Mystery corps uniform amongst RGA 1909 Bermuda

[aodhdubh]

This is a snip from a 1909 photograph of warrant officers and senior NCOs (and at least two soldiers with no rank stripes but instructor qualification badges) of the Royal Garrison Artillery (not indicated whether 3 or 95 Coy) at St. George's Garrison, Bermuda, in 1909 (where I believe both remained through the war).

 

All are wearing the Royal Artillery capbadge except one, whose capbadge is unclear, and who has other uniform features that differ.

 

Can anyone suggest his corps? I am assuming I can rule out infantry. RE, RAOC, RASC, RAMC, and a few other corps would have been in the garrison, as well as militia and volunteers (I can rule out the last two, and it does not look like a RE capbadge).

[GWF1967]

Hi,

 hopefully one of the resident badge spotters,  @FROGSMILE , @CorporalPunishment etc. will help with an identification.

Any chance of a view of the whole picture please?

[aodhdubh]

26 minutes ago, GWF1967 said:

Hi,

 hopefully one of the resident badge spotters,  @FROGSMILE , @CorporalPunishment etc. will help with an identification.

Any chance of a view of the whole picture please?

 

[FROGSMILE]

I believe he’s a member of the [Bermuda] ‘Garrison Staff’ and so wearing the cap badge of Edward VII cypher, as per regulation.  Such men were often past normal service age and on what we would now call long service terms and conditions.  They were funded by the local Colonial authorities and there was a particularly large establishment for example in India where they were retained on the Indian Unattached List.  Other colonial outposts had similar systems but on a much smaller scale.  They generally carried out administrative and clerical work for the permanent garrison so that imperial units could come to and from an established military infrastructure already in place.  The bottom part of his badge is tucked behind the chin strap on his cap.  I have seen six versions of the cypher badge, each of unique and varying design, but following the same principles: VR, EviiR, GvR, EviiiR, GviR, and EiiR (such posts were gradually diminished in the latter reign and replaced by the Long Service List, which has also now been replaced by the so-called Variable Engagement).

NB.  The versions used in India had an additional letter I attached to the end of the cypher, e.g. VRI (referring to Imperatrix/Imperator).

Edited 24 October , 2021 by FROGSMILE

[GWF1967]

3 hours ago, aodhdubh said:

 

Many thanks. 

[aodhdubh]

4 hours ago, FROGSMILE said:

I believe he’s a member of the [Bermuda] ‘Garrison Staff’ and so wearing the cap badge of Edward VII cypher, as per regulation.  Such men were often past normal service age and on what we would now call long service terms and conditions.  They were funded by the local Colonial authorities and there was a particularly large establishment for example in India where they were retained on the Indian Unattached List.  Other colonial outposts had similar systems but on a much smaller scale.  They generally carried out administrative and clerical work for the permanent garrison so that imperial units could come to and from an established military infrastructure already in place.  The bottom part of his badge is tucked behind the chin strap on his cap.  I have seen six versions of the cypher badge, each of unique and varying design, but following the same principles: VR, EviiR, GvR, EviiiR, GviR, and EiiR (such posts were gradually diminished in the latter reign and replaced by the Long Service List, which has also now been replaced by the so-called Variable Engagement).

NB.  The versions used in India had an additional letter I attached to the end of the cypher, e.g. VRI (referring to Imperatrix/Imperator).

Thank you very much. All of the regular army personnel in the garrison, starting with the C-in-C (also civil Governor) are on the 1911 census. I'm a bit fuzzy on the garrison organisation, especially Garrison Military Police. The military prison hired civilian staff by the turn of the century. The Bermuda Government refused to pay a penny towards the defence between the American War of 1812 and the end of the First World War, or to have anything else to do with providing a military reserve. In the UK proper, the War Department took control of the reserve forces from the 1870s, and also then funded them. In colonies, the reserve forces remained under the control of the Governor as C-in-C, equivalent to the Lord Lieutenant's role pre-1871. As Governors were mostly civilians, this did not extend to control of regular army units or personnel, though the Government had for decades followed a penny-pinching policy of removing such colonial garrisons as it could and shifting responsibility to local governments, as far as funds were concerned (Governors being appointed by the national government), and not under operational control of local governments. The exceptions were Imperial Fortresses, including Bermuda, hence the Governor normally being a serving general officer with control of the garrison. The Bermuda Militia Artillery and Bermuda Volunteer Rifle corps were raised under acts of the local government, but drafted by the War Office, and were entirely funded by the War Office and organised as part of the regular garrison. The colonial government began making a voluntary contribution to the cost of the volunteers between the wars, but not the militia.

