Bermuda Garrison
Bermuda Garrison | |
---|---|
Bermuda | |
Coordinates | 32°17′58″N 64°45′55″W / 32.2994949°N 64.7653454°W |
Type | Barracks |
Site information | |
Owner | Ministry of Defence |
Operator | British Army |
Site history | |
Built | 1793 |
Built for | War Office Board of Ordnance |
In use | 1793–1957 |
The Bermuda Garrison was the military establishment maintained on the
From the 1790s onwards, the garrison existed firstly to defend Bermuda as the main base of the
Although the last professional soldiers (a detachment of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry) were withdrawn in 1957, and the Garrison ceased to exist, two part-time components – the Bermuda Militia Artillery and the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps (retitled Bermuda Rifles) – continued to exist until 1965, when they amalgamated to create the current Royal Bermuda Regiment.
1609 to 1701
The
Bermuda tended toward the Royalist side during the
In May, 1650, the Reverend Mr. Hooper informed the Council of Bermuda that a ship under the command of Captain Powell, with Commissioners Colonel Rich, Mr. Hollond, Captain Norwood, Captain Bond, and a hundred men aboard, was prepared to seize Bermuda. Although the local Government accepted instructions that arrived at the same time from the Virginia Company regarding the appointment of Governor, it remained staunchly Royalist, prosecuting traitors against the our Soveraigne Lord the Kinge. in November of that year. No assault was attempted against Bermuda, but after the 13 January 1652, fall of Barbados, the Government of Bermuda made peace with the Commonwealth, acknowledging the legitimacy and authority of the Commonwealth of England as yt is now established without a kinge or House of Lordes, but largely preserving the internal status quo of the colony.[4]
Alongside Bermuda's militia (as in England, a conscripted infantry force) was a standing body of volunteers (and some convicts, sentenced to carrying out military service) trained as artillery men to garrison the forts and batteries built by the
In addition to the full-time artillerymen, all of the colony's men of military age were obliged to turn out for militia training and in case of war. They were organised as infantry and (after the Civil War, which had demonstrated the importance at that time of cavalry and mounted infantry) a Troop of Horse.
1701 to 1768
In 1701, the threat of war led the English government to post an Independent Company of regular soldiers to Bermuda, where the militia continued to function as a standby in case of war or insurrection. The company, a detachment of the
1793 to 1815
Regular soldiers invalided from continental battlefields as part of the
The Royal Naval establishment began with facilities in St. George's Town in 1795, after the naval surveyors had spent a dozen years charting the barrier reef that encircles Bermuda in order to discover the channel that enabled access for ships of the line to the northern lagoon, as well as to the Great Sound, Hamilton Harbour, and the West End of Bermuda. Although this channel had been located, the naval base had first been established at St. George's Town, at the East End, because the West End lands that the Admiralty was acquiring for a permanent base were as yet completely undeveloped. Vice Admiral Sir George Murray, Commander-in-Chief of the new River St. Lawrence and Coast of America and North America and West Indies Station, set up the first Admiralty House, Bermuda at Rose Hill, St. George's, with the anchorage for the fleet being what is still known as Murray's Anchorage, in the Northern Lagoon off St. George's Island. In 1813, the naval area of command including Bermuda became the North America Station again, with the West Indies falling under the Jamaica Station, and in 1816 it was renamed the North America and Lakes of Canada Station. When the United States declared war on Britain in 1812, construction of the Royal Naval Dockyard) has scarcely commenced, and the main naval base was still at St. George's alongside the main military facility, the St. George's Garrison
The British Army had re-established its garrison on Bermuda the year before the Royal Navy established its base. As the
Prior to 1784, the Bermuda Garrison had been placed under the military Commander-in-Chief America in New York during the American War of Independence, but was subsequently to become part of the Nova Scotia Command until the 1860s (in 1815, Lieutenant-General Sir George Prevost was Captain-General and Governor-in-Chief in and over the Provinces of Upper-Canada, Lower-Canada, Nova-Scotia, and New~Brunswick, and their several Dependencies, Vice-Admiral of the same, Lieutenant-General and Commander of all His Majesty’s Forces in the said Provinces of Lower Canada and Upper-Canada, Nova-Scotia and New-Brunswick, and their several Dependencies, and in the islands of Newfoundland, Prince Edward, Cape Breton and the Bermudas, &c. &c. &c. Beneath Prevost, the staff of the British Army in the Provinces of Nova-Scotia, New-Brunswick, and their Dependencies, including the Islands of Newfoundland, Cape Breton, Prince Edward and Bermuda were under the Command of Lieutenant-General Sir John Coape Sherbrooke. Below Sherbrooke, the Bermuda Garrison was under the immediate control of the Governor of Bermuda, Major-General George Horsford).[7]
The wars with France that had begun with the Revolution would drag on from 1793 to 1815. Meanwhile, the Royal Navy, British Army, Royal Marines, and Colonial Marines forces based in Bermuda did in fact carry out amphibious operations against the Atlantic coast of the United States during the 1812 to 1815
In August, 1814, this naval and military force sailed from Bermuda to join forces already operating on the American coast in order to carry out the
With the re-establishment of a regular army garrison, Bermudians had lost interest in maintaining militias and the Militia Acts were allowed to lapse. There was a brief resurgence of volunteer forces and the militia during the American War of 1812, but these were allowed to lapse again thereafter. The Bermuda Government would not re-raise local reserve forces until pressed by the Secretary of State for War to create the Bermuda Militia Artillery and the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps eight decades later (although there were a number of short-lived attempts to maintain militia without the contribution of the Parliament of Bermuda).
