When the Territorial Force was created in 1908 by the Haldane Reforms, each infantry division was allocated a heavy battery of the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA).

The two London divisions had just begun their annual training on Salisbury Plain when war was declared in August 1914: they promptly returned to their drill halls to mobilise.

[8][9] During the autumn of 1914, the 1st London Division sent most of its infantry battalions to relieve Regular troops in Malta or to supplement the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) in France.

Subsequently, it passed from one mobile or mixed-gun Heavy Artillery Group (HAG) to another, supporting the various armies of the BEF as operations dictated.

Although reportedly armed with only seven rifles, the Londoners fought a stubborn rearguard action as the Germans entered the wood, allowing the gunners to remove the breechblocks and firing pins from their 4.7s before escaping.

On 12 February 1918, it formed part of 226th Mixed Brigade when it was transferred to 67th (2nd Home Counties) Division, and the battery served as a training unit with this formation until the end of the war, without leaving the UK.

On the day war was declared (3 September), it moved to Kempton Park Racecourse, where drafts of reservists arrived to replace the men who were under-age or unfit for overseas service.

[27][29][30][31][32] The BEF was deployed along the Franco-Belgian border during the months of the Phoney War, but when the Germans attacked Belgium on 10 May 1940 it began a carefully planned advance to the line of the River Dyle.

By 21 May, II Corps artillery, including 53rd Medium Regt, was in position to support the infantry dug in along the River Escaut and attempting to hold off the Germans.

[27][35][36] II Corps' flank was now threatened by the retreat and later surrender of Belgian forces and on 28 May the Germans reached the extreme left of the BEF's perimeter at Nieuwpoort.

Fighting as infantry alongside other II Corps artillery and engineer units and some French detachments, they were the only troops available to defend the line.

They endured heavy mortar and machine-gun fire, and the Germans established a bridgehead in Nieuwpoort, but the gunners repulsed all subsequent attacks that day until relieved by 4th Division.

This prevented a German breakthrough to the beaches east of Dunkirk where General Headquarters was positioned and where the evacuation of the BEF (Operation Dynamo) was proceeding.

[40] For the next four years, 53 Medium Regiment served in Home Forces, initially in Southern Command to defend the British Isles,[41] later preparing for the liberation of Continental Europe as part of 4th Army Group Royal Artillery (AGRA) in I Corps.

In late January 1945, the regiment fired in support of Operation Elephant, an attack to flatten out an enemy bridgehead across the River Maas.

[42][49][50] In March 1941, the 64th was one of two medium regiments sent to Greece with I Australian Corps as part of 'W Force' in Operation Lustre to support the Greek Army in the Greco-Italian War.

The Commonwealth commander, Lt-Gen Henry Maitland Wilson, had anticipated the German advance through Yugoslavia, and had placed a force to protect this dangerous flank.

[52] As the campaign developed, Wilson expanded the Amyntaion detachment to cover the Greek retreat: on 10 April it shelled the advancing Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler Brigade.

Germans tanks appeared in front of the New Zealand rearguard at mid-day on 18 April, and were engaged for the rest of the day by a troop of 64th Medium Regiment.

When ordered to evacuate, most of the regiment was taken off the beaches at Marathon by HMS Carlisle and landed at Suda Bay, Crete, but some were taken by other ships back to Egypt.

212 (London) Bty, which had participated in the campaign in Eritrea, returned, and 64th Medium Rgt re-assembled in Syria under the command of I Australian Corps when it was re-equipped with 6-inch howitzers.

[42][49][56] In October, the regiment returned to Egypt, where it joined Eighth Army in December, with 211 Bty attached to 2nd South African Division during the capture of Bardia.

By the night of 25 September, 1st Airborne could hold out no longer, and the remnants were evacuated across the Nederrijn under cover of a heavy barrage from 64 Medium Rgt and its attached guns.

[49] For example, it was part of XXX Corps' artillery concentration for the clearance of the Reichswald (Operation Veritable),[64] After VE Day, the regiment handed in its guns and undertook occupation duties in Germany.

[4][68][69] The 1st and 2nd Heavy Batteries RGA are listed on the City and County of London Troops Memorial in front of the Royal Exchange, with architectural design by Sir Aston Webb and sculpture by Alfred Drury.

[70][71] The left-hand (northern) bronze figure flanking this memorial depicts a Royal Artilleryman representative of the various London Artillery units.

In the case of the London Heavy Artillery, this is now in St Mary Magdalene Church, Holloway Road, on the north interior wall of the nave.

It is mounted on a wooden board, surmounted by the RA badge and flanked by bronze panels listing the men of the 1st and 2nd batteries (32 and 35 names respectively) who died during World War I.

Underneath is a brass plate bearing the inscription:[72][73][74] Note that in 1967 the regiment laid claim to the foundation date of the 2nd Middlesex Artillery Volunteers and to their motto Nulli secundus ('Second to None').