174th Siege Battery, RGA, was raised at Weymouth on 13 June 1916 under Army Council Instruction 1239 of 21 June 1916 with a cadre of 3 officers and 78 other ranks from the Dorsetshire RGA. It went out to the Western Front in October 1916, equipped with four 6-inch howitzers, and soon joined Fifth Army which was engaged in the final stages of the Somme Offensive.