19th century
The increase in British naval and military forces in North America following the defeat of Napoleonic France was to be short-lived. After the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars and the American War of 1812, economic austerity meant that the British armed forces were drastically reduced, and many of the improvements in organisation and practice gained during the preceding two decades of war were lost. Aside from the reduction in size of the British Army and the military corps of the Board of Ordnance, the Volunteer Force and Fencibles were disbanded, and the Militia in the British Isles became a
Such were some of the reasons why it appeared to him, that her Majesty's forces should be increased. He might go to other stations Bermuda for instance. All who were conversant with the interests of our West-Indian and North American possessions must know that Bermuda was one of our most important posts—a station where the navy could be refitted with the greatest ease, where during the last war we had about 2,000,000l. value in stores, where our ships (such was the safety of the anchorage) could at all times take refuge. This island had been fortified at very great expense; for some years 5,000 convicts had been engaged on the works, and it was most important in every point of view that this island should be maintained in a state of perfect security. For a long time even after the determination of the sympathisers in the United States to attack us had been known, the force at Bermuda was never greater than a small battalion of 480 or 500 men, perfectly inadequate to do the duties of the station. Considering that this post was one of great consequence, that immense sums had been expended upon it, and that the efficiency of the navy in those seas was chiefly to be secured by means of it, it was indispensable, that it should be in safe keeping. To what quarter were they to look for further reinforcements, should they be needed, to increase our army in America, in the event of the dispute between New Brunswick and Maine becoming more serious? Not to the West Indies, from which two battalions had already been withdrawn. Not to the Canadas, for communication between these provinces and New Brunswick was impracticable, separated as they were by a wilderness of 400 or 500 miles. In the other colonies every man was required. From the Ionian islands not one could be spared, from Malta not one. From Gibraltar, perhaps, one battalion more could be squeezed, if they could bring themselves to inflict great additional hardship on the troops now in garrison there, It really appeared to him absolutely necessary, that Government should look to the state of the army—should fairly consider the amount of work done by it, and apply themselves to the question, whether it was their duty to increase the military force.
From 1783 through 1801, the British Empire, including British North America, and the military was administered by the Home Office and by the Home Secretary. Control of the military passed to the War Office and the Secretary of State for War in 1794, and colonial business also from 1801 to 1854, with the War Office renamed the War and Colonial Office and the Secretary of State for War became the Secretary of State for War and Colonies.
From 1824, the British Empire (excepting India, which was administered by the East India Company, then the India Office) was divided by the War and Colonial Office into four administrative departments, including NORTH AMERICA, the WEST INDIES, MEDITERRANEAN AND AFRICA, and EASTERN COLONIES, of which North America included:[15]
NORTH AMERICA
- Upper Canada, Lower Canada
- New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island
- Newfoundland
The Colonial Office and War Office, and also the Secretary of State for the Colonies and the Secretary of State for War, were separated in 1854, splitting military control of the Empire as colonial reserve or local forces fell under the control of colonial governors, most of whom were civilians, who reported to the Colonial Office (the exceptions being Imperial fortresses such as Bermuda with serving military officers, in command of both regular and reserve military units, as Governors).[16][17] The War Office, after 1854 and until the 1867 confederation of the Dominion of Canada, split the military administration of the British colonial and foreign stations into nine districts: NORTH AMERICA AND NORTH ATLANTIC; WEST INDIES; MEDITERRANEAN; WEST COAST OF AFRICA AND SOUTH ATLANTIC; SOUTH AFRICA; EGYPT AND THE SUDAN; INDIAN OCEAN; AUSTRALASIA; and CHINA. NORTH AMERICA AND NORTH ATLANTIC included the following stations (or garrisons):[18]
NORTH AMERICA AND NORTH ATLANTIC
- New Westminster (British Columbia)
- Newfoundland
- Quebec
- Halifax
- Kingston, Canada West
- Bermuda
With the buildup of the Dockyard over the first half of the 19th Century, there was a corresponding increase in the size of the Army garrison that was to protect it. This included the construction of numerous fortifications and coastal artillery batteries (the forts, by and large, were also built to house coastal artillery), manned by the Royal Artillery (Royal Garrison Artillery, or RGA), and camps where infantry troops were stationed.[19][20][21]
From the beginning, the Royal Engineers were an important part of the Garrison, improving pre-existing fortifications and batteries, like Fort St. Catherine's, building new ones, surveying the island, building a causeway to link St. George's Island to the Main Island, a lighthouse at Gibb's Hill, and various other facilities. A system of military roads was built, also, as the rudimentary roads that had existed before had been used by islanders primarily to take the shortest route to the shore, with most passengers and wares moved around the archipelago by boats.
The
The St. George's Garrison was a large base including barracks and a hospital to the East and North of St. George's town. Used primarily by the RGA, following the infantry's relocation to Prospect Camp, this large base served the surrounding forts and batteries. As with the fortifications built previously by the colony's militia, the fortifications clustered most thickly at the East End of Bermuda, near St. George's. This was because the primary passage through the surrounding reefline brought vessels close to the Eastern shores of St. David's Island and St. George's Island. There were forts and batteries at other strategic locations throughout Bermuda, however.
Originally, most of the regular soldiers were deployed around St. George's, but with the development of the
Various other smaller sites were used by the Army over the history of the garrison. These included Watford Island and the southern half of Boaz Island, both part of the Admiralty land holdings attached to the HM Dockyard, where Clarence Barracks housed a considerable number of soldiers, and Agar's Island, where substantial underground munitions bunkers were built.
Although numerous Irish Catholic and Protestant soldiers and units had served in the British Army before the 19th Century, Catholicism had actually been outlawed in England and Ireland since the
The 1853 to 1856 Crimean War highlighted the British Army's shortages of the men, material, and money to fight an expeditionary campaign against a large, modern army. Following the war, and the threat of invasion by France resulting from an assassination attempt on the French Emperor (perceived to originate in Britain), the British Army was under great pressure to provide a permanent force in Britain capable either of defending the country in case of invasion, or of mounting an expeditionary campaign similar to the Crimea. As its funding was not to be increased, it could only do this by redeploying units back to Britain from imperial garrison duty.
