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British Army in Bermuda from 1701 to 1977

The many regiments and units once stationed here by Great Britain

By Keith Archibald Forbes (see About Us) exclusively for Bermuda Online

To refer to this web file use "bermuda-online.org/britarmy.htm" as your Subject

British Army's proud past in Bermuda

The British Army built and manned more than 80 Bermuda Forts. They included military artists for detailed records. Their landscapes and seascapes showed how Bermuda developed as a naval base and land fortress bristling with heavy guns that could heave first cannonballs then shells many miles out to sea. From the American Civil War, British troops occupied a huge area in Devonshire Parish alone. Huge Fort Prospect - seen here but no longer around - was their headquarters.

They also made good use of every other Parish. Some places they built are now used by the Bermuda Police Service. In the 1840s, the British Army built roads long before the American military did in the 1950s). British troops paved and repaired the original military (now a civilian) road from Fort Prospect in Pembroke Parish to the Royal Naval Dockyard in the west and the garrison town of St. George's in the east - and erected the rifle range at what used to be the British Army training camp on the Old Military South Road - now the South Road - in Warwick Parish. 

There was even a British Army Garrison school in Bermuda until 1953.

It is believed that at a number of former members of the units above remained and died in Bermuda and were buried at what was then the Prospect Military Garrison, now the Police, graveyard. 

For general regimental or unit enquiries such as tracing or researching relatives who may have served with one of the following units in Bermuda, please write directly to the regiment or unit concerned in the UK or to the British Army in the UK. Please note that all military records  - including service, discharge and death - of British Army and Canadian Army units once based in Bermuda were taken by the unit back to their homelands. None at all exist in Bermuda. At no time did any of these units fall under (colonial) Bermuda Government jurisdiction, they reported directly to their military services overseas. For any and all further information about these units check with the regimental museums concerned if the units are still operating or, in the case of British Army units, with the UK's Ministry of Defence. Also see British Military Graveyards in Bermuda. Plus, try Regimental birth indices and various censuses using Ancestry.com and maybe also the National Archives in London, which holds all sorts of information on soldiers (including biographical) as far back as those times.

Introduction

• This listing is more accurate than the one posted in the former Officer's Mess, Prospect, Bermuda, now the Police Club.

• The Royal Artillery, although not shown specifically as such, was present in Bermuda on a continuous basis from about 1775 to about 1896.

1701 to 1764. His Majesty's Independent Company

They were detached from the 2nd Foot over protests of General William Selwyn who had clothed them in England. 

With war between Britain and France imminent, the British Government decided that Bermuda should be protected by regular soldiers. The small military force, the Independent Company of Foot, was sent. The first 50 full time soldiers arrived with Governor Benjamin Bennett, who had commanded a company in Ireland. They were aboard HMS Lincoln, in May 1701. 

They were headed by Captain Lancelot Sandys, with Lieutenant Robert Henly and had 2 sergeants, 2 corporals, 1 drummer and 50 privates. There were no barracks available for them and their quarters consisted of a warehouse. They lived in temporary barracks around the town of St. George - mostly private dwellings or storehouses rented by the Government. Some were later quartered at the Castle and Paget forts.  

One early commander was a thief and counterfeiter. Only the pleas of his wife saved him from the gallows. When war was declared between Britain and France in 1702, the unit was strengthened with all able-bodied men and 600 slaves were equipped with lances and drilled. Peace with France came in 1713 but in 1715 Britain was at war with Spain for a time.

When Colonel John Bruce Hope became Governor in 1722, major work was done on Paget Fort (or Queen's Fort as it was sometimes called). It seems likely that the rocks on which the lower battery stood were undermined by the constant pounding of the waves, particularly in the winter. It took several years to complete the repairs on both Paget and nearby Smith's Forts, at great cost.

The company was transferred to the Bahamas in 1727 - some accounts say 1729 to 1732) ostensibly to prevent that colony from being sacked by pirates, as it had been thirty times earlier. But members returned to Bermuda in 1730 after a potential slave rising was discovered. It prompted London merchants dealing with Bermuda to petition the Crown. There were over 1,000 members in 1723 but by then most had become part-time militiamen, mostly because of the very low salaries they were paid - about seven pounds sterling a year in those days. 

