by Bob King | Jun 4, 2020 | Victorian Britain
The 2nd French Empire under Louis-Napoleon III had succeeded the 2nd French Republic in 1851. His foreign policy was to reassert French influence and he allied with Britain against the Russians in the Crimean War. However after that, from 1856, he saw Prussia as the...
by Bob King | May 28, 2020 | Victorian Britain
After the botched attempt to diversify into brandy smuggling and national scandal involving Lieutenant Harris, Captain Hort and their fathers the rest of the 1850’s was quite eventful though for a number of different reasons including the reorganisation of the...
by Bob King | May 21, 2020 | Victorian Britain
A national scandal involving allegations of bullying and counter accusations of libel and slander on Drake’s Island happened in 1850. Captain John Hort was commanding the detachment of the 4th Kings Own Regiment on the Island in 1850. Lieutenant Arthur Harris was sent...
by Bob King | May 14, 2020 | Victorian Britain
1850 saw a cunning plot developed to smuggle a ship load of Brandy onto the Island. It was widely reported at the time and although some details differ slightly in the various newspapers the general details are the same and are supported by the court reports. The...
by Bob King | May 7, 2020 | Victorian Britain
There are a quite a few accounts of the Garrison going to the rescue of ships and their crews either aground on the rocks on the foreshore of the Island or floundering in heavy seas. One such rescue happened on January 27th 1850 involving men of the 82nd Regiment of...
by Bob King | Apr 30, 2020 | Victorian Britain
Way back as part of the plans for the 1780 upgrade one of the foremost architects of the day, James Wyatt who designed a number of Oxford Colleges, the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst and the Royal Arsenal and Military Barracks at Woolwich submitted plans for the...