Britain's primary motivation in supporting the
In 1892, with the UK Government having tried for years in vain to encourage the Bermudian Government to raise part-time units to allow the reduction of the regular component of the garrison, the local parliament authorised the creation of the Bermuda Militia Artillery and the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps as reserves for the RGA and the regular infantry.[31]
The Bermudian parliament's prior reluctance to the creation of such units was partly due to the concern that social unrest might result from creating either racially segregated or integrated units, and partly due to fears that it would be saddled with the entire cost of the military defences. The Secretary of State for War finally achieved their support by ransoming Bermuda's nascent tourism industry.
Bermuda's tourism had arisen without conscious planning, and the hotels at first available to the wealthy visitors who pioneered holidaying on the island were generally small and uninspiring. Bermudian business and political leaders realised that a large, first-rate hotel was required. The development of the hotel hinged on American investment, however. Foreigners were not, at that time, permitted to buy land or businesses in Bermuda, lest their governments use protecting those interests as a pretext for invasion. The USA was seen, throughout the 19th Century, as the primary threat to Bermuda.
As the Secretary of State for War put it, Bermuda was, at the time, considered by the UK government more as a naval and military base than as a colony. Allowing American investment in the new hotel, as well as plans to widen the channel into
A third act had authorised the creation of a unit of submarine (underwater) miners militia. This would have followed in the pattern of the Submarine Mining Militia formed in Britain in 1878 and tasked with defending major ports. They received a minimum of fifty-five days training per year, and were recruited from experienced boatmen. In Bermuda, the unit was intended to operate boat from the Royal Army Service Corps docks in Hamilton and St. George's, tending to the underwater mine defences, but the unit was never raised.
Instead, the Royal Engineers 27th Company (Submarine Mining) which had been permanently reassigned from Halifax, Nova Scotia to Bermuda in 1888 (part of the company had been split off to create the new 40th Company, which remained in Halifax), continued to maintain the mine defences unaided.[32][33][34][35] In 1900 the Royal Engineers Submarine Mining Companies also assumed responsibility for operating electric searchlights defending harbours.
Unit codes were assigned to all three legislated reserve units for marking the stock disks of the
The trend from then on was to reduce the regular soldiers, and to shift an increasing part of the burden of the garrison on the part-time units. This process took many decades, however. The number of soldiers began to decline, and then quickly rose again. For the remainder of the 19th Century, military personnel made up a quarter of Bermuda's population, and defence spending, not agriculture or tourism, was the central leg of the Bermudian economy. Many wealthy American visitors actually brought their daughters to holiday on the island specifically in hopes of marrying them to the young, aristocratic military and naval officers who were posted to Bermuda (this put them in competition with local women, as Bermuda had a disproportionate number of spinsters). The new Princess Hotel made the most of this market, sponsoring dances and other social gatherings to which the officers of the garrison were invited to mingle with guests. The garrison provided bands and guards of honour for numerious social events that attracted residents and visitors, and the three garrison theatres were the primary venues of their kind in Bermuda.[36]
In addition to components of the army garrison, the
First World War
On the declaration of the
The 2 Lincolns were soon sent to England, preparatory to deployment to France, being replaced by a succession of Canadian battalions. On 19 August 1914, the British Government requested from the Adjutant General of the Canadian Militia a Canadian battalion to replace the 2 Lincolns, a request that was agreed to on 22 August by Lieutenant-Colonel Alfred Octave Fages, commanding the Royal Canadian Regiment. As with soldiers of the British Territorial Force (including the BVRC and BMA), Canadian Militia soldiers were recruited for home defence, and could not be compelled to serve overseas. Consequently, the soldiers of the RCR were asked to volunteer as a unit to the deployment. The unit relieved the 2 Lincolns at Prospect Camp on 13 September 1914. It would use the next eleven months in Bermuda to train in preparation for the Western Front. When it was deployed across the Atlantic on 13 August 1915, it was replaced by the 38th Battalion of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF). When this battalion, too, deployed to the European theatre of conflict, it was replaced by the 163rd (French-Canadian) Battalion CEF, which arrived there on 29 May 1916. It was replaced by a British Territorial Force unit, the 2/4th Battalion, East Yorkshire Regiment on 18 November 1916,[37][38][39] and departed for Europe on 27 November 1916.[40] The 2/4th East Yorks remained in Bermuda for the duration of the war.[41]
On the declaration of War in 1914, the BMA was already embodied for annual training and moved onto a war footing. The BVRC embodied, and both units took up their wartime roles. Many Bermudians also enlisted or were commissioned into other British Army units in the United Kingdom and elsewhere, and in dominion military units, the latter including a significant number of Bermudians in the CEF.
The BMA immediately began the process of forming a contingent of volunteers in 1914 to be despatched to the Western Front, but was prevented from doing so. However, two contingents eventually served as part of the larger Royal Garrison Artillery detachment to the Western Front. The first, 201 officers and men, under the command of Major Thomas Melville Dill (who handed overall command of the BMA to a subordinate in order to lead the overseas contingent), left for France on 31 May 1916. A second contingent, of two officers and sixty other ranks, left Bermuda on 6 May 1917, and was merged with the first contingent in France. The contingent, titled the Bermuda Contingent, Royal Garrison Artillery, served primarily in ammunition supply, at dumps, and in delivering ammunition to batteries in the field. The Contingent served at the Somme from June to December 1916. They were then moved away from the Front, serving on docks until April, 1917, when they were attached to the Canadian Corps at Vimy Ridge, serving in the battle for Vimy Ridge. They were at Ypres, from 24 June until 22 October, where three men were killed and several wounded. Two men received the Military Medal. In Bermuda, the BMA was demobilised on 31 December 1918, and when the overseas contingent returned in July, 1919, it was to no unit. Thirty men who chose to remain on temporarily re-enlisted in the RGA, and the rest were demobilised. The unit was re-embodied on 3 June 1920, when its previous members were called up and joined by fifty new recruits.[42]
The BVRC formed a company-sized contingent, Captain Richard Tucker and 88 other ranks, in December 1914, which trained over the winter and spring before being sent to England in June, 1915. As there was a shortage of officers, the
Between the wars
The inter-war period finally saw the significant reduction of the regular army components of the garrison, and the transfer of most of their roles to the part-time territorial units. In 1928, the regular Royal Artillery coastal artillery units and the Royal Engineers Fortress Company were withdrawn,[48][49] with their roles taken up respectively by the BMA and the new Bermuda Volunteer Engineers (BVE), raised in 1931. The coastal artillery forts and batteries were all mothballed or permanently removed from use except for St. David's Battery, which continued in the role of Examination Battery, watching over the channel through which shipping passed through Bermuda's surrounding barrier reef. The regular army infantry battalion was replaced by a company detached from whatever battalion was deployed to Jamaica (the unit on garrison continued to be replaced every three years). This consequently increased the requirement for part-time infantrymen. As the manpower requirements of the artillery had been reduced with the closure of most of the batteries, a new unit, the Bermuda Militia Infantry, was raised, grouped administratively with the BMA and likewise recruiting black soldiers, in 1939. That year, with war imminent, a new coastal artillery battery, with two 6 inch RBL guns, was built on a hill within Warwick Camp, intended to prevent naval vessels from bombarding the Royal Naval Dockyard from off Bermuda's South Shore. As with St. David's Battery, the guns were manned by the BMA and the Defence Electric Lights by the BVE.
