[1][2] A number of Artillery Volunteer Corps (AVCs) were quickly formed in Cheshire, and in June 1860 they were brought together into the 1st Administrative Brigade of Cheshire Artillery Volunteer Corps with headquarters (HQ) at Chester and the following organisation:[3][4][5][6] The commanding officer (CO) of the admin brigade was Major, later Lieutenant-Colonel, Henry A.

When the Volunteers were consolidated in June 1880, the 1st Admin Brigade became the 2nd Cheshire AVC, taking the number of its senior surviving corps, but within a month this had been changed to 1st Cheshire and Carnarvonshire AVC, with HQ at Chester and the following organisation:[4][5] In 1886 the unit made an unsuccessful application for the subtitle 'Earl of Chester's' to be restored.

[4][5] When the Volunteers were subsumed into the new Territorial Force (TF) under the Haldane Reforms of 1908,[12][13] part of the 1st Cheshire RGA (V) formed Nos.

5 and 6 Companies of the Lancashire & Cheshire RGA, a defended ports unit, while the remainder transferred to the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) with the following organisation:[5][14][15][16] III Welsh Brigade, RFA The unit was the third field artillery brigade in the TF's Welsh Division.

Four days later the War Office issued instructions to separate those men who had signed up for Home Service only, and form these into reserve units.

On 18 November the division was warned for garrison duty in India, but this was cancelled and in December it moved to Cambridge, then to Bedford in May 1915.

In October the batteries were re-armed with modern 18-pounder guns and on 8 November they handed over their obsolescent 15-pounders to the 2nd Line, which had just arrived at Bedford.

[19][20][21][23] 53rd (Welsh) Divisional Artillery was now ordered to France to join the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) on the Western Front.

Finally, CCLXVII Bde took the now-vacant number of the 1st Welsh as CCLXV (265) Brigade, RFA, with the following organisation:[16][19][20][24][25][26] However, 53rd (W) Divisional Ammunition Column had remained in France, and was reformed in Egypt by abolishing the BACs.

The First Battle of Gaza began during the night of 25/26 March when 53rd (W) Division advanced 12 miles (19 km) to cross the Wadi Ghuzzeh, with CCLXV Bde following 160th Infantry Brigade.

The artillery was supposed to be under divisional control, but heard nothing, and had to work through the infantry brigade HQs, who complained that the Forward Observation Officers (FOOs) could not be found.

Meanwhile, the battery had to shift its position six times during the day, laboriously crossing numerous wadis, but still fired 1511 rounds.

The bombardment was begun by the heavy artillery and warships offshore, then the 4.5-inch howitzers began firing gas shells against Turkish batteries.

XX Corps, including 53rd (W) Divisional artillery, moved into position during the night of 30/31 October to capture Beersheba, and the bombardment began at 05.55.

Over following days 53rd (W) Division kept up pressure on the enemy in the hills so that the EEF could roll up the main trench lines (the Battle of Hareira and Sheria).

The city was to be captured by XX Corps after a rapid advance by a flying column known as 'Mott's Detachment' that included 53rd (W) Division.

At 07.00 on 7 December, as the preliminary attacks began, a few ranging shots by C Bty of CCLXV Bde scattered a body of enemy cavalry at Sherife, a position that would have been troublesome if the Turks had held it.

[42][43] In the summer of 1918 the 53rd Division was 'Indianised', with three-quarters of the infantry battalions replaced by others drawn from the British Indian Army, but this did not affect the divisional artillery, which retained its composition to the end of the war.

During the afternoon a party of Turks was found eating lunch in the open, and every field gun in range was called in to destroy them.

The roads were very bad, and the Royal Engineers struggled to make a path for the guns, but the artillery closed up behind 158th Bde and watered their horses.

At dawn a Turkish column was seen taking up position on the El Tuwanik ridge: this magnificent target was out of range of the guns, even if the horse teams could have been brought up to push further forward.

Training of the units was made difficult by the lack of arms and equipment, and the requirement to provide drafts to the 1st Line overseas.

In May 1917 the division transferred to Northern Army (Home Forces), and remained in Norfolk and Suffolk until the end of the war.

[6] In the late 1930s the need for improved anti-aircraft (AA) defences for Britain's cities became apparent, and a programme of converting existing TA units was pushed forward.

In 1938 the Shropshire RHA battery was transferred to 51st (Midland) Medium Regiment[47][48][49] while the Cheshire batteries reorganised as 81st Anti-Aircraft Regiment:[6][16][47][54][55][56] The TA's AA units were mobilised on 23 September 1938 during the Munich Crisis, with units manning their emergency positions within 24 hours, even though many did not yet have their full complement of men or equipment.

[16][54] 81st HAA Regiment had left 44 AA Bde by now,[59] and gone to the Orkneys to join Orkey and Shetland Defences (OSDEF) protecting the Royal Navy anchorage at Scapa Flow.

[54][66][67] The regiment was part of a steady flow of AA reinforcements for Middle East Forces in the months before the Second Battle of El Alamein.

[56][68][69] By then the air threat to the Middle East bases had diminished and AA manpower was bring diverted to other tasks.

21 AA Brigade and 81st HAA Rgt were concentrated pending disbandment [70] The regiment was placed in suspended animation on 30 August 1944.

[71][77] The following served as Honorary Colonel of the unit:[6] In the north cloister of Chester Cathedral there are a memorial window and roll of honour to the men of the Cheshire Brigade, RFA, who died in World War I.