Ww1 tunics in Bermuda?

[arantxa]

[FROGSMILE]

Bermuda was a defended island of the British Empire until 1957.  With a coastline that needed defending at key points there were a number of gun positions manned by the Royal Garrison Artillery during WW1.  See: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bermuda_Garrison

 

There was also usually some resident infantry battalions.  Further information can be found here: http://bermuda-online.org/britarmy.htm
 

Also: http://www.bermudaregiment.bm/about/history

 

Edited 4 November , 2019 by FROGSMILE

[travers61]

For a date of the photo I have looked at the career & awards of the most senior officer in it, General Sir James Wlkcocks.

 

He was Governor of Bermuda from May 1917 to 1922. The naming under the photo gives the awards he held from 1914 until the 1921 Birthday Honours list list when he was upgraded to a KCB.

 

Also some of the officers have no medal ribbons showing or just what looks like the India General service medal, which suggests that it was taken before the Victory Medal  ribands  were issued March 1919 onwards, or the British War Medal ribands were issued from July 1919 onwards.

 

So allowing for catch up of issuing medal ribands, a possible date of May 1917 to end of 1919.

Edited 4 November , 2019 by travers61
spelling

[arantxa]

9 hours ago, Mark1959 said:

 

Thank you that is very formative 

[Mark1959]

Sorry. Confused. Have not contributed to this thread.

Edited 4 November , 2019 by Mark1959

[aodhdubh]

Bermuda was designated as an "Imperial fortress", hence its military Governor (there were originally three other Imperial fortresses: Gibraltar, Malta, and Halifax, NS, which was linked to Bermuda...in 1867, most of the colonies of British North America confederated to form the Dominion of Canada, and military control of Nova Scotia was handed to the Dominion government. Although a small British Army garrison remained to protect the naval base at Halifax (and another at Esquimalt, BC), the British Army's Commander-in-Chief (under whom Bermuda had 'til then fallen) was abolished. In 1905, the Halifax naval yard was transferred to the new Royal Canadian Navy and the British Army garrisons at Halifax and Esquimalt were withdrawn. The Headquarters of the naval station had alternated seasonally between Halifax and Bermuda 'til the 1920s, with Bermuda having become the headquarters year-round after that, primarily due to being impossible to attack over land, and almost impregnable against an amphibious attack (although that depended on the willingness of a succession of miserly British Governments to fund its defences...although it was heavily fortified, it was never adequately garrisoned even though its garrison was gigantic in proportion to the land area and population when compared to other colonies). As Bermuda was the single most important Royal Navy and British Army base in the Western Hemisphere, the British government would not have wanted naval and military control to pass to the dominion Government and forces that the British Government could not employ as it wished in wartime, and Bermuda (and also Newfoundland) were left out of the confederation of the rest of British North America into Canada. Originally, civil governors of colonies, who had traditionally also been appointed Captain Generals (which gave them military control over local/reserve forces, but not over regular) were generally all appointed also as "Commander-in-Chief" of the colony, but in most cases their military powers were restricted to control of the reserve forces. In Imperial fortresses, the Governor was the senior civil and military  (regular and reserve) officer (in Bermuda they were also appointed "Vice Admiral", though that practice eventually stopped...Bermuda was the headquarters of the North America Station/North America and West Indies Station/America and West Indies Station (depending on the period), which had its own naval Commander-in-Chief who was not subject to the military command. The garrison at Bermuda (and the army generally) was a target of post-war austerity measures after the Seven Years' War, the American War of Independence, the Napoleonic Wars and American War of 1812, the Second Boer War, the First World War and the Second World War. In the decades through to the end of the Second Boer War, the garrison was generally a few companies of Royal Garrison Artillery, between two and eight companies of Royal Engineers (depending on the state of defence works), two battalions of infantry (three during the war, one of which was used to guard the Prisoner of War camps), a company of the Royal Army Medical Corps, detachments of the Army Service Corps, Army Ordnance Corps, and other atts and dets (Army Pay Corps, Chaplains and so on).

