1. FOREWORD. | 2. THE NEED. | 3. THE CONFLICTS. |
4. THE NUMBERS GAME. | 5. FACTS AND FIGURES. | 6. THEY ALSO SERVED. |
7. The 1914 -1918 Honour Roll | 8. The 1939 - 1945 Honour Roll | 9. Main References. |
A TASMANIAN GUNNER’S HISTORY.
CHAPTER 1. THE
NEED.
Because of the perceived
threat of the French invading Australia in the early 1800’s the Imperial
Government in England saw a necessity to provide defences for Port Phillip Bay
and Van Diemen’s Land, which were seen to be vulnerable under-bellies to the new
colonies, and so they decided to establish garrisons at what is now Sorrento in
Victoria and at the strategic deep harbour of Hobart.
The garrison at Sorrento consisted of Royal Marines, sent from England under the command of Lt.Col. David Collins, and with a party of convicts to act as labourers, they were to erect and man a fort which would act as a deterrent to an overland invasion.
The Hobart garrison, which was manned from British Infantry regiments that were already stationed in the colonies, saw the establishment of the first artillery defences in England’s southern-most Australian outpost to prevent seizure of the fine harbour which could possibly be used by enemy war-ships as a blockade base.
Between 1854 - 56 the Crimean War had caused
ripples of concern which again stirred the colonies into forming local defence
units and, in 1858, the Governor of Tasmania, Sir Henry Edward Fox
-Young, urged Parliament to approach the Imperial Government with regard to
a proposition which stated the need for two companies of Royal Artillery
personnel to be stationed at Hobart because of the continuing ‘Russian
scares’.
The English Secretary -of
-State refused the request, but offered to keep 260 officers and men, from the
colonies’ existing infantry regiments, stationed in Hobart at the Tasmanian
Government’s expense.
(This was in
spite of Sydney’s forts being manned by the 1st. Battery, 1st. Brigade of the
Royal (Garrison) Artillery from 1856 until 1870.)
The War Office’s view was that the other
individual colonies should be defended by regular British Infantry which would
be supported by a local volunteer artillery force.
The Tasmanian Government refused the offer as being too
costly and in 1863 made another request to have Imperial military personnel
stationed in the capital.
Again the
request was refused by London who, at that time, had its hands full with the
Second Maori War in New Zealand and was already dragging British regiments from
Australia.
However, in the interim, the local colonists had not been sitting idly by as they realised the time had come when they would have to provide their own local defences instead of relying on British troops to be available.
The Volunteers.
In December 1859, a volunteer unit, known as the
Hobart Town Artillery Company, was raised under the command of Captain
A. F. Smith, formerly of the 99th. (Wiltshire) Regiment.
(The Wiltshires had arrived in 1842 and had remained
until 1856, when many officers and men opted to take their termination of
enlistment in Australia - where gold had been discovered a few years previously
- and opportunities and conditions were considered to be far better than
strife-torn and destitute Europe).
On the following June 6th.1860, a meeting was held at the Launceston Hotel on a Wednesday evening at 7 o’clock to discuss the formation of a group that was to be called the Launceston Citizen’s Volunteer Rifle Corps.
However, during the meeting the name
was amended, unanimously by those present, to the Launceston Volunteer
Artillery Company, after the secretary, Mr. George P. Hudson, read a letter
from the Colonial Secretary that suggested members should be trained in the
exercise of artillery as well as of the rifle - and history was created when 45
persons took the oath of allegiance to Queen Victoria at that meeting.
The Lean Years.
The L.V.A.C. consisted of three companies, each of 50
men, under the command of Captain R.C.D. Home with the other volunteer
officers democratically elected by the men themselves.
They paid an initial entrance fee of 2s. 6d., and at the
beginning, before government assistance became available, they also supplied
their own uniforms and then a monthly fee of 2s. to help defray incidental
expenses - annual honorary membership was 2 Guineas (42 shillings) for those
interested citizens who wished to be involved on a ‘social’ level.