Second World War
During the
As during the First World War, the part-time units were again mobilized for the duration (The Bermuda Militia Artillery and the Bermuda Volunteer Engineers at mid-day on 24 August 1939, in anticipation of the 1 September invasion of Poland by Germany, and preparatory to the 3 September declaration of war against Germany, with the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps preparing for embodiment, but not actually embodied until 4 September 1939), becoming full-time. Conscription was quickly introduced, with all military-age British males resident in Bermuda liable for service. The regular army infantry company operated the headquarters of the Garrison at Prospect Camp, and took responsibility for patrolling and guarding in the central parishes. The BVRC took responsibility for patrolling and defending the East End of Bermuda, and the BMI for the West End. In addition to maintaining guards at the Dockyard and Darrell's Island, the infantry soldiers guarded the trans-Atlantic cable facilities, beaches and inlets, patrolled the island, and operated motor boat patrols.
The BMA manned the
The Bermuda Volunteer Engineers filled two roles. They continued to operate spot lamps at the coastal artillery batteries, lighting targets for the BMA gun crews at night. In 1937, the BVE had also absorbed the BVRC's signals section, and assumed responsibility for providing signals detachments for all branches of the garrison, as well as to the Royal Naval Dockyard and to the RAF air station at Darrell's Island.
The BVRC sent a draft to the Lincolns (with volunteers from the other local units attached for the transit) in 1940, following which concern of denuding the garrison meant a moratorium was placed on any further drafts overseas by the local units (although many soldiers were released from their units to train as pilots at the Bermuda Flying School on Darrell's Island). The school only accepted volunteers from amongst those already serving in one of the local army units. Eighty-eight men were sent to the Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm before the school closed in 1942, following which it was reorganised as a recruiting arm for the Royal Canadian Air Force, sending 200 aircrew trainees to that service. The Bermuda Flying School was headed by Major Montgomery-Moore, DFC, who was also the commanding officer of the BVE.
In addition to the British Army and Royal Naval units in Bermuda during the War, a
Although air and naval units based in Bermuda played an active part in the War, the Axis Powers never launched a direct attack on the colony. The considerable buildup of the American
The BVRC sent a second detachment to the Lincolnshire Regiment, and the Bermuda Militia (Artillery and Infantry together) sent a draft which formed the training cadre and the core of the new Caribbean Regiment.
Other than those needed to defend their bases, US ground forces were withdrawn on the war's end.
1945 to 1957
Following the war, the BVE and BMI, as well as the Home Guard, ceased to existed. The BMA and BVRC were both demobilised, reduced to skeleton staffs. Both were quickly built back up to strength in 1951, and conscription, which had been used during the war, was re-introduced for both units (the BVRC suitably being retitled simply Bermuda Rifles), although the conscripts served on a part-time basis, whereas wartime service had been full-time for the duration. The last coastal artillery, the
The regular garrison continued to include a full infantry company of 250 soldiers, plus attachments to, and detachments from other corps ("atts and dets"), such as the
In 1951, it was announced that the Royal Naval Dockyard would be closed, with much of its establishment withdrawn immediately. The process of running the naval base down would stretch over the rest of the decade (though part of the base, HMS Malabar, would operate until 1995). In November 1952, it was decided to withdraw the Regular Army garrison, too, which was completed by 1 May 1953. However, during the
The
The Bermuda Government maintained both territorial units (the BMA being predominantly Black; the BVRC restricted to Whites) until 1965, when they were amalgamated into the
Post 1957
Although no further regular units have been garrisoned in Bermuda since 1957, detachments have been sent to Bermuda occasionally for internal security, training, recreational, or ceremonial purposes, including elements of the
The 1st Battalion Royal Regiment of Fusiliers was briefly despatched to Bermuda at the request of the local government as a result of riots in 1977 (following the death sentences given to the two men responsible for the murders of the Governor and his ADC, as well as of the 1972 murder of Police Commissioner George Duckett and the 1973 murders of two staff members of a grocery store). At the time, the Bermuda Regiment numbered about 400 officers and men. While sufficient to guard key points around the island, this did not allow for a reserve of men in barracks, and the soldiers assigned to guard duty could not be rotated back to barracks for periods of rest. This shortfall was taken into account by Major-General Glyn Gilbert, the highest-ranking Bermudian in the British Army, when he issued a report on the Bermuda Regiment in which he made a number of recommendations, including its increase to a full battalion of about 750, with three rifle companies and a support company.