Edited 24 October , 2021 by aodhdubh
Correct punctuation

[FROGSMILE]

4 hours ago, aodhdubh said:

Thank you very much. All of the regular army personnel in the garrison, starting with the C-in-C (also civil Governor) are on the 1911 census. I'm a bit fuzzy on the garrison organisation, especially Garrison Military Police. The military prison hired civilian staff by the turn of the century. The Bermuda Government refused to pay a penny towards the defence between the American War of 1812 and the end of the First World War, or to have anything else to do with providing a military reserve. In the UK proper, the War Department took control of the reserve forces from the 1870s, and also then funded them. In colonies, the reserve forces remained under the control of the Governor as C-in-C, equivalent to the Lord Lieutenant's role pre-1871. As Governors were mostly civilians, this did not extend to control of regular army units or personnel, though the Government had for decades followed a penny-pinching policy of removing such colonial garrisons as it could and shifting responsibility to local governments, as far as funds were concerned (Governors being appointed by the national government), and not under operational control of local governments. The exceptions were Imperial Fortresses, including Bermuda, hence the Governor normally being a serving general officer with control of the garrison. The Bermuda Militia Artillery and Bermuda Volunteer Rifle corps were raised under acts of the local government, but drafted by the War Office, and were entirely funded by the War Office and organised as part of the regular garrison. The colonial government began making a voluntary contribution to the cost of the volunteers between the wars, but not the militia.

That’s interesting and what you say doesn’t surprise me, in which case I’m not sure how such garrison staff personnel would have been funded (whose budget).  It was a form of extra regimental employment (ERE) for older SNCOs (rarely below that rank) and they often stayed in that role until the end of their service once they got on the list.  Their roles included such posts as staff clerks, barracks staff and maintenance of utilities.  They usually had a staff of locals to carry out the work and were most commonly overseers/coordinators.  There were also the uniformed staff of military prisons who wore the same badge.

NB.  I vaguely recall that there was a small military prison on Bermuda?  However, the SNCOs on the prison staff almost always wore a distinctive whistle chain that hung down conspicuously as a mark of their office.

Edited 24 October , 2021 by FROGSMILE

[battiscombe]

Is that the Sudan 1896-7 medal he is wearing ? - with another (maybe also Sudan.. not sure if Khedive medal colours appear so?).

[Andrew Upton]

1 hour ago, battiscombe said:

Is that the Sudan 1896-7 medal he is wearing ? - with another (maybe also Sudan.. not sure if Khedive medal colours appear so?).

Queen's Sudan Medal and the Khedive's Sudan Medal with one clasp:

[aodhdubh]

6 hours ago, FROGSMILE said:

That’s interesting and what you say doesn’t surprise me, in which case I’m not sure how such garrison staff personnel would have been funded (whose budget).  It was a form of extra regimental employment (ERE) for older SNCOs (rarely below that rank) and they often stayed in that role until the end of their service once they got on the list.  Their roles included such posts as staff clerks, barracks staff and maintenance of utilities.  They usually had a staff of locals to carry out the work and were most commonly overseers/coordinators.  There were also the uniformed staff of military prisons who wore the same badge.

NB.  I vaguely recall that there was a small military prison on Bermuda?  However, the SNCOs on the prison staff almost always wore a distinctive whistle chain that hung down conspicuously as a mark of their office.

The garrison was accommodated in St. George's town at the East End, the original capital and only municipality 'til the 1780s, from 1701 to 1784. Having been dis-established for several years between the Seven Years War and the American War of Independence, the garrison was removed in 1784 following American independence. The Royal Navy established an Admiralty House and naval base there in 1794, and the garrison was re-established with three companies of the 47th Foot and an invalid company of Royal Artillery. Royal Barracks were erected on Barrack Hill, east of the town, and the military estate ultimately included various newer barracks and officers and married OR's quarters, a hospital church, messes, Royal Engineers yard, three forts within the estate, and four more on detached plots so near as to be included with it, and Commissariat, later ASC, and Ordnance depots in the town and on Ordnance Island. This camp controlled outlying forts and batteries at the east end and throughout Bermuda. In the 1840s, land was acquired in the central parishes on the Main Island for Prospect Camp. In the 1860s, the garrison headquarters moved there. At the same time, the last convicts were removed from the Royal Naval Dockyard on Ireland Island, at the West End, vacating Clarence Barracks on adjacent Boaz Island and Watford Island, which became a third large army camp. Bermuda was split into Western, Central, and Eastern military districts, with the various forts and batteries, ordnance depots, and so on in each controlled from the central camp (Warwick Camp was established at the same time but fell under the Central District). Through the latter 19th Century there were usually two infantry battalions in Bermuda, though three during the Second Boer War, and thereafter typically one 'til the 1920s when the garrison began to be drastically reduced. There were also varying numbers of RA, RE, ASC, AOC, AMD/RAMC, and so on. Each district had its own garrison structure (an Ordnance Depot in each, by example), and was sometimes referred to as a garrison in its own right...you'll find Prospect Camp frequently named as "Prospect Garrison". Despite this, although each of the three large camps had guard rooms, there was a single military prison at St. George's that served them all. This lay between the old Royal Barracks, built in the 1790s and demolished in the 20th Century, and the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers Officers' Mess, which still survives. I don't think the prison survives. If it does, it has been absorbed into a later structure so as to be un-recognisable.

There were certainly Barracks Sergeants at Bermuda as late as the 1870s. Possibly later still, but I have no evidence for them then.