Under the direction of Colonel Chesney,
Royal Engineers, the L.V.A. had worked extremely hard, in 1866, to establish an
artillery emplacement at a fort at Cormiston, and armed it with two 8"
smooth-bore muzzle-loaders, each weighing 56 hundredweight, which had arrived on
the schooner ‘Storm Bird’ on September 13th. of that year.
The fort had been originally designed to repel
French or Russian invaders who might venture up the Tamar River towards
Launceston, and it was strategically located where the river splits and narrows
near ‘Pig Island’ (now known as Tamar Island) with the main shipping channel on
the western side and the shallow eastern channel, which was deemed only suitable
for smaller boats, all well within range of the two guns.
In the ‘Hand -Book for the Tasmanian Artillery Volunteers’, which was compiled by S/Sgt R. H. Eccleston, (Instructor in Gunnery, Royal Artillery) and published in 1868, a series of range tables were supplied for both the Fort Cormiston Battery and the southern batteries guarding the approaches to Hobart.
It was estimated that to repel an invasion by a
vessel with 10 knots manoeuvring speed in Hobart’s Derwent River, it would take
226 men ‘well drilled and of good pluck to be able to stick to their work’ for
at least 30 minutes to fire approximately 365 rounds from the 20 or so guns that
could be brought to bear by the Queen’s Battery, the Prince of Wales and the
Albert Batteries.
(In fact,we have
been advised by Mr. Maurice Potter from South Arm, that, the only shot fired in
anger from any gun emplacement on the River Derwent was in 1940.
After discussion with a local member of the Army who was stationed at Fort
Direction during 1940, who now lives in South Arm, it seems that an American
Liberty ship failed to respond to signals from the naval command on the hill at
Fort Direction. The shot was fired from number two gun at Fort Direction. It
(the shelling) was a thing that was talked about here in South Arm for many
years as one returned Serviceman Merv Morley, who is now deceased, was one of
the gun crew when all this took place. The other person is Fred Evens who still
lives here in South Arm. Fred was at both Fort Direction and Piersons Point 1940
to 1944. - Addenda 4th May 2004.)
Fort Cormiston - with its two gun battery, which
could be traversed through 67 degrees to cover the two 1500 yard channels and
river flats around Tamar Island - was expected to be able to knock out a
smaller, shallow draught gun-boat class vessel (capable of about 4 knots in that
area of the River Tamar), in 20 minutes, with as many rounds from each
gun.
As the common shell for the 8" gun
weighed between 46 - 50 pounds (approx. 20 - 24 kgs.) is would have taken a
stout-hearted crew of men to be able to maintain a firing rate of a round per
minute - in fact S/Sgt Eccleston’s handbook even gives the expected work
capacity per man under several different circumstances as well as a detailed
listing of terms, types of ordinance and ammunition, plus drills with rifle and
sword which were applicable for the volunteers at that time.
On Tuesday 14th. January,1868, when Prince
Alfred, the Duke of Edinburgh, visited Launceston as part of his Australian
tour, the strength of the L.V.A., Launceston Division, was 101.
‘The Voluntary Artillery, Launceston division,
assembled at the volunteer buildings, St. John-street at 2 o’clock. A detachment
of 20 men were told off to fire a royal salute from the Barracks on arrival of
His Royal Highness’ carriage at the Sandhill.
The men were put through several manoeuvers. They
were then marched back to the Barrack gate, and the gun detachment doubled and
saluted the guard of honour............’
(Launceston Examiner January 16th. 1868.)
When the Imperial Government completely opted
out of military support for the colonies in 1870, the Tasmanian Government was
also placed in the position of not being able to financially assist the
volunteer units and, for the next five years, the H.T.A.C. and the L.V.A.C.
languished, short of enough funds to maintain their establishments.
By 1870, because of the changed Government
policy in regard to the funding, the L.V.A.C. had been reduced to a meagre 25
men - in all!
This small nucleus of volunteers was always
struggling to maintain the Fort Cormiston battery and works, as well as to
survive financially, without any assistance from the Government or public purse,
so they did not really need the added pressure of training to repel invaders
that may never come or to provide royal salutes - but train they
did!
