RAA LIAISON LETTER- 2025 – 2026 EDITION CANNONBALL SUPPLEMENT 132 The Memorial was dedicated in 1925, destroyed in by German soldiers in 1940, and rebuilt in 1971. The graphic May Butler-George plaster relief depicts an 18 pounder Gun Detachment straining while bringing their gun into action in battle while a damaged aircraft plummets to earth. A Gunner who modelled for May Butler-George was given the plaster relief. Brigadier L.E.S. Barker CBE DSO MC subsequently gifted the relief to the Regiment in his retirement. The largest fireplan by the Australian Imperial Force in WW1 was on 8 August 1918. Since the 1920’s, Gunner Dinners have occurred in August to commemorate the 1918 action. The RAA Cypher: Perpetuating its Significance A Short History and Proposed Actions EXTRACT FROM A HOR BRIEF WRITTEN BY BRIGADIER JOHN COX, CHAIR, REGIMENTAL HISTORY COMMITTEE The RAA Cypher illuminates the importance of the design of an early badge in the history of the RAA, and why the current Regimental Presentation Cypher is an appropriate symbolic gift to recognize long service to the Regiment on retirement. The RAA Cypher has its origins in a badge first approved for wear by the permanent branch of the Australian Artillery in 1903. (See below). Then it was described as a "Collar badge, A scroll with Consensu Stabiles, the letters RAA resting on the scroll and supporting a Tudor crown.” It was also to be worn on the Cap, Field Service, as a headdress badge. A cypher can be defined as a design with a series of interwoven letters. The acronym RAA proudly proclaims the Royal Australian Artillery, which was bestowed by Queen Victoria on 14 July 1899, 18 months before the creation of the Commonwealth of Australia on 1 January 1901. The 1903 badge, which became the RAA Cypher, reminds Gunners of the service of artillery to the new Australian nation from shortly after Federation when the former Australian Colonies ceased to be responsible for their own defence. In these early years the badge was only worn by Gunners of the Permanent Artillery. A related historical aspect is that the only units of the Australian Imperial Force during the Great War that did not wear the Commonwealth pattern rising sun badge were with the Australian Siege Brigade. The members of this Brigade wore a copper oxidised headdress and collar badge that consisted of the letters ‘RAA’ entwined under a Tudor Crown with a scroll at the base embossed with the motto CONSENSU STABILES. It is Australia’s only artillery badge worn by Gunners in the Great War. Christmas card sent by Gunner Jackson Monk, 2nd Australian Siege Battery, Tourcoing, France, December 5th, 1918. (page 336 Gunner Jackson Monk, 2nd Australian Siege Battery WW1 His Story)
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjE4NTMz