Looking at the 1911 census, the first page begins with the Governor (Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Walter Kitchener, who would die and be buried at Prospect the next year), listed as Staff, his ADC - a captain listed by regiment (W. Yorks), a Lieutenant-Colonel and a Captain listed as Staff, with no corps or regiment shown (Army List will reveal, obviously), and two Army Schoolmaster Warrant Officers, listed as Corps of Army Schoolmasters rather than as Staff. The rest of the page was left blank. Page two is wives and children...I'll omit mention of such pages hereafter. Then came pages of No 3 Company, RGA and Permanent Staff Bermuda Militia Artillery...then 95 Company, RGA, and Military Provost Staff Corps....in between are a handful of artillerymen evidently not part of the company: a Sergeant-Major (Warrant Officer), a Quartermaster Sergeant, and a Sergeant, all shown as "RA Clerks Section", and a Master Gunner and a Quartermaster Sergeant Instructor in Gunnery, both shown as District Staff RGA. I note Schoolmasters and certain trades such as tailors and shoemakers included with the companies and indicated as being RGA.... Although the cover records "Military Provost Staff Corps", in the returns there are two Staff Sergeants and one Sergeant shown as "Military Prison Staff Corps". Then comes Royal Engineers, with three listed as "Royal Engineers" (including the CRE), one as "Staff for RE Service", fourteen as "Establishment for Royal Engineer service", the strength of 27 Fortress Company RE...then A Company, 2nd Bn. the Bedfordshire Regiment at Prospect, B Company, 2nd Bn. the Bedfordshire Regiment at Prospect, C Company, 2nd Bn. the Bedfordshire Regiment at St. George's, D Company, 2nd Bn. the Bedfordshire Regiment at Prospect, C Company, 2nd Bn. the Bedfordshire Regiment at Boaz Island, E Company, 2nd Bn. the Bedfordshire Regiment at Prospect, F Company, 2nd Bn. the Bedfordshire Regiment at "Bermuda", G Company, 2nd Bn. the Bedfordshire Regiment at Prospect, H Company, 2nd Bn. the Bedfordshire Regiment at St. George's... then ASC, APC, Permanent Staff BVRC, and AP Department, all at Prospect Camp, with all listed against the said corps except the PS BVRC, each of whom is listed against his regular army regiment..then RAMC (seven officers listed as "RAMC" and the remainder (ORs) as "25 Company, RAMC"....then AOD: a Lieutenant-Colonel AOD, a Lieutenant RA attached AOD, an Honorary Major and two Honorary Lieutenants all AOD, then forty-four Other Ranks all AOC.

[FROGSMILE]

6 hours ago, aodhdubh said:

The garrison was accommodated in St. George's town at the East End, the original capital and only municipality 'til the 1780s, from 1701 to 1784. Having been dis-established for several years between the Seven Years War and the American War of Independence, the garrison was removed in 1784 following American independence. The Royal Navy established an Admiralty House and naval base there in 1794, and the garrison was re-established with three companies of the 47th Foot and an invalid company of Royal Artillery. Royal Barracks were erected on Barrack Hill, east of the town, and the military estate ultimately included various newer barracks and officers and married OR's quarters, a hospital church, messes, Royal Engineers yard, three forts within the estate, and four more on detached plots so near as to be included with it, and Commissariat, later ASC, and Ordnance depots in the town and on Ordnance Island. This camp controlled outlying forts and batteries at the east end and throughout Bermuda. In the 1840s, land was acquired in the central parishes on the Main Island for Prospect Camp. In the 1860s, the garrison headquarters moved there. At the same time, the last convicts were removed from the Royal Naval Dockyard on Ireland Island, at the West End, vacating Clarence Barracks on adjacent Boaz Island and Watford Island, which became a third large army camp. Bermuda was split into Western, Central, and Eastern military districts, with the various forts and batteries, ordnance depots, and so on in each controlled from the central camp (Warwick Camp was established at the same time but fell under the Central District). Through the latter 19th Century there were usually two infantry battalions in Bermuda, though three during the Second Boer War, and thereafter typically one 'til the 1920s when the garrison began to be drastically reduced. There were also varying numbers of RA, RE, ASC, AOC, AMD/RAMC, and so on. Each district had its own garrison structure (an Ordnance Depot in each, by example), and was sometimes referred to as a garrison in its own right...you'll find Prospect Camp frequently named as "Prospect Garrison". Despite this, although each of the three large camps had guard rooms, there was a single military prison at St. George's that served them all. This lay between the old Royal Barracks, built in the 1790s and demolished in the 20th Century, and the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers Officers' Mess, which still survives. I don't think the prison survives. If it does, it has been absorbed into a later structure so as to be un-recognisable.

There were certainly Barracks Sergeants at Bermuda as late as the 1870s. Possibly later still, but I have no evidence for them then.

