If your ancestor served with the Honourable Artillery Company between 1537 and 1908 you will find him in this recently published roll of HAC members
This important work, published by the Honourable Artillery Company in 2014, provides information on all those known to have been admitted to the oldest regiment in the British Army between its earliest times and its integration into the Territorial Force on 1 April 1908. Edited by Dr Kirsty Bennett, the Roll contains biographical information about nearly 17,000 members of the HAC. This information has been extracted from around 100 different historical sources spanning four-hundred years. The entries on the Roll encompass both men of fame and individuals whose service has hitherto been relatively unexplored. Amongst them are Royalists and regicides, architects and artists and bankers and businessmen. The Roll commemorates about 3,000 members of the HAC who were involved in events during the English Civil War period of the mid-seventeenth century (many serving with the City of London Trained Bands when the HAC itself was suspended), plus men who helped defend London during the Gordon Riots (1780), six who died as result of the South African War of 1899-1902 and around 350 who served in World War I.
The original Cardew-Rendle Roll takes the form of two substantial hard-backed A4-sized volumes enclosed in a slip-case. It is the biographical entries in these volumes which are available on Find My Past.
However, not available on Find My Past is the substantial introductory matter in Volume I. This comprises a history of the Company and its membership and a three-part guide to using the Roll. Ten Appendices provide further information about such matters as the history of the Company’s various sub-units and lists of its Presidents, Vice-Presidents and Treasurers. The whole is illustrated by both colour plates and black and white pictures sourced from the HAC’s collections. Printed sets of The Cardew-Rendle Roll are available for consultation at the UK’s copyright libraries as well as the Guildhall Library, or can be purchased from the Honourable Artillery Company directly by emailing hac@hac.org.uk
Brooke, Arthur (adm. 8 March 1875) occ. tea merchant; addr. i) 37 Alwyn Road, Canonbury, ii) 129 High Street, Whitechapel E. Mily: age at adm. twenty-nine; No. 5 Coy throughout. Left 29 October 1877 (resigned). His address, occupation and age indicate that this is the Arthur Brooke who founded the tea firm Brooke, Bond & Co. Born in Ashton-under-Lyne, Lancashire, in 1845, Brooke’s first shop was in Manchester; he quickly expanded to hold premises in Liverpool, Leeds and Bradford. Brooke moved to London in 1872, where he opened an office and warehouse on Whitechapel High Street. In 1901, he set up an agency in Calcutta, India, in order to buy and blend tea there. He retired as a director of his company in 1904 and died on 13 April 1918. Sources: CM; ODNB; PAML; RR2; SB2; VB2. Published Refs: ODNB.
Oldershaw (Ouldershaw), Thomas (adm. 23 March 1781) occ. ‘gentleman’; addr. ‘No 103 Cornhill’. Mily: probably in the Matross Div. in 1784 (minuted mistakenly as James Oldershaw). Left 11 December 1787 (expelled for non-payment of arrears of quarterage). CM 18 July 1794: ‘…formerly a Member of the Company, petitioned the Court for relief…unforeseen misfortunes and heavy losses in trade occasioned his being a bankrupt, that since he has been so unfortunate as to break both his ankle bones by a fall, which has confined him for several months, and that he with his wife and six small children are in great distress and in want of the common necessaries of life…’; granted five guineas from the Poors Box. Not a Freeman. Sources: AB2; CB; CM.
Speering (Speeringe, Spearinge), Nicholas (adm. 15 August 1611) This is one of fifty-three men adm. on this day. Their names are the first to have been entered onto the AVB’s roll of members of the Company and they are therefore the earliest-known members of the HAC (although note that ten other men are known to have been associated with the 1537 Fraternity or Guild of Artillery, or with the Old Artillery Garden, in the mid- to late-sixteenth century: vide the entries for Christopher Morris et al). RoA: Capt. Howes (in his 1615 edition of Stow, p. 907) notes Speering’s relationship with the Company and states that he was ‘a merchant of this Citty, their [the Company’s] first elected auncient or Ensigne bearer’. TB: East Regt: Capt. of Lime Street and Cornhill Wards Coy on 17 March 1615/16, ‘Chosen Captain for this Cittie and other places’ (AVB, c. 1610s) {East Regt: Capt. Lime Street and Cornhill Wards Coy 1608-18}. LC: Goldsmiths (Prime Warden 1600); Speering bequeathed £10 to the Company in 1618. Sources: AVB; COL/AD/01/031; Goldsmiths; GWTBRC. Published Refs: J. Stow, Annales, ed. by E. Howes (London: 1615), p. 907; J. Taylor, ‘Origins of the HAC: Part III –The “Society of Arms” of 1611 and the Development of a Tradition’, HACJ, 88, no. 480 (Spring 2011), 74-80 & 89-91 (p. 76).
Webb, Douglas Marshall (adm. 14 October 1907) b. 1 August 1885; addr. i) 32 Sunningdale Road, St John’s SE, ii) 9 Waterloo Crescent, Dover and iii) London Hospital E. Mily: age at adm. twenty-three; No. 4 [No. 3] Coy until 1914. Served in WWI (regtl no. 228): with 1st Bn No. 3 Coy to France 18 September 1914: L/Cpl (Batman), in hospital 27 November 1914; attached to the 24th General Hospital; rejoined HAC 1st Bn 25 May 1916; at Corporals’ Schools 22 July 1916; rejoined HAC 1st Bn 29 July 1916: Cpl 18 August 1916, L/Sgt 12 September 1916, A/Sgt 26 September 1916, Sgt 28 October 1916, sick in hospital and evacuated to England 15 November 1916; left hospital 12 June 1917 and granted leave until 21 June 1917; to 3rd Bn No. 3 Coy. HAC Vet. Coy after WWI. Died 26 April 1981 (death reported to Court 18 May 1981). Sources: AR; CM; HACJ; MMB; PAML; RNR1; RR2; VB3. Published Refs: HACJ, 58, no. 421 (Autumn 1981), p. 44.
The list of abbreviations recorded in the Cardew-Rendle Roll of Members is extensive, and The Honourable Artillery Company has helpfully provided a glossary.
All sub-units mentioned below are of the HAC unless stated otherwise.
The list also gives the codes by which frequently cited sources are referred to in The Cardew-Rendle Roll alongside summary details of the source. All unpublished sources are held by the HAC Archives unless a different repository is given. A number of the HAC sources have been digitised and are also available to search and/or browse on Findmypast.
In addition, you might like to know that list of abbreviations and a more detailed discussion of each source can be found in the Introduction to the limited edition printed version of The Cardew-Rendle Roll, published in 2013 and available to purchase directly from the HAC. HAC ranks and appointments can also be found listed discretely in the printed version of the Roll’s Appendix II.
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