Artillery Units at Kelvin Grove - A tribute to their guns and gunners

Did you ever serve in the Royal Australian Artillery at Kelvin Grove Barracks or hold an interest in Brisbane gunner history? If your reply is ‘Yes’, then you must invest six dollars for a delightful little publication.

Beginning with a militia setting just before the First World War, this easy to read story traces the gunner units’ histories through the Great War, between the wars, the Second World War, National Service in the 1950s, to the Vietnam War period to the last RAA Band unit in 1988. It is intermingled with topical events of the time such as Defence policy and reorganisations, the opening of new firing ranges, training for war and managing the additional manpower from National Service schemes. The history includes changes to unit titles, commanding officers, weapons, uniforms, horses and vehicles.

The authors, the Kelvin Grove Barracks Artillery Historical Group were assembled by one of the first National Servicemen of the 1950s’ scheme, Rex Kirkham, to produce a written record of the guns and gunners who had been such an integral part of the barracks since 1915. Other members of the group had also been RAA National Servicemen from the 1950s – Dave Burgess, Rob Collins, John Duncan, Gerry Keates, Con Lucey and Nigel Stevens.

The final author who also undertook the editorial and publishing tasks is Arthur Burke, originally a Kelvin Grove gunner before accepting a Regular Army commission and currently the Colonel Commandant RAA in Queensland. Arthur’s attributes as an acknowledged RAA historian and the others’ soldier, NCO and officer experiences over many years in the Citizen Military Forces across field, anti-aircraft and searchlight units proved invaluable in recording this artillery history of a north Brisbane suburb.

With the financial support of the Brisbane City Council and the encouragement of the Kelvin Grove Urban Village Project, this 48 page booklet (including eight pages of images) is a pleasant trip down memory lane for old gunners and a must for any artilleryman’s personal collection.

Artillery Units at Kelvin Grove is available from the Gunner Signallers’ Club – refer separate Order and Payment Form via the link below.

Don't forget to tell the Gunner Signallers' Club
that you found out about their great little book
on Peter Dunn's "Australia @ War" web site

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