Looking at the 1911 census, the first page begins with the Governor (Lieutenant-General Sir Frederick Walter Kitchener, who would die and be buried at Prospect the next year), listed as Staff, his ADC - a captain listed by regiment (W. Yorks), a Lieutenant-Colonel and a Captain listed as Staff, with no corps or regiment shown (Army List will reveal, obviously), and two Army Schoolmaster Warrant Officers, listed as Corps of Army Schoolmasters rather than as Staff. The rest of the page was left blank. Page two is wives and children...I'll omit mention of such pages hereafter. Then came pages of No 3 Company, RGA and Permanent Staff Bermuda Militia Artillery...then 95 Company, RGA, and Military Provost Staff Corps....in between are a handful of artillerymen evidently not part of the company: a Sergeant-Major (Warrant Officer), a Quartermaster Sergeant, and a Sergeant, all shown as "RA Clerks Section", and a Master Gunner and a Quartermaster Sergeant Instructor in Gunnery, both shown as District Staff RGA. I note Schoolmasters and certain trades such as tailors and shoemakers included with the companies and indicated as being RGA.... Although the cover records "Military Provost Staff Corps", in the returns there are two Staff Sergeants and one Sergeant shown as "Military Prison Staff Corps". Then comes Royal Engineers, with three listed as "Royal Engineers" (including the CRE), one as "Staff for RE Service", fourteen as "Establishment for Royal Engineer service", the strength of 27 Fortress Company RE...then A Company, 2nd Bn. the Bedfordshire Regiment at Prospect, B Company, 2nd Bn. the Bedfordshire Regiment at Prospect, C Company, 2nd Bn. the Bedfordshire Regiment at St. George's, D Company, 2nd Bn. the Bedfordshire Regiment at Prospect, C Company, 2nd Bn. the Bedfordshire Regiment at Boaz Island, E Company, 2nd Bn. the Bedfordshire Regiment at Prospect, F Company, 2nd Bn. the Bedfordshire Regiment at "Bermuda", G Company, 2nd Bn. the Bedfordshire Regiment at Prospect, H Company, 2nd Bn. the Bedfordshire Regiment at St. George's... then ASC, APC, Permanent Staff BVRC, and AP Department, all at Prospect Camp, with all listed against the said corps except the PS BVRC, each of whom is listed against his regular army regiment..then RAMC (seven officers listed as "RAMC" and the remainder (ORs) as "25 Company, RAMC"....then AOD: a Lieutenant-Colonel AOD, a Lieutenant RA attached AOD, an Honorary Major and two Honorary Lieutenants all AOD, then forty-four Other Ranks all AOC.

That is an admirably comprehensive return of commissioned staff and other ranks in the Bermuda garrison(s).  On that basis the staff sergeant in the photo can only be a member of the Military Provost Staff, who at that time wore the generic cypher laid down as headdress insignia for all garrison staff, the category that they fell into at that time (which included several other functions).  The design of their cap insignia was much later modified a little to become discrete to them (via the adding of a title scroll), but still bears the hallmark of its garrison staff origins.  It is the first time I’ve seen a photo of a MPS SNCO without a conspicuous chain attached to his upper garment, although they often aren’t seen on service dress.  Interestingly whereas the RGA personnel in the photo are all wearing full dress tunics, he alone is wearing an undress frock of the pattern introduced in 1898.  It was produced in scarlet, rifle green and dark blue and in this case is the latter as per clothing regulations for the MPS. Apart from GS buttons and shoulder titles there was no other distinction.  I enclose additional images of the cap insignia and a shoulder title.  You can see photos of further MPS, some in SD and some in the same undress frock as your photo, in the thread here: https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/135693-unknown-cap-badge-gvr/

 

Edited 25 October , 2021 by FROGSMILE

[battiscombe]

8 hours ago, Andrew Upton said:

Queen's Sudan Medal and the Khedive's Sudan Medal with one clasp:

Yes indeed.   So it might well be possible to ID the individual through the Sudan medal rolls, if he is also still there in 1911 census.. There are unlikely  to be many men in Bermuda of a suitable age, with those medals

[ss002d6252]

A link to the 1911 military census for Bermuda is available here in pdf form

Craig

[aodhdubh]

3 hours ago, FROGSMILE said:

That is an admirably comprehensive return of commissioned staff and other ranks in the Bermuda garrison(s).  On that basis the staff sergeant in the photo can only be a member of the Military Provost Staff, who at that time wore the generic cypher laid down as headdress insignia for all garrison staff, the category that they fell into at that time (which included several other functions).  The design of their cap insignia was much later modified a little to become discrete to them (via the adding of a title scroll), but still bears the hallmark of its garrison staff origins.  It is the first time I’ve seen a photo of a MPS SNCO without a conspicuous chain attached to his upper garment, although they often aren’t seen on service dress.  Interestingly whereas the RGA personnel in the photo are all wearing full dress tunics, he alone is wearing an undress frock of the pattern introduced in 1898.  It was produced in scarlet, rifle green and dark blue and in this case is the latter as per clothing regulations for the MPS. Apart from GS buttons and shoulder titles there was no other distinction.  I enclose additional images of the cap insignia and a shoulder title.  You can see photos of further MPS, some in SD and some in the same undress frock as your photo, in the thread here: https://www.greatwarforum.org/topic/135693-unknown-cap-badge-gvr/

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you very much, again. Then assuming that all the SNCOs present in the 1909 photograph were still present in 1911, the three "Military Provost Staff Corps"/"Military Prison Staff Corps" personnel listed are:

Staff-Sergeant Robert William Shaw, aged 36, and born in Everton, Liverpool, Lancashire, England

Staff-Sergeant  Thomas Cox, aged 37, born in Rasley, Banbury, Oxfordshire, England

Sergeant Alfred Conn, aged 35, born in Winchcombe, Cheltenham, Gloucester, England

The photograph shows a Staff-Sergeant, so Shaw or Cox.

