(Nery) Battery came into existence in India in 1809 as 3rd Troop The
Bengal Horse Artillery. It spent most if its formative years on the
sub-continent. Its time was there was distinguished by service in the
Indian Mutiny in 1857. In an action on 7th July 1857, Gunner William
Connolly in an act of valour, where he was repeatedly injured, refused
to leave his post on the gun. He was subsequently awarded the first of
L Battery's Victoria Crosses. After the Indian Mutiny, the Bengal Horse
Artillery was disbanded and in 1889 the Battery was subsequently renamed
L Battery Royal Horse Artillery.
At the start of World War 1, the Battery accompanied the BEF to France.
On the evening of the 31st August 1914, the 1st Cavalry Brigade and L
Battery lay up for the night in the village of Nery. The following
morning the German 4th Cavalry Division attacked them. In the
subsequent action, the Battery, less for one gun, was all but
destroyed. The gun manned by Captain Bradbury, WO2 Dorrell, Sergeant
Nelson, and Gunners Osbourne and Darbyshire, managed to stay in action
against three hostile German Batteries located under a thousand yards
away. An hour later, only WO2 Dorrell and Sgt Nelson remained at the
gun, the rest of the gun sub being dead or wounded. The fire that was
put down by the gun enabled the 1st Cavalry Brigade to deliver a
successful counter attack. For this action Bradbury, Dorrell and Nelson
were all awarded the Victoria Cross. It was for this action that the
Battery was awarded its Honour Title “Néry”.
The Battery served with distinction during WW2 in North Africa and Italy
and subsequently in The Palestine,
After completing a 3 year anti terrorism operation in Malaya the Battery
moved to Colchester in 1961 and became part of the Strategic Reserve.
It was while it was part of
the Strategic Reserve that the Battery was deployed as part of a wider
force to Cyprus to stop the fighting between the Turkish and Greek
Cypriots.
In September 1965 L Battery (Nery) moved to Portsmouth
Barracks, Münster (Germany)
and stayed there until January 1968 when it moved back to Bernard
Castle, Yorkshire. In 1971 it returned to Germany this time to
Peninsula Barracks Hemer where it remained until 1977, during that time it
conducted three emergency tours of Northern Ireland. The Battery then
moved to Ubique Barracks, Dortmund for a short time before taking
position as the support Regiment at the Royal School of Artillery,
Larkhill.
The wheel then turned a full circle when the Battery returned to Münster
in 1982 to serve with 4th Brigade.
Elements of the Battery also served in the First Gulf War.
In 1993 the
Battery joined 1 RHA on the disbandment of 2 Regt RA
