| Unit Name: | Cinque Ports Division, RA |
| Dates: | 4 April 1882–1 July 1889 |
| Country: |  United Kingdom |
| Branch: | British Army |
| Type: | Administrative division |
| Command Structure: | Royal Artillery |
| Garrison: | Dover |
The Cinque Ports Division, Royal Artillery was an administrative grouping of garrison units of the Royal Artillery, Artillery Militia and Artillery Volunteers within the British Army's South Eastern District from 1882 to 1889.
Under General Order 72 of 4 April 1882 the Royal Artillery (RA) broke up its existing administrative brigades of garrison artillery (7th–11th Brigades, RA) and assigned the individual batteries to 11 new territorial divisions. These divisions were purely administrative and recruiting organisations, not field formations. Most were formed within the existing military districts into which the United Kingdom was divided, and for the first time associated the part-time Artillery Militia with the regulars. Shortly afterwards the Artillery Volunteers were also added to the territorial divisions. The Regular Army batteries were grouped into one brigade, usually of nine sequentially-numbered batteries and a depot battery. For these units the divisions represented recruiting districts – batteries could be serving anywhere in the British Empire and their only connection to brigade headquarters (HQ) was for the supply of drafts and recruits. The artillery militia units (sometimes referred to as regiments) already comprised a number of batteries, and were redesignated as brigades, losing their county titles in the process. The artillery volunteers, which had previously consisted of numerous independent Artillery Volunteer Corps (AVC) of various sizes, sometimes grouped into administrative brigades, had been consolidated into larger AVCs in 1881, which were now affiliated to the appropriate territorial division.[1] [2] [3] [4]
Cinque Ports Division, RA, listed as fourth in order of precedence, was organised within the Cinque Ports coastal area of South Eastern District with the following composition:[1] [2] [3] [5] [6] [7] [8]
Under General Order 77 of June 1887 the AVCs were redesignated within the CP Division:[8] [9]
In 1889 the garrison artillery was reorganised again into three large divisions of garrison artillery (Eastern, Southern and Western) and one of mountain artillery. The militia and volunteer units formerly in CP Division were reassigned to the Eastern Division while the regular batteries were distributed across all four divisions and completely renumbered.[1] [2] [3] [6] [8] [10] [11] [12]