They could not even afford
to hire horses to pull their polished brass howitzers up the steep slopes of
Windmill Hill, to fire the annual May 24th. Salute, so they hooked up their
drag-ropes and man-handled them up, ‘with indomitable courage and
loyalty’, to honour Queen Victoria’s Birthday.
In 1875 the Hobart unit was ordered to disband,
but the Launceston Volunteer Artillery, who had consolidated their personnel and
had still continued to train and fire their salutes, was allowed to continue by
virtue of Governor Francis Aloysius Weld’s solicitation to the Tasmanian
Parliament.
Amongst Battery members this
period, between 1870 - 1878, was known as ‘The Winter of Neglect’.
It was a true case of voluntary involvement by a band of dedicated men that kept the unit alive - if not exactly kicking!
The Reformation.
During 1877 - 84, an investigation into the colonies
defences was conducted by Maj-Gen. Sir William Jervois and Lt-Col.
Peter Scratchley and their report, which suggested an immediate start to the
up-grading of seaport defences and field forces, resulted in an overall increase
in personnel from 9,423 in 1884 to 29,010 by 1901. (The report also
recommended that these forces be made up from mainly volunteers with a core of
paid permanent men.)
In 1878 the Tasmanian Parliament passed an Act
authorising the Volunteer units to be reformed - and, whilst an allocation of
available funds would now be made for major expenditures, the troops would be
unpaid - of course!
The Launceston
Volunteer Artillery, now relieved of some of its financial upkeep burden,
immediately increased its strength and re-organised, and was supplied with two
breech-loading 12 1/2 pounder guns to form a field section, and two R.B.L 40
pounder jointed guns to form a siege section.
About 1880, the two old smooth bore 8" muzzle-loading guns from Fort Cormiston were sent to England for rifling, but, on their return to the colony, they were never re-mounted as they were then considered to be too obsolete against more modern weapons.
In Hobart, a new field artillery unit, the
Southern Tasmanian Volunteer Artillery, was raised under the command of
Capt. E. L. Crowther and equipped with two breech-loading 12 pound
howitzers and two 32 pounder guns on field carriages.
With this modernisation came more dramatic changes when
control of the colony’s defences was handed over to Colonel W. V. Legge, R.
A. and an Act was passed which changed the organisation of the Force.
‘Members were asked to sign a service roll
for three years and serve under the provision of the Act or retire.
The majority of the volunteers signed and
continued to serve, thus ceasing to be Volunteers strictly speaking, although
from a standpoint of renumeration they were still so.’
In1885, during the Easter long weekend, the first general exercise camp was held at Mona Vale however, from Easter 1886 (23rd. to 26th.April), the camps were relocated to Ross and continued to be held in that area until 1891 when the Artillery and the Engineers co-joined to hold an encampment at the Alexandra Battery near Hobart.
From 1887 onwards, the S.T.V.A. began to supply
detachments of its men to the Alexandra and Kangaroo Bluff Batteries, which were
manned by the Tasmanian Permanent Artillery, and the L.V.A. was sending
some men south to Hobart for annual training camps at the Kangaroo Battery (as
there were no fixed defences in Launceston by that time), and these arrangements
remained in force until Federation in 1901.
(The Kangaroo Bluff
Battery has now been restored and is open for public inspection.)
The Launceston Artillery had also been
exercising it’s own men on voluntary training excursions down the Tamar River
valley during the period from 1891 until 1898 when the Easter camps were resumed
at Ross.
In 1890, the Officer Commanding, Major George
Harrap, had successfully implemented a scheme of recruiting 20 - 25 lads of
between 15 - 17 years of age to be attached to the Battery as trainee
cadets.