[FROGSMILE]

Just now, aodhdubh said:

Thank you very much, again. Then assuming that all the SNCOs present in the 1909 photograph were still present in 1911, the three "Military Provost Staff Corps"/"Military Prison Staff Corps" personnel listed are:

Staff-Sergeant Robert William Shaw, aged 36, and born in Everton, Liverpool, Lancashire, England

Staff-Sergeant  Thomas Cox, aged 37, born in Rasley, Banbury, Oxfordshire, England

Sergeant Alfred Conn, aged 35, born in Winchcombe, Cheltenham, Gloucester, England

The photograph shows a Staff-Sergeant, so Shaw or Cox.

I think that is a fair assumption to make, yes.

[FROGSMILE]

Also, given his being the singular, odd-man-out in the photo, I think that there is a strong likelihood that he is a transferee to the MPS from the RGA and that he is stood with former colleagues.  As you may know there was no direct entry to MPS and recruitment to its numbers relied upon transferees.

If I were a betting man my money would be on Staff Sergeant Shaw, as Liverpool (Mersey defences) was a strong recruiting area for the RGA and there was a barracks at Everton.

Edited 25 October , 2021 by FROGSMILE

[aodhdubh]

By the way...In the full photo, by the way, you can see details of the building behind, which I am pretty certain is the St. George's Garrison Church, built in the 1840s. It still exists, currently occupied by an "Ethiopian Orthodox Cathedral" (very much a curiousity as I'm surprised there is even  single member of that denomination in Bermuda). This is its location on Google Maps:

(I should add that Google has numerous errors on naming...the road leading into the town from Mullet Bay to the west is "Mullet Bay Road"; passing through the town it becomes "Duke of York Road"; exiting the town to the east and climbing Barrack Hill it becomes "Barrack Hill". Google names that last stretch as "Mullet Bay Road". Many streets in the town are similarly misnamed. You'll probably spot the "Bermuda Royal Artillery Association", which is actually the "Bermuda Branch of the Royal Artillery Association". If you look in the town, you'll spot the "Bermuda Garrison Artillery Monument" facing Ordnance Island on the water's edge of "Kings Square"...which should be Queen's Square, but current practice in Bermuda has been to keep saying "King's"...the Government wharf area a little east of the Square is referred to as "King's Wharf", and one of the three forts on Castle Island as "King's Castle", though during Queen Victoria's reign these were all named "Queen's". I digress...the monument is actually a "Royal Garrison Artillery" monument for the members of the Bermuda Contingent of said corps...volunteers for overseas service from the Militia...lost during the First World War. I only use Google as it has "Streetview"...otherwise the local government's Land Valuation Department map has roads and streets accurately named, and shows the church just inside the municipal boundary at 16 Old Military Road, St. George's Town: http://www.landvaluation.bm/ ...I might add that the old Warrant Officers' and Sergeants' Mess is 11 Old Military Road, outside the town line, and now used for a kindergarten, the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers Officers' Mess is now a private home, and is 16 Slippery Hill, and the old military prison definitely no loger exists, looking at this map, and was on the sites now shown as 8 and 10 Slippery Hill, and possibly its neighbours, 4 and , and 12 and 14, Slippery Hill).

St. George's Garrison Church on Google Maps

For a more contemporary comparison, this snip from the 1901 Ordnance Survey (based on surveys carried out circa 1897-1899 by Lieutenant AJ Savage, RE) on Wikipedia (put there by myself) shows much of St. George's Garrison, including the Military Prison...which is printed on a vacant patch of steep slope on the opposite side of Slippery Hill Road from the actual site:

1901 Ordnance Survey map of St. George's Town

[FROGSMILE]

11 minutes ago, aodhdubh said:

By the way...In the full photo, by the way, you can see details of the building behind, which I am pretty certain is the St. George's Garrison Church, built in the 1840s. It still exists, currently occupied by an "Ethiopian Orthodox Cathedral" (very much a curiousity as I'm surprised there is even  single member of that denomination in Bermuda). This is its location on Google Maps:

(I should add that Google has numerous errors on naming...the road leading into the town from Mullet Bay to the west is "Mullet Bay Road"; passing through the town it becomes "Duke of York Road"; exiting the town to the east and climbing Barrack Hill it becomes "Barrack Hill". Google names that last stretch as "Mullet Bay Road". Many streets in the town are similarly misnamed. You'll probably spot the "Bermuda Royal Artillery Association", which is actually the "Bermuda Branch of the Royal Artillery Association". If you look in the town, you'll spot the "Bermuda Garrison Artillery Monument" facing Ordnance Island on the water's edge of "Kings Square"...which should be Queen's Square, but current practice in Bermuda has been to keep saying "King's"...the Government wharf area a little east of the Square is referred to as "King's Wharf", and one of the three forts on Castle Island as "King's Castle", though during Queen Victoria's reign these were all named "Queen's". I digress...the monument is actually a "Royal Garrison Artillery" monument for the members of the Bermuda Contingent of said corps...volunteers for overseas service from the Militia...lost during the First World War. I only use Google as it has "Streetview"...otherwise the local government's Land Valuation Department map has roads and streets accurately named, and shows the church just inside the municipal boundary at 16 Old Military Road, St. George's Town: http://www.landvaluation.bm/ ...I might add that the old Warrant Officers' and Sergeants' Mess is 11 Old Military Road, outside the town line, and now used for a kindergarten, the Royal Artillery and Royal Engineers Officers' Mess is now a private home, and is 16 Slippery Hill, and the old military prison definitely no loger exists, looking at this map, and was on the sites now shown as 8 and 10 Slippery Hill, and possibly its neighbours, 4 and , and 12 and 14, Slippery Hill).

