494 
GOLD MEDAL PRIZE ESSAY, 1892 . 
Advantage 
of training 
them in 
their own 
batteries. 
Practical 
course of 
instruction 
lasting for 
three 
month s- 
Vital neces¬ 
sity for 
recruits 
being 
trained in 
their bat¬ 
teries. 
selves. Their best school is their battery 1 2 ; their best master is their 
Major. He is more concerned that anyone else in their efficient 
training, and the greater pains he takes to secure this object the 
greater will be his subsequent advantage. 
Formerly, young officers on first receiving their commissions were 
sent to Woolwich and Shoeburyness for courses of drill and lectures; 
but in recent years they have joined their batteries direct. This 
system gives the best guarantee for rapid progress. With his battery 
the young officer has every incentive to industry. The eyes of all are 
on him, and it is his object to acquit himself creditably before those 
over whom he is to be placed. The necessity for exertion comes home 
to him in a manner which is not possible when he is one of a large 
batch of young officers brought together for a course of training under 
an instructor who has no direct responsibility for their future career. 
The course of instruction which is laid down in the “ Regimental 
Standing Orders ” 3 should be thoroughly applied—the young officer 
falling in with the young non-commissioned officers and recruits of 
his battery. Before dismissal he must show not only that he knows 
his drill but that he is able to instruct others in it. He will not learn 
by looking on at drill squads. He must accompany the battery into 
the field, taking in turn the duties of each number, and learn how to 
lead a sub-division before he takes command of his section. The 
more practical his training is made, the greater confidence will he 
subsequently acquire. Experience shows that with the present general 
and technical education received at the Royal Military Academy a 
young officer does not require more than three months in which to 
learn all that is at first necessary to give him a start in his battery. 
This does not mean that his military education is complete, but merely 
that he has acquired sufficient practical knowledge to enable him to 
take his place at the head of his section as its responsible leader. 
The recruit as well as the officer should be trained in his own bat¬ 
tery. At stations where two or more batteries are concentrated to 
form a Brigade Division attempts have sometimes been made to 
organise the instruction of the recruits under the Adjutant. The 
arguments used in support of this system are that as recruits join 
batteries by twos and threes it is a waste of power to employ several 
officers and non-commissioned officers in drilling them when one can 
do the work. By massing the recruits of several batteries under the 
Adjutant or Orderly Officer (assisted by the sergeant-instructor in 
gunnery) the time of instructors is economised, and greater uniformity 
in drill is obtained. Plausible as these arguments appear they are 
directly antagonistic to the views put forward in this Essay. They 
strike, indeed, at the very root of the battery system. Training in 
1 Under existing orders (paragraphs 29 and 30, Section III., “ Standing Orders of the Royal 
Artillery ”) “ the organisation of the young officers’ instruction rests with the Lieut.-Colonel Com¬ 
manding.” The delegation to the Battery Commander of the duty of executive instructor is not 
inconsistent with the spirit and intention of this order. At out stations this delegation must be 
the rule, and generally at stations where batteries are concentrated it will be found desirable to 
make it so. The earlier the young officer and young recruit establish their connection with their 
battery the better.—“ It is by batteries that artillerymen make war.” 
2 Paragraphs 30 and 31, Section III., “ Standing Orders of the Royal Artillery, 1889.” 
