page_title: 359th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery
section_title: Mobilisation
hierarchical_section_title: 359th Siege Battery, Royal Garrison Artillery / Mobilisation
caption_attribution_description: English: Left elevation diagram of British BL 12-inch Mk I and III railway howitzer.
context_page_description: The 359th Siege Battery was a unit of Britain's Royal Garrison Artillery raised during World War I. It manned heavy railway howitzers on the Western Front in 1917 and 1918,
context_section_description: The battery was raised at Lavernock on 21 January 1917 under the auspices of the Glamorgan Royal Garrison Artillery, a unit of the Territorial Force (TF) serving in No 26 Coastal Fire Command in South Wales, responsible for the defence of Swansea, Cardiff and  Barry. Since 1914 the TF's coastal defence units had been supplying cadres of trained gunners to form new batteries of RGA siege guns for service on the Western Front. The Glamorgan RGA had already formed at least three such batteries (96th, 121st, and 172nd).
  Battery Sergeant-Major (BSM) George Evans, a TF veteran who had already seen active service, served as the provisional commander. In early February, 1917, 2nd Lt George Rae and 2nd L. Robert C. Palmer were the first two officers assigned to the battery.
  Originally established as an 8-inch howitzer battery, the unit was reformed as a 12-inch railway howitzer battery while training at Lydd Ranges in April and May 1917.
caption: The BL 12-inch Mk I–III railway howitzer.
exif: {}