United Kingdom
Officers of N Battery at Meerut c. 1896

The Regimental rank of Major was reinstated in the Royal Regiment of Artillery in 1872 ; therefore the establishment of a Battery of Royal Horse Artillery consisted of a Major (in command), a Captain, and three Lieutenants.

The officers are sitting in the midle row of this photograph ; they are, from left to right :
Lieut. Webb Gillman ; Capt. Sydney Belfield ; Major John Hotham ; Lieut. G.H.A. White ; Lieut. R. England

Capt. Belfield, Lieut. White, Lieut. England, Maj. Hotham and Lieut. Gillman.


Major John Hotham

His obituary was published in The Times on Thursday, November 17th, 1932 :
"BRIGADIER-GENERAL HOTHAM
Brigadier-General John Hotham, C.B.n who died at Thirsk yesterday at the age of 81, was an officer of the Royal Horse Artillery who served in South Africa and retired after over 30 years' service, but returned to the Army to train and command in the field during the Great War the artillery of one of the new divisions.
The son of Captain John Hotham, Bengal Horse Artillery, he was born on July 31, 1851, and was gazetted lieutenant soon after his twentieth birthday. Having been promoted
captain in April, 1881, major in December 1886, lieutenant-colonel 10 years later, and

brevet-colonel in December, 1900, he saw no active service until the later stages of the South Aftrican War. In December, 1901, however, when commanding the IV Brigade Division R.H.A. at Nawbridge, he was sent to the Cape for employment with the Remount Department, and was mentioned in dispatches. In July, 1902,he came home from South Africa to go on half-pay, but in June of the following year was appointed colonel on the Staff for Royal Artillery, South Africa, with the substantive rank of colonel. In June, 1906, he again went on half-pay, retiring in July, 1908.
On the outbreak of the Great War he was appointed to command the artillery of the 20th (Light) Division in the Second New Army. He brought his gunners, who were all newly enlisted civilians, to a high state of efficiency, and continued in his command after the 20th Division went to France in July, 1915. After a year of trench warfare in Flanders and an experience of the Somme battles of 1916 the state of his heatlthand his advancing years led him to give way to a youngercommander, and he was invalided home at his own request in November to the general regret of those who served under him. He was mentioned three times in dispatches and created C.B. From December 1916, he secured employment at home as an inspector of remounts. General Hotham married Rose Florence, daughter of Lieutenant-General the Hon. Bernard Ward, C.B., in 1889. He leaves one son and one daughter.
The interment will be at Dalton Holme, near Beverley, on Saturday, at 3.30." 

Captain Sydney Belfield

His obituary was published in The Times on Wednesday, August 28th, 1946 :
"LIEUT.-COLONEL S.BELFIELD
Lieutenant-Colonel Sydney Belfield, C.B.E., late R.A., formerly of Bampford Speke, Devon, died at Wilton Row, S.W., on August 25. He was born in 1862,third son of the late Mr.J.F.Belfield, of Primley Hill, Paignton, and was educated at Cheltenham and at Woolwich. from 1881 to 1906 he served in the R.F.A. and R.H.A., seeing active service during the South African War, in which he gained the Qeen's Medal and a Clasp. In August, 1914, he was recalled, and in the course of the 1914-18 war served on the Embarcation

Staff at Southampton and on the Railway Transport Staff, Horse Guards, as Assistant Director, from which post he retired in 1919, the year he wasmade a C.B.E. He married in 1902 Annie (who died in 1944), alder daughter of the late C.W.Mitchell, of Jesmond Towers, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and had a son and a daughter."

Lieutenant Webb Gillman

His obituary was published in The Times on Friday, April 21st, 1933 :
"SIR WEBB GILLMAN
G.O.C.-IN-C., EASTERN COMMAND
Of General Sir Webb Gillman, whose death is announced on another page, it may be said that the Gunners have seldom produced one who, both in barracks and on active service, has proved a more popular and more successful Staff officer and commander. The second son of Herbert Webb Gillman, of Clonteadmore, Coachford, Co. Cork, he was born on October 26, 1870. His father was the senior descendant of John Gillman, who went to
Ireland in 1599 as a lieutenant in the Army under the Earl of Essex, and traced hi descent from Gifmin, the head of the 4th Royal Tribe of Wales, in whose memory a monument exists at Glynllivon.