St. George's Garrison Church on Google Maps

For a more contemporary comparison, this snip from the 1901 Ordnance Survey (based on surveys carried out circa 1897-1899 by Lieutenant AJ Savage, RE) on Wikipedia (put there by myself) shows much of St. George's Garrison, including the Military Prison...which is printed on a vacant patch of steep slope on the opposite side of Slippery Hill Road from the actual site:

1901 Ordnance Survey map of St. George's Town

It’s very interesting and clear that Bermuda was for a long time a fortress and refuelling and revittling station for the Royal Navy at a very strategic location given the declared intent at the time to command the seas.  Although there was as you’ve pointed out in great detail a not insubstantial military garrison there, its raison d’être was to support the Royal Navy.  This would still have applied during WW1.  I suspect that @RNCVRmight be able to comment.

One aspect that confuses me is your suggestion that Lieutenant Savage RE, who surveyed the garrison somehow showed it in the wrong “open space” on the map?

Edited 25 October , 2021 by FROGSMILE

[aodhdubh]

13 minutes ago, FROGSMILE said:

Also, given his being the singular, odd-man-out in the photo, I think that there is a strong likelihood that he is a transferee to the MPS from the RGA and that he is stood with former colleagues.  As you may know there was no direct entry to MPS and recruitment to its numbers relied upon transferees.

If I were a betting man my money would be on Staff Sergeant Shaw, as Liverpool (Mersey defences) was a strong recruiting area for the RGA and there was a barracks at Everton.

Thanks. I'm trying to work out the identities of as many individuals as I can in my collection of contemporary photographs, but people rarely thought to note names on the backs for posterity. I have found that at least one civilian (as best as I can recollect, the Bermudian born son of an AOC soldier based at Ordnance Island, St. George's) was also recruited as a warder for the Military Prison in Bermuda, being required to pass the civil service vetting procedure. There was certainly no shortage of discharged soldiers in Bermuda. As most of the infantry was stationed at Prospect Camp, once it had been established, St. George's Garrison became primarily occupied by RA/RGA and RE (the only suitable channel for large vessels to pass through the reefs is at the East End, hence the original concentration of settlement and the garrison there. There had been Militia and volunteer artillery from 1612 to about 1816, which had maintained a large number of coastal batteries, with heavier guns for use against ships at the east and west ends (there being a minor channel at the west...resulting in the Battle of Wreck Hill during the American War of Independence). Along the long South Shore were many beaches where small boats could land shore parties after passing over the reefs (a potentially suicidal task, but one that could not be ignored), and those most suitable for landing were guarded by batteries equipped with smaller guns for use against boats and infantry at closer ranges. When the regular Royal Artillery took over all of the pre-existing batteries, the manpower requirements as well as the cost and expense of keeping them all armed with up to date and well-maintained weapons (especially given the colonial government stopped maintaining part-time reserves) was so daunting that only the main forts overlooking channels were kept permanently armed with fixed guns, while those along the South Shore were disarmed and converted to prepared battery sites to which field guns and howitzers could be dispatched as required from Gun Sheds at the main camps (in 1914, these were 4.7" guns on field gun carriages, 15-Pounder BLC guns, and 5" howitzers, which were moved into positions in August, 1914, though the howitzers were withdrawn and sent to England shortly thereafter...I digress again). With most of the old soldiers who chose to remain on in Bermuda that lived at the East End where the prison was located being disproportionately artillerymen, I expect that it would be the case that the Military Provost Staff Corps/Military Prison Staff Corps personnel would have been disproportionately ex-gunners.

[FROGSMILE]

14 minutes ago, aodhdubh said:

Thanks. I'm trying to work out the identities of as many individuals as I can in my collection of contemporary photographs, but people rarely thought to note names on the backs for posterity. I have found that at least one civilian (as best as I can recollect, the Bermudian born son of an AOC soldier based at Ordnance Island, St. George's) was also recruited as a warder for the Military Prison in Bermuda, being required to pass the civil service vetting procedure. There was certainly no shortage of discharged soldiers in Bermuda. As most of the infantry was stationed at Prospect Camp, once it had been established, St. George's Garrison became primarily occupied by RA/RGA and RE (the only suitable channel for large vessels to pass through the reefs is at the East End, hence the original concentration of settlement and the garrison there. There had been Militia and volunteer artillery from 1612 to about 1816, which had maintained a large number of coastal batteries, with heavier guns for use against ships at the east and west ends (there being a minor channel at the west...resulting in the Battle of Wreck Hill during the American War of Independence). Along the long South Shore were many beaches where small boats could land shore parties after passing over the reefs (a potentially suicidal task, but one that could not be ignored), and those most suitable for landing were guarded by batteries equipped with smaller guns for use against boats and infantry at closer ranges. When the regular Royal Artillery took over all of the pre-existing batteries, the manpower requirements as well as the cost and expense of keeping them all armed with up to date and well-maintained weapons (especially given the colonial government stopped maintaining part-time reserves) was so daunting that only the main forts overlooking channels were kept permanently armed with fixed guns, while those along the South Shore were disarmed and converted to prepared battery sites to which field guns and howitzers could be dispatched as required from Gun Sheds at the main camps (in 1914, these were 4.7" guns on field gun carriages, 15-Pounder BLC guns, and 5" howitzers, which were moved into positions in August, 1914, though the howitzers were withdrawn and sent to England shortly thereafter...I digress again). With most of the old soldiers who chose to remain on in Bermuda that lived at the East End where the prison was located being disproportionately artillerymen, I expect that it would be the case that the Military Provost Staff Corps/Military Prison Staff Corps personnel would have been disproportionately ex-gunners.