The Bermuda Regiment (now the Royal Bermuda Regiment) trained for the Internal Security role to support the police, but with threat of civil unrest fading over the following decades, it sought new roles, especially the response to hurricanes. Its expertise means it has been increasingly called on to provide similar relief in British Overseas Territories and Commonwealth countries in the West Indies which lack Bermuda's resources. Teams of volunteers have been flown to a series of islands since the 1980s by Royal Air Force transport, helping to fulfill the British Government's obligations to territories throughout that region.[62]
Military Establishment of Bermuda
- North America Command
- Nova Scotia Command
- St. George's Garrison (Eastern District Headquarters)
- Convict Bay (transferred from Royal Navy 1866, becoming part of adjacent St. George's Garrison)
- Ordnance Island
- Royal Army Service Corps Wharf (St. George's)
- St. George's Armoury
- East Coast Forts (St. George's, Paget, Governor's, and St. David's Islands)
- Fort St. Catherine's
- Fort Victoria
- Fort Albert
- Western Redoubt
- Fort George
- Town Cut Battery (or Gates' Fort)
- Alexandra Battery
- Fort Cunningham
- Fort Popple
- Paget Fort
- Smith's Fort
- Peniston's Redoubt
- St. David's Battery
- Castle Islands Fortifications
- Devonshire Redoubt
- Landward Fort
- Queen's Castle (King's Castle, The Castle, Seaward Fort)
- Southampton Fort
- Martello Tower
- Burnt Point Fort
- Ferry Island Fort
- Prospect Camp (Command Headquarters and Central District Headquarters)
- Warwick Camp
- Agar's Island
- Royal Army Service Corps Wharf (Hamilton)
- Hamilton Armoury
- Prospect Hill Position
- South Shore Batteries (former fixed batteries adapted for field guns)
- Fort Bruere
- Bailey's Bay Battery (Tucker's Town Battery, and Tucker's Town Bay Fort)
- Newton's Bay Fort (Hall's Bay Fort)
- Albouy's Fort
- Harris' Bay Fort
- Sears' Fort
- Devonshire Bay Fort
- Hungry Bay Fort
- Crow Lane Fort (also known as New Paget's Fort and East Elbow Bay Fort)
- Middleton's Bay Fort (also known as Centre Bay Fort)
- West Elbow Bay Fort
- Warwick Camp Battery
- Warwick Fort
- Jobson's Cove Fort
- Great Turtle Bay Battery
- Jobson's Fort
- Hunt's Fort (Lighthouse Fort)
- Ingham's Fort
- Church Bay Fort East
- Church Bay Fort West
- Boaz Island and Watford Island (Clarence Barracks; Western District Headquarters)
- Somerset Armoury
- Whale Bay Battery (West Whale Bay)
- Whale Bay Fort (West Whale Bay)
- West Side Fort
- Wreck Hill Fort
- Scaur Hill Fort
- Daniel's Island Fort
- Mangrove Bay Fort
- King's Point Redoubt
- Maria's Hill Fort
- Bermuda Militia.1612–1815.
- Bermudian Militia, Volunteer and Territorial Army Units, 1895–1965
- Bermuda Militia Artillery
- Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps
- Bermuda Volunteer Engineers
- Bermuda Militia Infantry
- Royal Bermuda Regiment
- Bermuda Home Guard
- Bermuda Cadet Corps
Gallery
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Ordnance Island (left) and St. George's Town as seen from Barrack Hill in 1857
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1864-1866 2nd Bn, 2nd Queen's Regiment memorials in Bermuda
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Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers camp at Tucker's Town, St. George's Parish, Bermuda in 1867
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1877 gravestone of Sergeant John Matthias Bevan, ASC, in the new cemetery of St. George's Garrison.
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1st Battalion, 19th (1st Yorkshire North Riding – Princess of Wales's Own) Regiment of Foot Warrant Officers and Non-Commissioned Officers in Bermuda circa 1879-1880
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Royal Navy and British Army Church Parade at the (then under construction) Cathedral in the City of Hamilton, circa 1900
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Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Boileau Gaisford, CMG (Commanding Officer) and other officers of the 3rd Battalion, The Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment), in Bermuda in 1905
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Lieutenant-Colonel Richard Boileau Gaisford, CMG (Commanding Officer) and other officers of the 3rd Battalion, The Royal Fusiliers (City of London Regiment), at Battalion Training at Tucker's Town, Bermuda, 23rd to 28 January 1905
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38th Battalion (Ottawa), CEF on Queen Street, City of Hamilton, Bermuda in 1915
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Officers of the 38th Battalion (Ottawa), CEF in Bermuda in 1915
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38th Battalion, CEF parade on a field in Bermuda, 1915
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38th Battalion (Ottawa), CEF, with M1895 Colt–Browning machine guns at Prospect Camp in 1915
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Major RC Earl and Lieutenant-Colonel RJ Tucker, BVRC, on Armistice Day, 1930
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Three seniorCSM of the Caribbean Regiment.
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BVRC soldiers serving with the Lincolnshire Regiment, circa May, 1944
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Bermuda Cadet Corps in the Second World War
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Two RBL 40-pounder Armstrong guns displayed at St. George's Foundation's UNESCO World Heritage Centre (a former Ordnance Stores warehouse), St. George's Town,. Originally used as mobile guns for defending areas of Bermuda's South Shore without fixed coastal artillery, they were soon replaced and became part of a saluting battery at Fort Victoria before being set into a wharf as bollards
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War Department Ordnance SurveyMarker, Bermuda.
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Cut Battery, with Alexandra Battery, Fort St' Catherine's, and Retreat hill (with Fort Victoria and Fort Albert) visible
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Cut Battery, with Fort George in view
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BL 9.2 inch gun Mk X at Fort Victoriaon St. George's Island.
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St. David's Battery(or the Examination Battery), St. David's, Bermuda in 2011
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The Guard House at Prospect Camp, Devonshire, Bermuda in 2011
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Colour party of the Royal Bermuda Regiment at Queen's Birthday Parade in 2017
See also
- Imperial fortress
- Military of Bermuda
- St. George's Garrison
- Prospect Camp
- Warwick Camp
- Historic Town of St. George and Related Fortifications, Bermuda
- Castle Harbour Islands Fortifications
- Fort St. Catherine's
- Fort Victoria
- Scaur Hill Fort
- Ordnance Island
- St. David's Battery
- Fort George, Bermuda
References
- ISBN 9780921560005.