From Dulwich Gillman passed into Woolwich, where he shone in all athletic sports and twice won the "Bugle" as "Victor Ludorum". He was gazetted into the Royal Artillery in July, 1889, and became well known as a good rider to hounds at home and after pigs in india, where he won the Kadir Cup in 1897. He also played for the Royal Artillery at polo. On the score of his horsemanship he was soon appointed to Horse Artillery. In 1899,when serving with the "Eagle troop", or N Battery, R.H.A., he was selected to go to the South African War with an R.H.A. Ammunition Column. He thus took part in the early operations culminating in the relief of Kimberley with French's Cavalry Division, and was also present at the surrender of Cronje at Paardeberg, the battle of Driefontein, and the subsequent capture of Bloemfontein. But, having been promoted captain in the previous November, he was, much to his chagrin, ordered to return to England, and was appointed adjutant, R.H.A., at Aldershot. But the brigade, then under orders for the Cape, never left home, and Gillman, despairing of seeing more service in South Africa, volunteered in 1901 for special service in the Aro Ewpedition in Southern Nigeria. There he served as staff officer to various columns, and finally for his services received the D.S.O.
In 1902 he was again posted to the R.H.A. and went out to South Africa in the following year, where he served till promoted major in 1905. During these years he twice qualified for the Staff College, but failed to pass in. However, in December, 1907, he was offered the post of D.A.A.G., subsequently augmented to that of G.S.O. 2nd Grade, at Sierra Leone. After spending one year in Africa he was appointed Assistant Military Secretary, Eastern Command, but had hardly taken up his duties before he received a special nomination for the Staff College, and graduated, although he had entered 21/2 years over the usual age of 35. On leaving Camberley he was sent to the Naval College at Portsmouth,and in August, 1910, was appointed G.S.O. 2nd Grade, Southern Coast Defences, at that place. In April, 1912, he was transferred to the War Office for work under the Director of Military Operations and received a brevet lieutenant-colonelcy in 1914.
At the outbreak of the Great War in 1914 he was allowed to leave the War Office to assume command of the 114th Field Battery in the 1st Division. With it he took part in the retreat from Mons and in the Battle of the Marne, and came in for severe fighting during the crossing of the Aisneand subsequent operations. In October, 1914, he was selected as special liaison officer between Sir John French and Sir Douglas Haig, and thus left his battery before the battle of Ypres had fully developed. In January, 1915, he was selected as G.S.O. 1st grade with the 13th Division of the new armies forming at home, and came home to assist in its training. With it he went to Gallipoli in June, spending one month in th trenches at Helles and the month of August at Anzac, where the division suffered heavily in cooperating with the landing at Suvla. In September, 1915, Gillman was appointed brigadier-general, R.A., of the IXth Corps, but on the arrival of Sir Charles Monro as Commander-in-Chief was transferred to his staff as B.G., G.S., and was largely concerned with the arrangements for the evacuation of the peninsula, being subsequently promoted to a brevet-colonelcy.
During the redistribution of troops in Egypt after the evacuation of Gallipoli, Gillman was, in February 1916, sent to Mesopotamia as liaison officer between the War Office and the Mesopotamia Force, and was present during the final efforts to relieve Kut. On his retrn home in May he was diverted from Egypt to Salonika to take up the appointment of Major-General, General Staff, to Sir George Milne, appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British Forces in June, 1916. He remained at Salonika until August, 1917, when he was selected to command the 17h (Indian) Division in Mesopotamia. But on Sir Stanley Maude's death he was selected for the appointment of Chief of the General Staff to Sir William Marshall, and remained in that post till the end of the War.
Gillman, who had been promoted substantive major-general in June, 1918, returned home in March, 1919, where he was given command of the demobilization centre at Catterick Camp. After a few months he was appointed amemberof the Committee formed under Lord Esher to inquire into the conditions and organization of the Army in India. His next appointment was that of Commandant of the Royal Military Academy in September, 1920,where he sayed until April, 1924, when he was transferred to the ressucitated appointment of Inspector of Royal Artillery at the War Office. During the tenure of his appointment he was permitted to go as a guest of the French Government as a Military Attaché on Marshal Pétain's staff in Morocco in the winter of 1925 during the operations against Abdel-Krim in the Riff country. In NOvember, 1926, he was promoted lieutenant-general, and  vacated his appointment as Inspector, R.A. Early in the following year he was sent to Singapore on a commission to report on the defences of the new naval base ; and shortly after his return in October was appointed Master-General of the Ordnance in succession to General Sir Noel Birch.
Both as Inspector R.A. and as M.G.O. Gillman was confronted with the develoment of mechanization in the Army, and his appointment as M.G.O. coincided with the reallocation of duties as between that officer and the Quartermaster-General whereby the Directorate of Ordnance Services came under the M.G.O. and the Director of Works under the Q.M.G., while the M.G.O. was entrusted with the design and manufacture of guns, small arms, ammunition, carriages, and ll tracked, semi-tracked, and wheeled  vehicles and with their maintenance, except those on R.A.S.C. charge. It also was decided that he should be represented in the field, and a D.M.G.O. was authorized for any future expeditionary force. The financial stringency prevalent at that time prevented great results from being achieved, and Gillman's reputation may have suffered somewhat thereby. But it may be asserted that the years 1925 to 1930 marked an era in the life of our Army which will be remembered as a turningpoint in the use of mechanically propelled vehicles, both fighting and other. Gillman succeeded to the appointment of G.O.C.-in-C., Eastern Command, in March, 1931, and was promoted general in the following June.
Although Sir Webb Gillman never held a high command in the field, his reputation as a true soldier stands asured. Wherever he went his common sense and unassuming self-confidence impressed all those around him. Without ever pretending to possess an outstanding intellect, hewould surprise his staff by the clearness of his views. A strong believer inthe principle of physical fitness, he practised what he preached, as the cadets under his command at Woolwich could testify. With such a character success came naturally,a nd he remained unspoiled, while he continued to take the deepest personal interest in his regimental associations to his last days.
Sir Webb Gillman was created C.M.G. in 1915, K.C.M.G. in 1919, and K.C.B. in 1927. He was appointed a Colonel-Commandant of Royal Artillery in 1930. In 1911 he married Elizabeth, daughter of the late Mr. Charles Rube, and had one son, who recently passed out of the R.M. Academy, and two daughters."

