by Bob King | May 13, 2021 | Uncategorized, Victorian Britain
A few more fascinating documents to explore that have recently come to light. It’s the 1881 Barrack Plan for the Island surveyed and drawn up by the Royal Engineers. It was a decade after the completion of the Palmerston or Napoleonic Casemates which contained the 9...
by Bob King | Feb 19, 2021 | Uncategorized, Victorian Britain
6 months ago I wasn’t aware of any births on the Island. I knew a few troops were accompanied by their families on the Island from newspaper cuttings and parts of the buildings had been labelled as quarters. The first Island baby I found out about through Sue Cook...
by Bob King | Jul 9, 2020 | Victorian Britain
The last decade of the 19th Century began with Gunner Dawson of the Island Garrison saving the life of Gunner Kelly. Both had been on the Royal Artillery Cutter returning from Millbay to the Island when Gunner Kelly fell overboard prompting Gunner Dawson to...
by Bob King | Jul 3, 2020 | Victorian Britain
The first reliable breech loading guns became available in 1880 so less than a decade after the Palmerston Fort on the Island was completed its armaments were already out of date. The guns could now be loaded more quickly as the powder and shell could be loaded from...
by Bob King | Jun 25, 2020 | Victorian Britain
By 1874 the first set of Army Reforms known as the Cardwell Reforms after the Secretary of State for War had been promulgated. The Crimean War had exposed the Army as being undermanned and incompetently administered but reforms were being resisted by the old and bold...
by Bob King | Jun 18, 2020 | Victorian Britain
By 1873 a detachment of the 12th Brigade of the Royal Artillery were garrisoning Plymouth with 3rd Battery stationed on Drake’s Island. Major Cummings RA was the Battery Commander. It seems the first time the Garrison had been at full strength for a while was the...