A very interesting history, thank you for detailing it so clearly.  Your concluding sentence makes complete sense in relation to your photo and it encapsulates what I interpreted reading between the lines.

The Royal Garrison Artillery depot was in Seaforth Barracks, Liverpool, having moved there decades earlier from an location at St Domingo’s House in Everton.  This seems likely to connect with Staff Sergeant Shaw.

Edited 25 October , 2021 by FROGSMILE

[aodhdubh]

2 hours ago, FROGSMILE said:

It’s very interesting and clear that Bermuda was for a long time a fortress and refuelling and revittling station for the Royal Navy at a very strategic location given the declared intent at the time to command the seas.  Although there was as you’ve pointed out in great detail a not insubstantial military garrison there, its raison d’être was to support the Royal Navy.  This would still have applied during WW1.  I suspect that @RNCVRmight be able to comment.

One aspect that confuses me is your suggestion that Lieutenant Savage RE, who surveyed the garrison somehow showed it in the wrong “open space” on the map?

If you look on the map, the words "military prison" are written on a patch (of very steep ground) where no buildings are marked...but across Slippery Hill Road, and slightly to the right, you can see the outline of a walled compound, with some buildings outlined within it, but not shaded in...that is actually the prison sitting on level ground. The shaded in building to the left of this compound, and above the "y" in "Military" is the RA and RE Officer's Mess. I have no close up photo of the prison, but it is discernible in this view over the town towards Barrack Hill from Fort George (see photo below).

 

Bermuda was one of four "Imperial Fortresses", the others being Halifax, NS, Gibraltar, and Malta. From about 1870, Halifax technically was not as its military defence went to the Dominion militia, but its Royal Naval Dockyard remained in use subsidiary to Bermuda's 'til 1905 (the North America Station/North America and West Indies Station/America and West Indies Station squadron had alternated its main base between Bermuda in winter and Halifax in summer until about the 1820s, when it became Bermuda year-round). British global strategy from the 1790s 'til after the first World War relied on the assumption that the only navies able to pose a threat to British control of the oceans were based in the Atlantic (naive given the independence and expansion to the Pacific of the US, as well as the Russian and Japanese Pacific ports and growing fleets), so squadrons based in these Atlantic and Mediterranean Imperial Fortresses, even before the opening of the Suez and Panama canals, were meant to control egress from and ingress to the Indian and Pacific oceans, hence no Imperial fortress outside the Atlantic/Mediterranean (the flaw to this became obvious with Japan in the 1920s, leading to the development of Singapore naval base, which was completed in time to be occupied by Japan). Bermuda's naval and military importance is forgotten today, for some reason. The army garrison in Bermuda was primarily defensive, but was also intended to be able to support amphibious operations in the North American region, which meant mostly that stores were kept there and excess barrack space for use by additional military forces to be despatched there preparatory to such operations. This was the case during the American War of 1812 (when the infantry battalion on garrison duty at St. George's, the 102nd Regiment of Foot, was brigaded with Royal Marines and a company of foreigners and used in raids on the US coast, prior to more naval and military forces being sent to Bermuda in 1814 to be used with the existing forces based there in raiding the US coast...and famously in the Chesapeake Campaign). The same thing nearly occurred during the Trent Affair, when plans were being made to attack New York City from Bermuda. The threat of US invasion (the US was infuriated by Bermuda profiteering during the war due to its location off the Carolinas making it the ideal base for Confederate blockade runners) was enough to encourage the colonial legislature to pass a Defence Act that enabled the War Office to compulsorily purchase land required for defence needs. This was not for defence works, but to increase the sizes of St. George's Garrison and Prospect Camp and obtain existing neighbouring private homes for officers' housing as there had been a crucial shortage of housing available for rent by officers, given how many soldiers there were relative to the civil population. Even the Chief Justice lost his house. At the same time, the hutment barracks at Prospect were replaced with large, new masonry ones, and large new barracks blocks were built in addition to the old Royal Barracks at St. George's (on the Savage map, that includes the Staff Block above the word BARRACKS, and, Left to Right, A, B, C, and D blocks below ROYAL BARRACKS (the first two on the same line, and the latter pair on parallel lines staggered to the South...the dark T-shaped building between ROYAL and BARRACKS is the Regimental Institute. The two barrack blocks in a line south of these, facing over the parade ground where you can see the boundary stone marked "B.S. W.D. B.M. 21.3" are the original 1790s barrack blocks that no longer exist. The entire military garrison (not including naval establishment) probably remained less than 3,000, except possibly during the Second Boer War, meaning there was excess barrack space in Bermuda.

