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MARITIME ROYAL ARTILLERY

A forgotten regiment of World War Two

The Maritime Royal Artillery was a unit of the British Royal Artillery; they served as gunners in merchant ships during WWII. They were part of the Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships (DEMS), together with naval rating gunners.. The Maritime Royal Artillery should not be confused with the Royal Marine Artillery which was a separate branch of the Royal Marines.

Maritime Regiment of the Royal Artillery

Merchant shipping was an essential part of the war effort and their convoys carried vital supplies around the world to support our troops. Besides the protection offered by the Royal Navy escorts, the merchant ships were equipped with guns to deter airborne attacks. They were known as Defensively Equipped Merchant Ships.

The Maritime Royal Artillery was established in March 1940 when the Royal Navy was short of gunners to man the defensive armament on merchant ships working costal routes on the south and east coasts of England. The regiment started in Thornbury and was also disbanded in Thornbury with the rest of the maritime regiments in 1946. Initially, the Admiralty requested the regiment to provide 500 two-man light machine gun teams for the merchant coasters so originally 940 army personnel volunteered armed with Lewis or Bren guns to provide anti-aircraft defence for the vessels.

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The Maritime Anti-Aircraft Regiment of the Royal Artillery was formed in 1941.
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Originally there were three light machine gun regiments each consisting of two batteries.
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E-boat and air attacks on British coastal shipping intensified in the wake of Dunkirk
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Soldiers were assigned to deep sea vessels. Shipping losses due to U-Boat attacks increased.
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Maritime gunners were assigned to each vessel. In 1942 the regiment was renamed Maritime Royal Artillery.

Organisation of the Maritime Royal Artillery

In March 1943, numbers were increased and the regiment was organised into six regiments and twenty-four port detachments in the UK. These were based around the contry as follows:

1 Regiment – Loch Winnock, Renfrewshire
2 Regiment – Leslie, Fife
3 Regiment – North Shields, Tyne & Wear
4 Regiment – Southport, Lancashire
5 Regiment – Shoeburyness, Essex
6 Regiment – Thornbury, Gloucestershire

There were also four overseas batteries at New York, Port Said, Bombay and South Africa plus four independent troops at Freetown, Sydney, Algiers and Haifa.

Gun crews serving on merchant ships

The numbers assigned to an individual ship depended on its size; it could be two men on a small coaster or up to thirty men on larger vessels. The average detachment was usually around seven or eight personnel. The gun crews assigned to any one ship could be a mix of Maritime Royal Artillery, Royal Navy or Royal Marine personnel. The Bofors guns were always the responsibility of the Maritime Royal Artillery. The gun crews had to be capable of using every weapon on board ranging from naval anti-aircraft guns to rockets.

Killed or missing at sea

Around 1,300 members of the Maritime Regiments died whilst serving on merchant ships. Most have the ocean as their grave but are commemorated on the naval war memorials in Plymouth, Portsmouth and Chatham.

Merchant Shipping Act

When crews embarked they came under the provisions of the Merchant Shipping Act not just the Army Act. Naval decorations were awarded for gallantry and service at sea. Many gun crew personnel lost their lives at sea. Despite the risks service in the Maritime Royal Artillery was popular choice for men.

An Anomaly

George H. Walker was born in the East End of London in 1920. He was a gunner with the 6/3 Maritime Regiment. His regimental number was R.A. 5346133 and he served on SS Caledonian Monarch, an unescorted merchant ship, en route from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Scotland with a cargo of Canadian wheat.

SS Caledonian Monarch was supposed to be part of convoy SC-63 but was presumed lost in early January 1942.

German U-boat U588 reported sinking it on 22 January 30 miles north-west of Lewis in the Outer Hebrides. No crew survived. George’s date of death is officially reported as 14 Jan 1942, not 22 Jan 1942. Since he died at sea with no grave, he is commemorated on the Chatham Naval Memorial.

This article was contributed by Ian Waller from Family History Federation.

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