In 1902 there were three companies of Royal Garrison Artillery: 5th Company, Eastern Division (redesignated 66th Company, RGA); 8th Company, Southern Division (58th Company, RGA); and 21st Company, Western Division (83rd Company, RGA). 58 and 21 Companies were exchanged for 67 and 103 Companies at the end of the year, and a year later all three were exchanged for 95, 2 and 3 Companies. 2 Company was withdrawn before the First World War, leaving 95 Company and 3 Company there through the war. After the war (when the coastal artillery companies were redesignated again), one was removed and then the other after 1926 as part of the policy to transfer all of the coastal battery duties from the regular army to the Territorial Army, at least on the island of Britain (Ireland having had only regular and militia artillery, no volunteer artillery and hence, after 1908, no Territorial Force Artillery) and in Bermuda. Regular coastal artillery companies were retained in certain colonies, but in the Britain and Bermuda, other than district establishments it became a TA responsibility (the Bermuda Militia Artillery had not been re-organised in 1908 as Special Reserve, but was re-organised as a territorial in 1928). Bermuda got off relatively lightly as garrisons and militia were slashed around the Empire and in the Crown Dependencies, thanks as its role as an Imperial Fortress.

Also in Bermuda in 1902 were three Royal Engineers companies and two infantry battalions on garrison duties, plus a third on POW guard duty, and the various supporting corps companies and detachments. Thereafter, the infantry was cut to one battalion and the Royal Engineers to one company, and so it remained until the 1920s when the garrison was run down so greatly it was dwarfed by the naval establishment (which included a shore establishment and the crews of the vessels based there, with various Royal Marines detachments capable of being assembled as a battalion, and naval personnel on each cruiser trained to form shore parties, with the necessary artillery and small arms...much of this force was usually well away from Bermuda, cruising the western Atlantic and eastern Pacific, and not available for defence). In 1928 there was: District Establishment, RA; 27 (Fortress) Company, RE; a Signal Section, RCS; two companies of the 2nd Battalion, Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders; 25 Company, RAMC; and a detachment of the RAPC. The responsibilities of the removed regular units and companies were added to those of the part-time units, the Bermuda Militia Artillery and Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps (both re-organised on TA lines). The Royal Engineers company and RCS signal section, would also be withdrawn and a part-time territorial unit, the Bermuda Volunteer Engineers (badged as Royal Engineers), formed to take over their responsibilities.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2-4_Bn_East_Yorkshire_Regiment_and_General_Sir_James_Willcocks_Hamilton_Bermuda_1917.jpg

The Command Staff for Bermuda from the monthly Army List are shown below for certain December, 1919 (non-staff officers would be listed under their units). The photograph must have been before December, 1919, when 2/4 Bn. East Yorkshire Regiment departed...also attached is an article from the Royal Gazette on the 18th of December, 1919.:

 

 

Edited 11 May , 2022 by aodhdubh

[aodhdubh]

I am reminded by this photograph turning up elsewhere via an acquaintence that I have a concluding comment I have not yet posted.

 

Willcocks was only appointed Governor and GOC Bermuda in May 1917, and was sworn in at the Council Chambers in Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda on Saturday, the 2nd of June, 1917. Bicheno was promoted to substantive Captain on the 31st of March, 1918. When the Bermuda Militia Artillery (BMA) completed demobilisation on the 31st of December, 1918, he was appointed Commandant. T/Major (substantive Captain) TM Dill, who had left the positon of acting Commandant in order to lead the first overseas contingent ("Bermuda Contingent RGA") to the Western Front in 1916, had actually returned to Bermuda a couple of weeks earlier on four months' leave...he does not appear to have returned across the Atlantic to duty as he was appointed acting Police Magistrate for Hamilton for three months, beginning on the 21st of March, 1919, filling in for Major RW Appleby (former Commanding Officer of the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps) who was on leave. Dill was granted an extension to his leave from 10th of May, 1919, to the 9th of June, 1919, pending demobilisation. Dill replaced Bicheno as Commandant of the BMA in October, 1919, with Bicheno remaining as Adjutant. Bicheno handed the Adjutancy to Captain Anson on 1st of December, 1919, and departed Bermuda later that month.
 

Edited 9 July , 2022 by aodhdubh