 

P.S. I might digress a bit further and say normally only "Home" regular British Army units were stationed in Bermuda, and the BMA and BVRC (in the 1930s the Bermuda Volunteer Engineers and Bermuda Militia Infantry were added), which were considered fully part of the army and not auxiliaries (the only important distinction being whether or not a unit received Army funds from the War Office, though the Bermudian reserve units were much more integrated into the regular army garrison than was the case for TF/TA units in the British Isles). During wartime, however, when manpower was short, other units were temporarily stationed there. During the Second Boer War, the West India Regiment was posted to Bermuda (although part of the British Army, of course, this regiment was not normally employed there, not being a "Home" regiment, which rather translates as not being white). When it was decided to place a Boer POW Camp in Bermuda, it was thought it would be rude to have coloured soldiers guard the white Afrikaners, hence the third infantry battalion in Bermuda during that period). In 1914, the 2 Bn. Lincolnshire Regiment was pulled away less than a year into a three year stint on station and replaced with a succession of Canadian battalions (the Canadian units spent their time on training for the Western Front, so the BVRC took on sole responsibility for garrison infantry duties manning watchpoints and patrolling the coast, and also formed Garrison Military Police detachments...though I have a photo of 38th Battalion CEF personnel at Prospect with one wearing a GMP arm band) until the 2/4th Bn. East Yorkshire Regiment arrived in 1917. During the Second World War, a Canadian infantry unit (or rather, detachment) was again briefly stationed as Bermuda.

Edited 25 October , 2021 by aodhdubh
Clarity

[FROGSMILE]

Thank you for such a fascinating rundown leading up to the First World War and beyond, it really does portray how important Bermuda was at the time.  I was aware of its importance as a strategic garrison in support of the Royal Navy, but not that it was one of the four “fortresses” that you’ve described.  I couldn’t hold back a wry smile at the penny pinching that so often was resorted to when attempting to maintain these stations far from home.  It compares so very starkly with US attitudes and financial largesse as the world’s policeman subsequently.  I’m surprised to learn that the garrison was provided by home establishment units for a period, although it does make sense when I consider the reduced strength and thus expense of such battalions.  I can’t help but reflect what an attractive garrison it must have seemed to those soldiers and their families fortunate enough to have been posted there.

Edited 25 October , 2021 by FROGSMILE

[aodhdubh]

36 minutes ago, FROGSMILE said:

Thank you for such a fascinating rundown leading up to the First World War and beyond, it really does portray how important Bermuda was at the time.  I was aware of its importance as a strategic garrison in support of the Royal Navy, but not that it was one of the four “fortresses” that you’ve described.  I couldn’t hold back a wry smile at the penny pinching that so often was resorted to when attempting to maintain these stations far from home.  It compares so very starkly with US attitudes and financial largesse as the world’s policeman subsequently.  I’m surprised to learn that the garrison was provided by home establishment units for a period, although it does make sense when I consider the reduced strength and thus expense of such battalions.  I can’t help but reflect what an attractive garrison it must have seemed to those soldiers and their families fortunate enough to have been posted there.

Actually, most soldiers posted there loathed it, as did most sailors and marines. Bermuda had a very small, extremely conservative population...about 19,000 civilians in 1914, with thousands of sailors and marines, and probably over a thousand regular soldiers (I'd have to go back to the census and count). It was also very expensive, and the City of Hamilton was considered good for officers, but not so great for ORs. St. George's would have been little better. As a very "family friendly" destination, there was little for soldiers who were not church-going to do with their time. Most of the sailors (excepting shore establishment) at least spent considerable time away on cruises visiting ports in Canada, the USA, West Indies, and Latin America, but infantry soldiers were stuck in Bermuda for three years, and others corps might be there longer. Those who were not already married, or who were unwilling/unable to marry there, hated it especially.

[FROGSMILE]

1 minute ago, aodhdubh said:

Actually, most soldiers posted there loathed it, as did most sailors and marines. Bermuda had a very small, extremely conservative population...about 19,000 civilians in 1914, with thousands of sailors and marines, and probably over a thousand regular soldiers (I'd have to go back to the census and count). It was also very expensive, and the City of Hamilton was considered good for officers, but not so great for ORs. St. George's would have been little better. As a very "family friendly" destination, there was little for soldiers who were not church-going to do with their time. Most of the sailors (excepting shore establishment) at least spent considerable time away on cruises visiting ports in Canada, the USA, West Indies, and Latin America, but infantry soldiers were stuck in Bermuda for three years, and others corps might be there longer. Those who were not already married, or who were unwilling/unable to marry there, hated it especially.

I understand, you have painted a very eloquent picture.

[aodhdubh]

I might add that my own great-great-grandfather, who arrived in Bermuda in the 46th (South Devonshire) Regiment of Foot in 1876, purchased his discharge to marry in Bermuda and end his days as a Presbyterian church sexton, so I expect he was an exception.