Royal School of Artillery

The Royal School of Artillery (RSA), formerly the School of Instruction for Royal Horse and Field Artillery (Larkhill), is the principal training establishment for artillery warfare in the British Army. Established in 1915, it is located at Larkhill, on the south edge of Salisbury Plain in the United Kingdom. The School is the primary training facility for Royal Artillery recruits, and is also home to the Gunnery Training Team.

History

The Royal School of Artillery was originally established in 1915 as the "School of Instruction for Royal Horse and Field Artillery (Larkhill)", on land previously used for tented accommodation at Larkhill. The 1,200-bed Fargo hospital, which was built to the West of the School, opened around the same time to tend for wounded soldiers returning from the First World War (it closed after the War and is now the main ammunition compound for the School).

The Regiment's first School of Artillery had been established at Shoeburyness in 1859. (In earlier times artillery teaching and practice had taken place near the Regiment's Royal Military Academy on Woolwich Common.) After the First World War, the Field Artillery and Horse Artillery elements from Shoeburyness were transferred to Larkhill; Shoeburyness, though, retained the Coast Artillery School of the Royal Garrison Artillery until 1940 (it then moved to Llandudno for the duration of the war, and then to Plymouth).