Honourable Artillery Company

Having been incorporated in 1537 by a Charter from Henry VIII, the HAC can claim to be the oldest in the British Army. Throughout its long history, its duties have usually seen it confined to the city of London, where it has occasionally been called upon repeatedly to maintain order – most prominently perhaps during the Gordon Riots of 1780, which, as it was alleged at the time, had been caused by French agents hoping to destabilise the country to their benefit in the American War of Independence.