This endeavour to help foster
comradeship and discipline, and ensure a supply of trained men for the future
well-being of the Battery, was welcomed with open arms by the citizens of
Launceston - by 1896 the scheme had proven so successful that the Launceston
Church Grammar School officially raised a Cadet Corp, under the command of
Lieutenant H. Gillett, which was attached to the Battery on October 8th. of that
year, and remained so until the Commonwealth Cadet system was inaugerated some
years later in 1911.
It was also during this period, in 1899, that
the Launceston Volunteer Ambulance Corps was formed as a paramedic force
of 16 men, under the command of Captain-Surgeon Louis S. Holmes and their
first volunteer surgeon was (later Surgeon-Major) Dr. J.
Lindsay-Miller.
Part of their
training involved participation, with Southern volunteer ambulancemen, in the
artillery’s annual camps in Hobart for obvious reasons!
The treatment of accidents involving our early volunteer
gunners has been documented, and includes the usual type of injuries that were
associated with our early corps training during peace-time, such as crushed
fingers and toes, explosion burns etc. etc.
Australia’s various permanent (colonial)
military units which had been engaged, under Imperial leadership, in the Boer
War (which had commenced in October 1899 and would last until May 31st.
1902), now came under the control of the Commonwealth Minister of Defence
and the task of organising them into a truly Australian Army was entrusted to
Maj-Gen. Sir Edward Hutton.
The Tasmanian Permanent Artillery became
the No.13 Company, Royal Australian Garrison Artillery while the L.V.A.
provided enough personnel to form the No.1 Tasmanian Battery, Australian
Field Artillery and part of the No.2 Tasmanian Battery, A.F.A., known
as Launceston Section in accordance with a District Order published on
July 31st. 1902.
On August 9th. 1902, the eve of the coronation of
King Edward VII, Tasmanian Artillery history was made when Colonel Legge,
Commandant Tasmanian Artillery, A.F.A., Launceston Section, successfully
petitioned the Federal Commandant, Sir Edward Hutton, in an attempt to gain
permission to fire a Royal salute by a battery outside of a district H.Q.
Over the next six years the No.1 Battery was
again re-organised into two field sections, each equipped with two Quick-firing
18 Pounder Mark II guns.
The balance of
No.2 Tasmanian Battery had been made up from the S.T.V.A., which also provided
the personnel to form the No.1 Tasmanian Company, Australian Garrison
Artillery, but in about 1909 the Launceston Section, No.2 Battery was
re-absorbed back into No.1 Battery allowing the Hobart section to expand into a
full battery in its own right.
In 1909 a law was passed in Australia that made
history in that, for the first time in any English-speaking country, ‘the
principle of universal liability for military training’ became official -
this had followed a report by Lord Kitchener that Australia’s army
strength should be 80,000, (half for city defence and half to operate as a
mobile strike force) and that a Military College for the training of Australian
officers should be established as soon as possible.
Kitchener had
also recommended that all boys between the ages of 12 and 14 were to drill as
'junior cadets' for a total of 120 hours per year; boys between 14 and 17 would
train as 'senior cadets' for 4 whole days and 12 half-days and attend 24 drill
nights.
In June 1911, the Royal Military
College at Duntroon was opened and on November 1st. 1911, compulsory training
was started.
Young men from 18 to 25 years were obliged to serve 16
whole days in the Citizen Forces, 8 days in camp and be in the Reserves for an
additional year.
It was not a popular decision - with many
prosecutions, fines and gaolings resulting from non-compliance with the
'compulsory' aspect of the Act!
With
the advent of the Universal Training scheme the Hobart unit was renamed 16
Battery, A.F.A. and the Launceston unit, 15 Battery, A.F.A.
A concerted growl was apparent heard, from
Tasmanian interests,when the Army purchased 150 horses for the two batteries
from mainland suppliers when they were told that there were ‘insufficient
animals in the state’, by local officers.
1. FOREWORD. | 2. THE NEED. | 3. THE CONFLICTS. |
4. THE NUMBERS GAME. | 5. FACTS AND FIGURES. | 6. THEY ALSO SERVED. |
7. The 1914 -1918 Honour Roll | 8. The 1939 - 1945 Honour Roll | 9. Main References. |