Yet they provided the backbone of the defence of Bermuda. Their mere presence probably prevented the French and Spanish from landing and seizing Bermuda. In 1746, so many prisoners-of-war were brought in by Bermudian privateers that the only place available to accommodate them was Paget Fort. They were guarded by these troops and had a food allowance of one shilling a day. The troops were rarely replaced and when the Somers Island Company ended in 1762, another governor lamented on the poor quality of the soldiers, forts, cannon, tools and gunpowder. The end of the war with France in 1763 and reforms in the British Army, spelt the end of the Independent Company.

1764 to 1768. Detachment of IXth Foot Regiment

A Company arrived from St. Augustine, Florida, to draft men from The Independent Company, but got only four. 12 more came from the Bahamas Independent Company. During this period, the 9th had a red uniform faced with yellow, with white lace having a red central stripe with a blue stripe to each side. All went to Florida in 1768, with no local garrison left. But from 1775, the dawn of the American War of Independence changed the backing of the military. In Bermuda, the theft of the powder in August 1775 by Bermudians sympathetic to the American Revolutionary cause so alarmed and outraged Governor Bruere, a former senior British Army officer, that he asked urgently for British troops. Bermuda assumed strategic value as a way to help police the rebellious mainland colonies. It was often used by the Royal Navy and Loyalist privateers. Several detachments of British troops were sent at various times to repel any attempt by the Americans to invade, as threatened by General George Washington and Marquis de Lafayette.

1778. 55th Regiment

Two companies arrived and lived in private houses, the State House and jail in St. George's. Suspicions of loyalty caused strife between many Bermudians and soldiers. Major Andrew Durnford was one of the officers who arrived from England. He re-built Paget Fort. (In 1793, with the threat of war with France, the Governor of Bermuda directed Durnford to build a new Barbette Battery on the height of the land above Paget Fort on Paget Island).

1778 to 1784. Royal Garrison Battalion of Veterans

Bermuda was too valuable for such a small force. Two companies arrived from New York in 1778, with reinforcements on December 1, 1779, by HMS Delaware, also from New York, under Lieutenant Colonel Robert Donkin, 3 other officers and 100 men. Recovering invalids were joined by another 81 shipwrecked members of the Royal Artillery. By 1781, 600 soldiers expected an American or French attack that never came. Especially during the American War of Independence, British soldiers were referred to derisively as Lobster backs or Red coats because of the color of their tunics. (But later, especially during the Crimean War, they became known as the thin red line streaked with steel). In 1792, after losing the colonies in America, Britain got serious about making the island a prominent naval and military outpost. The Royal Navy hydrographer Lieutenant Thomas Hurd identified two large anchorages suitable for battleships.

1783. Royal Engineers detachment

Captain Andrew Durnford, Royal Engineers, wrote his "Bermuda Defence Report" of that year.

1793-1802. 47th Regiment (Foot)

Problems during the French Revolution that could have affected Bermuda brought a detachment of this unit in 1793. Reinforcements followed.  After the war with the USA, Bermuda became an important bridge between the British possessions in Canada and the West Indies (Caribbean). It was a vital stepping stone in the Atlantic. One officer was Captain John Lewis. He lived at Rendell House in St. George's (later the Redan Hotel, now Clyde's Cafe). He died in Bermuda in 1809 and left a widow and three children. Soldiers were quartered in the barracks at George's and in the "Black Hole" of Castle Island. Forty four men of the unit died from yellow fever and were buried in Bermuda by Parson Richardson of St. Peter's Church.  Nine privates mutinied, with the help of two sentries. The soldiers who had been on duty were shot and the others received one thousand lashes each. It remained until ordered back to England with other members in the Turks Islands and Nassau, Bahamas. It was the first regular British regiment to establish in Bermuda and began from that day on a series of postings of regiments or units that lasted until 1953.

1794-1807. Invalid Battalion, Royal Artillery

One Company arrived in June, 1794, the first regular artillery unit in Bermuda. It was posted in St. George's and new town of Hamilton. It received little attention from England and by September, 1807, there were only 1 2nd Lieutenant, 2 corporals, 2 bombardiers, 1 gunner and 1 drummer, no further recruits. The unit returned to England in late 1807.

1796. 24th Regiment of Foot  

On 2nd December 1796 the death in Bermuda at the age of 46 of His Excellency, Governor William Campbell, Lieutenant Colonel of the 24th Regiment of Foot, who died of fever only a few days after his arrival.

