The number of batteries decreased at the end of the Nineteenth Century as the range and power of coastal artillery guns rapidly increased, with a consequent reduction in the number of soldiers. Drastic cutbacks of the British Army following the First World War included the withdrawal of the regular Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers companies from Bermuda in 1928 (the regular infantry establishment was also steadily reduced between the two world wars). The Bermuda Militia Artillery had been created in 1895 as a part-time, local-service reserve within the Royal Artillery. Although intended to be embodied only in wartime, or for annual training, to re-inforce the regular gunners, it took on the entire responsibility for manning the batteries in readiness for war, and the Bermuda Volunteer Engineers was raised in 1930 to take on some of the responsibilities of the withdrawn regular engineers (specifically, manning the Defence Electric Lights used to illuminate targets for the coastal artillery). Although the small sizes of these units meant that only two 6-inch guns at St. David's Battery could be kept ready for war, much of the weekly training took place at St. George's Garrison, where the Bermuda Militia Artillery headquarters was located at Convict Bay.
