page_title: 9th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment
section_title: 873 M/L Battery
hierarchical_section_title: 9th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment / Postwar / 873 M/L Battery
caption_attribution_description: English: Former Territorial Army Drill Hall, Leacroft, Staines-upon-Thames
context_page_description: The 9th Battalion, Middlesex Regiment was an infantry battalion of the British Army. Part of the Volunteer Force, later the Territorial Force, the battalion was part of the Middlesex Regiment and recruited from the north-western suburbs of London. It served as infantry in the Mesopotamian campaign during World War I and as an air defence regiment during and after World War II.
context_section_description: Movement light or 'artificial moonlight' units used searchlights to illuminate ground operations at night. 873 Battery formed at the Drill Hall, Leacroft, Staines, with an establishment of Battery HQ (BHQ) and three troops of eight lights each, with a Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers workshop. In 1958, the battery moved to hutted accommodation at Twickenham. Because the sole remaining role of searchlights was ground illumination, the battery was converted from RA to Royal Engineers in 1961 as 873 (Middlesex) Movement Light Squadron under the command of 27 Engineer Brigade.
  873 M/L Sqn provided lighting during the construction of the Medway bridges for the M2 motorway in 1962, but its offer to light the rescue efforts after the Aberfan disaster in 1966 was rejected. When the TA was converted into the smaller TAVR in 1967, 873 Sqn was reduced to HQ and one Troop – the only dedicated searchlight unit remaining not only in the British Army but the whole of NATO. The squadron moved to the TA Centre at Horns Lane, Acton, and in 1975 became part of 73 Engineer Regiment. In 1988, it was transferred to 101 (City of London) Engineer Regiment, an Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) unit, and its title was changed to 220 (Searchlight) Field Squadron (EOD), with searchlight operation in addition to normal Sapper duties. The unit moved to the TA Centre at Vicarage Lane, Heston, in 1988, and was disbanded in 1999.
caption: Former TA Drill Hall, Leacroft, Staines
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