A plaque on the right wall of St. Peter's Church in Bermuda. Photo by the author exclusively for Bermuda Online

1802-1806. Wing, 7th Foot (The Royal Fusiliers)

After departure of the 47th Regiment in 1802, five companies arrived in October.

1807. 99th Foot

Transferred from Bahamas in summer 1807, to provide the garrison. It must have been in Bermuda until at least 1815 because it had a Captain Bazalgette, later a Lieutenant Colonel, according to Bermuda records, in the 49th Regiment. (His wife Mrs. Sarah Crawford Bazalgette. She was the daughter of then Mayor of St. George's John Van Norden. The couple bought the property, then called Rendell House, in 1815. Later, it became known at the Redan Hotel and is today Clyde's Cafe). The Regiment was transferred to Nova Scotia.

1808. Detachment, Royal Artillery

To replace the Invalids who had left in late 1807, the British Government sent 10 gunners from the Royal Artillery. They arrived from Halifax on HMS Leopard in 1808 (and were present at the famous incident with the USS Chesapeake, later). From then on, to about the 1890s, the Royal Artillery was based continuously in Bermuda.

1808. 13th Foot 

They arrived from England in March, 1808, but left in November to help attack Martinique in the French West Indies.

1808. 1st Somersetshire Regiment

1811-1813. Detachment, 6th Battalion, Royal Artillery

In 1811, another detachment, from G. Crawford's Company, arrived. (During 1813, they took part in small raids on the American coast on board HMS St. Domingo).

1812. 98th Regiment of Foot 

300 officers and men arrived to garrison.

1812. 10th Regiment of Foot 

Part arrived in 1812 to reinforce the 98th Foot.

1813-1814. 102nd Regiment of Foot

 (Later - until it left the British Army in 1922 - the Irish regiment The Royal Dublin Fusiliers, also with the then 103rd Regiment of Foot). They arrived in 1813, but left in 1814 to attack Massachusetts (now Maine) and take Castine.

1814. 21st Regiment of Foot and 3rd Battalion, Royal Marines 

They arrived separately in mid 1814 but sailed on August 3 as part of the British forces mounting the retaliatory Attack on Washington because of the American torching of York (later, Toronto).

1814 - 85th King's Light Infantry

1815 - 1st Battalion (and a detachment of the 3rd battalion) 27th (Inniskilling) Regiment.

1816 - 100th Foot (from the Irish Republic, Eire)

Later, in the British Army until 1922, it became known first as The Prince of Wales's Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians), then the Royal Munster Fusiliers Regiment - and 109th Foot). See the web site for Irish soldiers & Royal Munster Fusilier Regiment, disbanded in 1922.

1816-18. Representative of the Royal Engineers

Colonel James Robertson Arnold, the son of Benedict Arnold by his second marriage, was stationed in Bermuda, in his 35th to 37th year, as the second recorded Royal Engineer to come here. (The first came in the 1790s and devised the construction, or reconstruction, of the forts on the islands in St. George's and Castle harbors). Colonel Arnold devised the early massive building and engineering program for HM Dockyard, that led to Bermuda being referred to later as the "Gibraltar of the West." His accomplishments, skills and obvious leadership qualities in Bermuda were such that he was marked for prompt promotion and increased military responsibilities.

1819 - 62nd Regiment

1819 to 1821 - Right Wing, 15th Regiment

Much earlier in his career and long before his move to Bermuda, Governor Henry Hamilton who gave his name to the City of Hamilton in Bermuda was commissioned into this regiment and fought with distinction in Canada in 1758. The Regiment was in Bermuda in battalion strength from 1868 to 1870.

1821 - Left Wing, 2nd Battalion, 60th Regiment

1823 to 1828. Royal Engineers 

They built the Martello Tower at Ferry Reach, with some help from the 96th Regiment from 1825. It is the Island's only egg-shaped fort and with walls as thick as nine to 11-feet, the fort remained largely resistant to cannon fire. 

Restored in 2008, including bringing in an "18-pounder" cannon from Fort St. Catherine and creating a cannon mound on top of the building so it would look as it did in the 19th Century. The fort is open from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday to Friday in the summer and in the winter by appointment only, by calling the Parks Department.

