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Almost all of the Honourable Artillery Company’s earliest records were lost during the English Civil War, including in all likelihood the original Charter of Incorporation granted to the Company by King Henry VIII in 1537 (we rely on a contemporary enrolled copy held in the National Archives).  The Company does have a roll of members admitted between 1611 and 1682, known as the Ancient Vellum Book, and a collection of early printed books and pamphlets (1616-1800).  The minutes of the Company’s governing body, the Court of Assistants, survive in an unbroken sequence from 1656/7 to the present day.  Minutes of subsidiary committees appointed by the Court begin in 1718 and the Company’s earliest financial records date from 1667.

 

A Royal Warrant of 1889 gave the Secretary of State for War full control of the Company’s military affairs.  For this reason, most records created by the Company after that date and held in the HAC Archives mainly concern civil rather than military matters.

 

 

A consistent record of those admitted to membership of the Company has been kept since 1784.  More recently, a card index on members who served in the First World War contains information that may not be available elsewhere because of the destruction of War Office records during the London Blitz.  A card index for the Second World War includes both members of the Company and men posted to HAC units from other regiments.

 

 

The Company preserves records of its property and activities and collects the personal papers of its members.  Personal papers held in the HAC Archives include those of the Victorian landscape gardener and garden architect Major Alexander McKenzie (1829-93) and artworks by Adrian Hill (1895-1977) and Robert Thomas Landells (1833-77).  As well as minute books and financial records, archive material held at Armoury House includes letters, diaries, memoirs, rare books and pamphlets, press cuttings, photographs, maps, and plans.

   

 

Catalogue descriptions of the Company’s archives appear on the National Archives’ A2A (Access to Archives) and the AIM25 Project (Archives in London and the M25 area) websites.  Most early printed material is included in the English Short Title Catalogue (ESTC), available free of charge on the British Library website.

 

 

In July 2005 the Company began a project funded by a bequest from a late member, Harold Cardew-Rendle, to compile and publish an alphabetical roll of members admitted from the earliest times to 31st March 1908, the day before the formal inauguration of the Territorial Army.

 

 

Members of the Company are welcome to consult the Archives during working hours. Enquiries from other researchers should be made in writing and accompanied by a stamped addressed envelope.  A donation may be requested for answering a complex or lengthy enquiry.  Some records, such as those about the Company’s benevolent fund, are subject to lengthy closure rules.