Lieutenant Geoffrey Herbert Anthony White

His obituary was published in The Times on Thursday, December 17th, 1959 :
"MAJ.-GEN.G.H.A.WHITE
Major-General G.H.A.White, C.B., C.M.G., D.S.O., died on Tuesday at the age of 89. The son of F.A.White, of Belgrave Place, S.W., Geoffrey Herbert Anthony White was born on November 3, 1870. He was educated at Eton and R.M.A.Woolwich, and was commissioned in the Royal Artillery in 1890. He saw service in the South African War, during which he was present at the Relief of Kimberley, and for three years, from 1910 to 1913, was Superintendent of the R.A. Riding Establishment. In the war of 1914-1918 he saw much

active service with the 7th Cavalry Brigade (3rd Cavalry Division) in command of K Battery, R.H.A., and as C.R.A., 30th Division. He was awarded a D.S.O. in 1916, made C.M.G. in 1918 and C.B. a year later, and seven times mentioned in dispatches. In 1918 he returned to Woolwich as Commandant of the R.M.A., with the temporary rank of major-general, and after two years became Commandant of the Woolwich Sub-Area. He was promoted major-general in 1923 and from 1925 until 1929, in which year he retired, he was Director of Remounts, War Office. From 1934 to 1940 he was Colonel Commandant, R.A., and in 1939-40 Colonel Commandant, R.H.A.
His marriage to Beatrice, daughter of Durdley Raikes de Chair, took place in 1918. She died in 1953."

Lieutenant R. England

R. England studied at R.M.A. Woolwich, a gentleman cadet of the engineer division.
He was rcommended for a commission as a 2d Lieutenant in the Royal Artillery on February 13th, 1891 ; by 1893 he was attached to the Western Division, Garrison Artillery (15 S.T., Plymouth).
He was promoted to the rank of Lieutenant on February 13th, 1894.
He was gazetted a Captain on augmentation on March 2d, 1900.

He took part in the South African War, and the return of casualties for the battle of Diamond Hill (June 11th, 1900) tells us that he was attached to F Battery R.H.A.:
"Wounded. Capt. R.England, slight, leg ".

He was invalided home on board the Aurania, leaving Cape Town on July 7th, 1900, and reaching Southampton on July 27th.

He was gazetted a Major on August 11th, 1908 (dated June 27th).