This is the only one in Bermuda ever built as part of the unique system of British military fortifications that once was so prominent along the English coast from Kent to Sussex and spawned their own name in British history. Two others were planned but never built as British Army fortifications protecting the old Royal Naval Dockyard. This one was built after the one on the island of Barbuda in the Caribbean, after those in England.

1825 to 1828 - 96th Regiment

1828 to 1830 - 74th Regiment

1829. April to May 1833. Royal Engineers 

Lieutenant Nelsen, Royal Engineers (RE), was in Bermuda and wrote an extensive Paper XI in Vol. 4 of the RE series entitled "Engineer Details" on the comparative values of convict and other labor. He referred to Ireland Island  and St Georges. There is some narrative, details of rations, pay, convict shops, comparison of "task work" and "piece work."  The purpose of the paper was to compare production rates between various types of labor, civilian and convict directed by officers of the RE and under day-to-day superintendence of the NCOs - the Royal Sappers and Miners. Experiments on strength of mortar mixes etc. are also described as well as quarrying and trimming of dimension stone for quoins of fort walls etc.

1829 - Royal Artillery

It had a continuous presence in Bermuda right up until 1896.

1829 to 1831 - 81st Regiment (Royal Lincoln Volunteers)

1830 to 1832 - 37th Regiment of Foot

One of its members was John Tavernier Bartrum, a grandson of the famous English naturalist John Tavernier. Born in Lincolnshire in 1811, Bartrum came here as a member of this unit in 1832, purchased his discharge in 1837 and resided at Ferry Reach in Bermuda until his death in 1889. He became famous locally and abroad for the book he wrote in 1879 called "The Cage Birds of Bermuda." Banjo Island, formerly Bartrum's or Mullet Island in Bermuda, in Mullet Bay, 1.25 acres, off St. George's Island, was named Bartrum's in honor of this Bartrum.

1831 to 1834 - 71st Regiment

Originally Lord Macleod's Highlanders (73rd Regiment) raised in 1777, later The 71st Regiment of Foot (Highland Light Infantry), later The 1st Battalion, The Highland Light Infantry and now part of The Royal Highland Fusiliers. In March 1809, the 71st was transformed into a light infantry regiment more suited to campaigning in the Iberian Peninsula, when it was directed that the clothing, arming and discipline had to be the same as those of other light infantry regiments. In 1820, the 71st was renamed the 71st Highland Regiment of Foot. It served in Canada from 1824 to 1832. It was based at Quebec from 1824 to 1825 and in 1827, at Three Rivers and at Sorel in 1825, at Isle-aux-Noix in 1827, St John's in 1827, at Kingston and Couteau de Lac in 1828, at Grand River, at Amherstburg, at Fort Henry, Kingston and at Niagara in 1829, then Toronto in 1830-31 and Quebec again in 1831. In 1831, the regiment went to Bermuda from Canada. In 1833, one of its officers was Lieutenant J. Lawson, whose infant daughter Mary Ann Lawson, died in Bermuda on 19 October. Although denied its Highland and Glasgow connections and the kilt by War Office directives, the regiment continued to recruit principally from Scotland. In 1872, according to a return furnished to the Horse Guards (the War Office), the 71st was then a representative national regiment, with 710 Scotsmen, 25 Englishmen, and 18 Irish.

1833 - 8th Regiment  Long before he arrived in Bermuda, Irish-born Scot Colonial Bermuda Governor Henry Hamilton whose name, for his illustrious service, was given to Bermuda's City of Hamilton, was Detroit's Lieutenant Governor prior to Bermuda. From Detroit, he led the King's 8th at Vincennes in 1779, where he was captured by the Americans and eventually released.

1833 - 1st Battalion, The King's Regiment (Liverpool)

1835 to 1840 - 30th Regiment

One of its officers at the time was Captain L. Stafford Northcote (father of a son, born in England, in 1870). Many of its members died in Bermuda from yellow fever and were buried here in the British Military Graveyards.

