22 
THE BROME-WALTON FAMILY. 
Armament, 
40 pieces. 
24-prs. 
12-prs. 
9-prs. 
6-prs. 
13" mortars, 
5f" cohorns, 
student need focus his researches only upon a few scattered volumes 
and pages upon one topic. But, now, the stream of artillery history 
flows through as many widely diverging channels as there are quarters 
of the globe:—for Asia , trains and companies to the East Indies; 
artillery expeditions to Africa 1 ; outbreak of war in America and the 
West Indies; and, in Europe, armaments and equipments for both sea 
and land services, bomb-ships, tenders, and land trains to operate 
against the harbours and coast fortresses of France ; and a corps 
d’armee to co-operate with Prussia in Germany and central Europe. 1 2 3 4 
Who is sufficient for these things ? 
A compendious history of the Royal Artillery should also narrate the 
births of the children who have successively sprung from the sides of 
this venerable regimental Brahma the Ordnance Store Corps, Com¬ 
missariat, and Accompt Departments of Henry III; the Royal Marine 
Artillery, of 1804; and, from the days of Henry VII. down to 19th 
century, the Royal Artillery commanders and gunners on ships of war, 
concerning whom even Naval History is significantly silent. 
Fortunately, the author of the present pages is not writing a history 
of the regiment, but memoirs of a particular family of distinguished 
gunners; yet we have seen how the first two members of the Brome - 
Walton family could not be introduced upon the theatres of the wars of 
the Spanish and Austrian Successions without necessitating the (t cut¬ 
ting of an artillery road through the tangled jungle of impersonal 
history:” 8 even so, the third gunner of this amphibious house, Lieut. 
Joseph Waltonf may not undergo his baptism of fire, “on the Bombs,” 
without evoking enquiry as to the origin, armament, and command of 
these floating batteries termed “Bomb-Ships,” &c., of which we can 
learn absolutely nothing from the pages of either military or naval 
history. The present chapter, however, must be confined to the opera¬ 
tions, by land and sea, arising out of the rivalries of England and 
France for supremacy in America, which presently led to the declaration 
of war in Europe. 
The Seven Years’ War broke out in Germany in August 1756, on 
the initiative of Prussia; but, since the year 1755, England had already 
set the balls rolling in America, 5 —to resist the prescient ^harbour-loving 
encroachments in America of our Gallic neighbours—over the boundary 
question of Nova Scotia, where it may be remembered, Capt. Charles 
Brome, R.A. had been Commandant of Artillery since 1751. 6 Anxious 
and arduous was this command—in equipping the armaments of Halifax, 
1 Ordnance Warrant Books, No. 3, pp. 193, 194 ; No. 4, p. 275 (four 12-prs., six 6-prs., eigh^ 
4§-in. mortars). 
2 With Asia and Africa we shall not be immediately concerned in these Memoirs, the Brome - 
Waltons not having been engaged in these operations; although the majority of their descendants 
are now connected with our Indian Empire .—(Vide family tree in Chap. I.) 
3 “ Proceedings ” B.A.I., Vol. XX., No. 8, p. 413. 
4 llbid. Son of Captain Joseph Brome, grandson of Captain Chas. Brome. Cadet: commis¬ 
sioned 1st June, 1763 ; died 24th March, 1808, Lieut.-General, Colonel Commandant B.A., 
Master-Gunner of England (St. James’s Park and Whitehall). 
3 “ Modern Europe,” (Bussell), Vol. II., p. 442. Carlyle’s “ Frederick the Great,” p. 305. 
6 “Proceedings” B.A.I.,‘Vol. XX., No. 9, p. 485, 
