The meeting was held in response to statements by Commander Bedford Pim, Royal Navy, that a modern ironclad warship could do untold damage to the towns of Tyneside due to the poor state of their defences.

They were supposed to become the new 3rd Northumberland, but objected to the title, asserting their primacy, and in August were renamed The Tynemouth Artillery Volunteers (with emphasis on the definite article 'The').

[1] This was reflected in the War Office Mobilisation Scheme for that year, which allocated the unit to the Tynemouth fixed defences.

On 1 January 1902 the RA abandoned its divisional organisation and the unit changed its designation to Tynemouth Royal Garrison Artillery (Volunteers).

[31] By October 1914, the campaign on the Western Front was bogging down into Trench warfare and there was an urgent need for batteries of siege artillery to be sent to France.

The War Office decided that the TF units were well enough trained to take over many of the duties in the coastal defences, releasing Regular RGA gunners for service in the field.

Thus the siege batteries formed in late 1915–early 1916 were a mixture of Regular and TF gunners from the RGA coast establishments together with new recruits.

The four serving companies of the Tynemouth RGA (1/1st, 1/2nd/ 1/3rd and 1/4th) were reduced to three (1st, 2nd and 3rd) albeit with a slightly larger establishment of five officers and 100 men, and were to be kept up to strength with Regular recruits.

[39] It went out to the Western Front on 24 January 1916, manning two 12-inch railway howitzers and was involved in the preparatory bombardment for the Battle of the Somme later that year.

Thereafter the heavy howitzers were in great demand it was frequently shifted around the railway network behind the Western Front from one army to another.

It saw service in World War II during the Battle of Britain and the Newcastle Blitz, North Africa, Italy, Yugoslavia and the occupation of Germany.

[11][49][20] The TA was expanded in the years of tension leading up to World War II, and a new 152 Heavy Battery was formed in October 1937.

[20][47][50][51] The invasion threat after the Dunkirk evacuation and Fall of France led to a massive increase in Britain's coast defences.

In addition to the existing fixed defences, a number of Coast Defence Emergency Batteries were established in May and June 1940, including:[52] Park, Gloucester and Frenchman's batteries were initially established by the Royal Navy and transferred to the RA when sufficient coastal gunners had been trained.

[60] The manpower requirements for the forthcoming Allied invasion of Normandy (Operation Overlord) led to further reductions in coast defences in April 1944.

[53][56][64] As the campaign in North West Europe progressed after D Day, the manpower demands of 21st Army Group led to further reductions in coastal artillery.

By this stage of the war many of the coast battery positions were manned by Home Guard detachments or in the hands of care and maintenance parties.

[53][57][65] Then, in January 1945, the War Office began to reorganise surplus anti-aircraft and coastal artillery regiments in the UK into infantry battalions, primarily for line of communication and occupation duties in North West Europe, thereby releasing trained infantry for frontline service.

[8] From 1952, 404 (Tynemouth) Coast Regiment wore the word 'TYNEMOUTH' inserted beneath the 'ROYAL ARTILLERY' on their red-on-blue shoulder badge.