- ^ Gordon, Donald Craigie (1965). The Dominion Partnership in Imperial Defense, 1870-1914. Baltimore, Maryland, USA: Johns Hopkins Press. p. 14.
There were more than 44,000 troops stationed overseas in colonial garrisons, and slightly more than half of these were in imperial fortresses: in the Mediterranean, Bermuda, Halifax, St. Helena, and Mauritius. The rest of the forces were in colonies proper, with a heavy concentration in New Zealand and South Africa. The imperial government paid approximately £1,715,000 per annum toward the maintenance of these forces, and the various colonial governments contributed £370,000, the largest amounts coming from Ceylon and Victoria in Australia.
- ^ MacFarlane, Thomas (1891). Within the Empire; An Essay on Imperial Federation. Ottawa: James Hope & Co., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. p. 29.
Besides the Imperial fortress of Malta, Gibraltar, Halifax and Bermuda it has to maintain and arm coaling stations and forts at Siena Leone, St. Helena, Simons Bay (at the Cape of Good Hope), Trincomalee, Jamaica and Port Castries (in the island of Santa Lucia).
- ^ Lefroy, Sir John Henry (1981). Memorials of the Discovery and Early Settlement of the Bermudas or Somers Islands 1515-1685, Volume I. Bermuda: The Bermuda Historical Society and The Bermuda National Trust (the first edition having been published in 1877, with funds provided by the Government of Bermuda), printed in Canada by The University of Toronto Press.
- ^ Rigby, Neil (10 November 1988). "1988 Military Uniforms of Bermuda". Bermuda Stamps. Bermuda Stamps. Archived from the original on 23 April 2021. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
In 1687, Governor Robinson organized the militia, together with two troops of horse of prominent Bermudians. This force provided small watch parties at three or four of the main forts guarding St. George's. The militia being part-time soldiers did not take the place olpropedy trained regular soldiers, so that finally in 1701, an Independent Company of fifty-five soldiers commanded by a lieutenant, drawn from the 2nd Regiment of Foot, was sent to Bermuda as a permanent garrison. At the same time, a troop of horse grenadiers was raised locally in place of the non-existent earlier troops of horse, as there was still a need for the militia. Successive Militia Acts were enacted making every man from 15 to 60 liable for military duty, until the 1758 Militia Act provided for a troop of horse and a regiment of foot of nine companies – one provided by each parish with a captain, lieutenant and ensign to command it.
- ^ "Rootsweb: Ships of Bermuda - 1700-1749: HMS Lincoln".
- ^ The Quebec Almanack, 1815.
- ^ "Attack on Baltimore launched from Bermuda in 'War of 1812'". Atlas Communications. 2005. Archived from the original on 3 October 2018. Retrieved 19 August 2021.
- ^ Cruikshank 2006, p. 402.
- ^ The Andrew and The Onions: The Story of The Royal Navy in Bermuda, 1795–1975, by Lieutenant-Commander B. Ian D. Stranack. Bermuda Maritime Museum Press
- ^ "Bermuda Online: British Army in Bermuda from 1701 to 1977; 1881 to 1883". Archived from the original on 21 August 2014. Retrieved 22 June 2020.
- ^ Harris, Dr. Edward Cecil (21 January 2012). "Bermuda's role in the Sack of Washington". The Royal Gazette. City of Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
- ^ Grove, Tim (22 January 2021). "Fighting The Power". Chesapeake Bay Magazine. Annapolis: Chesapeake Bay Media, LLC. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
- ^ Sir Henry Hardinge, MP for Launceston (22 March 1839). "SUPPLY—ARMY ESTIMATES". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Vol. 46. Parliament of the United Kingdom: House of Commons. col. 1141–1142.
- ^ Young, Douglas MacMurray (1961). The Colonial Office in The Early Nineteenth Century. London: Published for the Royal Commonwealth Society by Longmans. p. 55.
- ^ Maton, 1995, article
- ^ Maton, 1998, article
- ^ METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS AT THE FOREIGN AND COLONIAL STATIONS OF THE ROYAL ENGINEERS AND THE ARMY MEDICAL DEPARTMENT 1852—1886. London: Published by the authority of the Meteorological Council. PRINTED FOR HER MAJESTY’S STATIONERY OFFICE BY EYRE AND SPOTTISWOODE, East Harding Street, Fleet Street, London E.C. 1890.
- ^ Kennedy, R.N., Captain W. R. (1 July 1885). "An Unknown Colony: Sport, Travel and Adventure in Newfoundland and the West Indies". Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine. William Blackwood & Sons, Edinburgh, Scotland, and 37 Paternoster Row, London, England. p. 111.
As a fortress, Bermuda is of the first importance. It is situated almost exactly half-way between the northern and the southern naval stations; while nature has made it practically impregnable. The only approach lies through that labyrinth of reefs and narrow channels which Captain Kennedy has described. The local pilots are sworn to secrecy ; and, what is more reassuring, by lifting buoys and laying down torpedoes, hostile vessels trying to thread the passage must come to inevitable grief, So far Bermuda may be considered safe, whatever may be the condition of the fortifications and the cannon in the batteries. Yet the universal neglect of our colonial defences is apparent in the fact that no telegraphic communication has hitherto been established with the West Indies on the one side, or with the Dominion of Canada on the other.
- ^ VERAX, (anonymous) (1 May 1889). "The Defense of Canada. (From Colburn's United Service Magazine)". The United Service: A Quarterly Review of Military and Naval Affairs. LR Hamersly & Co., 1510 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA; subsequently LR Hamersly, 49 Wall Street, New York City, New York, USA; BF Stevens & Brown, 4 Trafalgar Square, London, England. p. 552.
