsible for Night-fighter cover of the beachhead and bases in Normandy after D-Day, and was keen to have searchlight assistance in the same way as Fighter Command had in the UK.

These would be allocated by fighter controllers, and the S/Ls would assist by illuminating targets and indicating raid approaches, while area boundaries would be marked by vertical S/Ls.

[64][62] By the autumn of 1944, the German Luftwaffe was suffering from such shortages of pilots, aircraft and fuel that serious aerial attacks on the UK could be discounted.

It was the first such RA infantry regiment formed, and was sent to join Second Army in NW Europe for line of communication duties.

[73][74][75][76] On 10 March 1955, AA Command was disbanded and there was a major reduction in the number of TA air defence units.

[3][34][78][79][81] The regiment was awarded the Battle Honour South Africa 1900–02 for the participation of its volunteer detachment in the 2nd Boer War.

The Royal Artillery does not carry battle honours, so none were awarded for the battalion's service during World War II.