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P Battery (The Dragon Troop) Royal Artillery

British Army artillery battery

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General referenceInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionJun 13, 2026
Entity authorityQ7121257 ↗
Source-derived summary

P Battery (The Dragon Troop) is a battery of 5th Regiment, Royal Artillery in the Royal Regiment of Artillery. It currently serves in the Surveillance and Target Acquisition role and is equipped with weapon platform locating equipment, which include radar and sound ranging systems.

History

The Rocket Troop Madras Horse Artillery was formed in 1805, at the request of the Madras Government and East India Company and it served in the Pindari and Mahratta Wars 1817–1819. It was re-designated as C Troop, Madras Horse Artillery in 1825.

In 1840, the Troop was sent to China as part of an expeditionary force to fight in the First Opium War. Then in 1841, it provided artillery support for a combined land and sea force assaulted the formidable line of forts guarding the mouth of the Xi River, which cleared the way for an attack on Canton (now known as Guangzhou). For its contribution in the campaign, 'C' Troop was conferred the honorary title 'Dragon', and was given permission to include the Chinese dragon and the years '1840–1842' as part of its insignia.

The Troop then served in the second Burma War between 1853 and 1855, and after much renaming, it became 'P' Battery Royal Horse Artillery in 1889. The Battery subsequently served in the Boer War 1900–1902 and as a training Battery during the First World War. The battery was part of M/P Battery in 3rd Regiment, Royal Horse Artillery (3 RHA) at the start of the Second World War and was equipped with the 2-pounder anti-tank guns.

Editorial summary

“P Battery (The Dragon Troop) Royal Artillery” enters the record as british Army artillery battery. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Battery, Dragon and Troop can confirm, complicate or overturn.

Editorial reviewA concise reference frame for defining the subject, testing terminology and identifying the institution closest to the evidence. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1805, 1817, 1819, 1825—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1816-01-01. Its strongest next move is a source search built around Battery, Dragon and Troop.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

“P Battery (The Dragon Troop) Royal Artillery” is worth following because a concise public description often conceals a longer documentary argument. Here, Battery, Dragon and Troop provides the most credible route into that argument.

Evidence profile

The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jun 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q7121257. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1805, 1817, 1819 and 1825.

Critical limits

Overview language is designed for orientation and should not be treated as a substitute for the evidence cited beneath it. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.

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  2. Expand the search: follow P Battery (The Dragon Troop) Royal Artillery primary sources, P Battery (The Dragon Troop) Royal Artillery archive and Battery research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from “P Battery (The Dragon Troop) Royal Artillery” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.