The objectives for America are clearly marked,—Halifax, Quebec, Mon- treal, Prescott, Kingston, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, and Vancouver. Halifax and Vancouver are certain to be most energetically attacked, for they will be the naval bases, besides Bermuda, from which England would carry on her naval attack on the American coasts and commerce.
- ^ Dawson, George M.; Sutherland, Alexander (1898). MacMillan's Geographical Series: Elementary Geography of the British Colonies. London: MacMillan and Co., Limited, London, England, UK; The MacMillan Company, New York City, New York, USA. p. 184.
There is a strongly fortified dockyard, and the defensive works, together with the intricate character of the approaches to the harbour, render the islands an almost impregnable fortress. Bermuda is governed as a Crown colony by a Governor who is also Commander-in-Chief, assisted by an appointed Executive Council and a representative House of Assembly.
- ^ "The $100 man: Why philanthropist James Martin gave away his fortune". The Independent. 15 January 2011.
- ^ news, Private island (18 March 2011). "Futurist James Martin's Historic Bermudan Isle". www.privateislandnews.com.
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has generic name (help) - ^ "Bermuda Architecture: 18th Century". Bermuda National Trust. Bermuda National Trust. Retrieved 1 May 2022.
There were also some much grander two-storey houses in the shape of a cross, described as cruciform, of which a few have survived. Palmetto House, owned by the Trust, is an example.
- ^ "RELIEF OF LUCKNOW (Indian Mutiny) - A mute film from The Tornos Studio's Collection". Youtube: tornosindia. CREDITS FOR THIS VIDEO: The Arts and Humanities Research Council, British Film Institute, The Imperial War Museum and the British Empire and Commonwealth Museum. (UK). Retrieved 1 May 2022.
CONTEXT: The Relief of Lucknow was produced by the Edison Company for the British market. Around 1911, Edison began to make films on specifically European themes to increase sales in Britain. The company also started sending actors and personnel to shoot films in outdoor locations, away from its New Jersey studio (Musser 1995, 49). Serle J. Dawley, director of The Relief, led several of these trips. In the year that he directed The Relief, Dawley shot The Charge of the Light Brigade in Cheyenne, Wyoming, adapting Alfred Lord Tennyson's poem to depict the Battle of Balaclava as a tale of British loyalty and sacrifice. The Relief was shot in Bermuda, which offered the advantages of tropical scenery and the presence of the 2nd Battalion of the "Queen's Own" Regiment, stationed on site
- ^ "HUMANOPHONE COMPANY. "FOR VALOUR". Beautiful Bermuda Film". The Royal Gazette. City of Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda. 15 May 1913. p. 2.
This evening the Humanophone Company offer as the central attraction of their moving picture exhibition at the Colonial Opera House the Edison, Bermuda film "For Valour," made while Mr. Dawley and his company were at work last year at the Villa Montecello, Flatts. The story concerns the loves of a pretty Bermuda maiden who finds herself unable to choose between two representatives of the British Army until they are on the eve of departure for the South African War. Her choice falls upon one who eventually turns out to be a mean coward. But the other undertakes to bring him back to her and fulfils the self-imposed task although the coward has won a medal for an act which his rival performed. Eventually the truth, becomes known, and the Bermuda beauty rectifies her mistake. It is a pleasing picture and, the local setting lends it a peculiar interest for Bermudians. There was a large attendance of the lovers of good moving pictures at the Town Hall, St. George's on Monday night to see the splendid exhibition given by the Humanophone Company. There are a large number of young boys and girls who regularly attend the Monday night shows and Master Arthur said on Monday night' that Mr. Kaplan might put a real funny one in for their benefit. The Humanphone Co's. pictures are of a very high class, but a little nonsense now and then is relished by the best of men. Miss Silverstone delighted the audience With her performance at the piano and the people of St. George's appreciate her playing more and more as the season advances.
- ^ "For Valour 1912". IMDb (Internet Movie Database). Amazon. Retrieved 6 November 2022.
The plot revolves around that eternal triangle, two men and one woman. We are first shown the heroine of the story in a beautiful lily field where she meets her two lovers who prove to be "Tommy Atkins" of the British army. Her affections seem to waver from one to the other when suddenly the regiment is called to South Africa.
- ^ "Bermuda Online: British Army in Bermuda from 1701 to 1977; 1881 to 1883". Archived from the original on 21 August 2014. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
- ^ "Mount St. Agnes Academy website: History". Archived from the original on 21 August 2013. Retrieved 25 July 2014.
- ISBN 9780521302081
- ^ "bma". Archived from the original on 8 August 2009. Retrieved 22 February 2007.
- ^ "27557 Sapper Archibald Lindsay, Royal Engineers". www.reubique.com.
- ^ "Submarine Miners Volunteers. By Glyn Davies. Rootsweb".
- ^ "Fort Gilkicker website: Fort Monckton and the Submarine Mining Establishment".
- ^ "Daily Alta California 15 April 1888 — California Digital Newspaper Collection". cdnc.ucr.edu.
- ^ Compiled under the general editorship of FREMONT RIDER BY DR. FREDERIC TABER COOPER (1922). Rider's BERMUDA: A GUIDE BOOK for TRAVELERS, with 4 maps. NEW YORK: HENRY HOLT AND COMPANY. Pages 20 and 21, VIII. Theatres and Other Places of Entertainment.
High-class professional performances, either musical or dramatic, are a rare treat in Bermuda. Touring companies from England or Canada, and more rarely from the United States, occasionally visit the Islands. But for the most part Bermudians are dependent for theatrical entertainments upon local amateur talent, and that afforded by the Garrison troops......the three small Garrison theatres do a valiant share in each season's entertainment.
- ^ "Act'g. Governor's Address at Closing of Parliament". The Royal Gazette. City of Hamilton, Pembroke Parish, Bermuda. 9 September 1919.
Yesterday morning at noon, His Honour the Officer Administering the Government, CoL H. B. DesVoeux, C.M.G. attended at the Council Chamber and received the Honourable Members of the Legislative Council, and the members of the Honourable House of Assembly.
A guard of honour was furnished by the 2/4 Batn. E. York Regiment, consisting of 50 rank and file and a Subaltern under the command of Capt. Hannaford.
The Council Chamber was filled with officers of the Navy and Army, together with a large number of civilians. Admiral Morgan Singer attended with his Staff. The Captain in Charge, Capt. Fanshawe, the Captain and Officers of H.M.S. Cambrian, and a number of naval officers on the station. Amongst the military we noticed, Colonel Lockhart, Col. Berger, Major Fairfield and a large number of the officers of the E. Yorks Regt. - ^ McGonigal, Major H. A. K. The East Yorkshire Regiment in the Bermudas 1819 to 1821, 1868 to 1870, 1916-1919. Compiled from A History of The 15th (East Yorkshire) Regiment (The Duke of York's Own) 1685 to 1914, by Robert J. Jones, The East Yorkshire Regiment in the Great War, 1914-1918 By Everard Wyrall, and other sources.
- ^ "ARRIVAL OF EAST YORK OFFICERS". The Royal Gazette. City of Hamilton, Pembroke Parish, Bermuda. 9 September 1919. p. 1.
Much Speculation was caused when the Caraquet came alongside yesterday.
Who were the officers? Had the new regiment arrived? Was a new military scheme in contemplation?
But it transpired that tbe War Office in England had remembered the East Yorks were about to depart, and had sent out the following officers for the nice little trip.
Lieuts. Maw, J. A. Hogg, Wilson, R. Roe, and E. H. Hardy. - ^ "Canadian Soldiers in Bermuda During World War One, by Jean-Pierre Gagnon. York University Libraries".
- ^ "Welcome". The Long, Long Trail.
- ^ History of the Bermuda Militia Artillery, by Jennifer Hind, author of "Defence, Not Defiance: A History of the BVRC".
- ^ THE ROYAL GAZETTE, 8 DECEMBER 1914: B.V.R.C. 100 MEN ACCEPTED FOR SERVICE. Camp Training Begins To-day
- ^ The Royal Gazette: B.V.R.C. CONTINGENT. LIST OF VOLUNTEERS FOR THE FRONT. TRAINING IN WARWICK CAMP. March Through Hamilton. A FEW MORE NEEDED FOR COMPANY
- ^ THE ROYAL GAZETTE, 21 JANUARY 1915: B.V.R.C. CONTINGENT TAKE TEA AT THE LITTLE GREEN DOOR
- ^ THE ROYAL GAZETTE, 26 JANUARY 1915: B.V.R.C. The Active Service Contingent. MEMORANDUM FROM HIS EXCELLENCY THE GOVERNOR. Appeal For Recruits.
- ^ THE ROYAL GAZETTE, 6 May 1915: TWO GENERATIONS FROM ST. DAVID'S
- ^ Army Notes. Royal United Services Institution Journal, Volume 73, Issue 490, 1928
- ^ "ARMY ESTIMATES, 1928". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 8 March 1928.
- ISBN 0-921560-11-7
- Edward C. Harris. The Royal Gazette. Published 28 July 2012
- ^ MEDICAL SUPPLY IN THE WAR AGAINST THE EUROPEAN AXIS, United States Army Medical Department Office of Medical History
- ^ "Warlike Noises: British Honduras. Britain's Small Wars". Archived from the original on 15 April 2014. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
- ^ "British Army in Bermuda from 1701 to 1977. By Keith Archibald Forbes. Bermuda Online". Archived from the original on 21 August 2014. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
- ^ "Obituary of Bernard Leroy Martin, 1924 - 1997. THE ROYAL GAZETTE, Wednesday, 11 March 1998". www.geocities.ws. Archived from the original on 2 May 2014.
- ^ FOREIGN RELATIONS OF THE UNITED STATES, 1952–1954, WESTERN EUROPEAN SECURITY, VOLUME V, PART 2: F. Bermuda Conference of the Heads of Government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and France, December 4–8, 1953. Office of the Historian, Bureau of Public Affairs, United States Department of State
- ^ "[1953] The Big 3 Conference. Bermuda History blogspot".
- ^ "djkl157". sites.google.com. Archived from the original on 2 May 2014.
- ^ "UNITED KINGDOM GARRISON, BERMUDA (WITHDRAWAL)". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 22 May 1957.
- ^ "Outstanding Special Air Service WWII Distinguished Service Order group to Lieutenant Colonel John Anthony Marsh". Warwick & Warwick. Archived from the original on 2 May 2014.
- ^ "Sirius Business: Or life as part of a ship's Royal Marine Detachment in the West Indies. By Marine Mick Pinchen. Britain's Small Wars". Archived from the original on 28 April 2014. Retrieved 23 April 2014.
- ^ Hunter, Kyle (15 June 2011). "Bermuda Regiment to the rescue here . . . and overseas". www.royalgazette.com.
Bibliography
- Defence, Not Defiance: A History Of The Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps, Jennifer M. Ingham (now Jennifer M. Hind), The Island Press Ltd., Pembroke, Bermuda. ISBN 0-9696517-1-6
- The Andrew And The Onions: The Story Of The Royal Navy In Bermuda, 1795 – 1975, Lt. Commander Ian Strannack, The Bermuda Maritime Museum Press, The ISBN 978-0-921560-03-6
- Bermuda Forts 1612–1957, Dr. ISBN 978-0-921560-11-1
- Bulwark Of Empire: Bermuda's Fortified Naval Base 1860–1920, Lt.-Col. Roger Willock, ISBN 978-0-921560-00-5
- Cruikshank, Ernest (1964). "The County of Norfolk in the War of 1812". In Zaslow, Morris (ed.). The Defended Border. Toronto: Macmillan of Canada. ISBN 0-7705-1242-9.
- Cruikshank, Ernest (2006) [1814]. The Documentary History of the campaign upon the Niagara frontier. (Part 1-2). University of Calgary. Archived from the original on May 27, 2011. Retrieved May 11, 2009.