1838 - 11th Regiment

1840 to 1841 - 76th (Hindoostan) Regiment of Foot

1841 to 1847 - 1st and Reserve Battalions, 20th Regiment

This was partly because the American spy Albert Fitz wrote home about the impressive fortifications by then built in Bermuda. In 1844, Lord Mark Kerr was a captain in the regiment. He was one of the pioneers of sailing in Bermuda. He and his colleagues and friends who were British Army and Royal Navy officers formed what became the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club. He became its first Commodore. In 1843, John Lambert, a native of London, a musician in the 20th, Captain Sharpe's Company, died at the military hospital in Hamilton, Bermuda.

1844. Royal Engineers

One of the many notable contributions included their assistance in building Gibbs Hill Lighthouse, Bermuda The plates were shipped to Bermuda, unloaded at Port Royal, hauled overland and up the hill with considerable difficulty. The first was laid on December 12, 1844, with Mr. Gordon Groves superintending a team of British engineers. They were led by Lieutenant Colonel Philip Barry who was sent out from England in 1844 as Commanding Officer of the Royal Engineers based in Bermuda.

27th February 1847 to June 1851 - 1st and 2nd Battalions, 42nd Regiment (Royal Highlanders), then Black Watch  

They were sent to Bermuda after serving in Malta. The first battalion sailed on 27th February 1847, and landed three companies (head-quarters) at Hamilton, and three companies at Ireland Island on the 16th April. The reserve battalion embarked in March, and landed at St. George’s Island on the 24th of April. 

The mean strength of the regiment in the Islands was 1090 and the deaths, including accidents, etc., were only 31, being much less than the usual mortality at home. 

The regiment that the 42d had relieved (1st and reserve battalions of the 20th) sustained a heavy loss—several hundreds—from cholera; and the 56th, which replaced it, lost 6 officers and 224 men, in the autumn of 1853.

The Commanding Officer was Lieutenant-Colonel D. A. Cameron. 

The men wore dark tartan to distinguish them from Guardsmen or Red Soldiers - hence the name Black Watch. 

At one time (1848) Casemates at Ireland Island in Bermuda was their barracks. 

They were then guarding the convicts building the Dockyard.

Black Watch in Bermuda 1847 to 1851

Bermuda's Black Watch Pass (see photo below by author) and Black Watch Well (bottom photo) at the junction with the North Shore Road are named in tribute. Black Watch Pass was dug in 1847. Black Watch soldiers cut through a massive limestone hill between Pembroke March and North Shore Road, to provide Hamilton-bound or exiting local traffic with a level access to and from the town, now city, of Hamilton.  Popular with the island's visitors, the sheer drama of the towering walls gives the pass an appearance of a deep, razor-thin gauge piercing through sold limestone rock to the sea beyond. The structure was built entirely by hand. Black Watch Well was dug in 1849. When the Governor of the period ordered British soldiers to seek a fresh water supply for the poor of Pembroke Parish and their cattle during a prolonged drought, the Black Watch was the first to volunteer and dug so thoroughly the facility still exists today. At the site, a sign says: "This is the well of the Black Watch - so-called in memory of some soldiers from the First Battalion, 42nd Regiment, Royal Highlanders, by whom it was sunk for the relief of the poor and their cattle. " One of the officers was Captain G. W. MacQuarie, who lived in St. George's at what was then Rendell House, later the Redan Hotel, now Clyde's Cafe. It is believed one of the soldiers was Richard Brackey, married, whose son was born in Bermuda. Several of this unit's soldiers died in Bermuda from yellow fever and are buried at St. Peter's Church in St. George's. They include Ensign Maitland, Ensign Abercromby and beside them the grave of bandmaster Philip Goldbergh. Many members died and were buried elsewhere in Bermuda from yellow fever. In Aberfeldy, Perthshire, Scotland, a monument - still there - was erected in 1887 to mark the enrolment in 1740 of the Black Watch as the 42nd Regiment of the line. The "Watch" as it was known originally was first raised in 1667 by various Whig clan chiefs in Scotland "to be a constant guard for securing the peace in the Highlands and to watch upon the braes."  

Black Watch Well in Bermuda. Photo by the author

Before leaving, a letter, complimenting the regiment highly on its commendable conduct while in Bermuda, was forwarded to Colonel Cameron by his Excellency the governor. Here is the address from the Corporation and other inhabitants of the town and parish of St. George, the area in which the regiment mostly resided during their Bermuda tour, which was presented to Colonel Cameron on June 3d, 1851.

"Sir,—As Her Majesty’s 42d regiment under your command is about to leave these Islands, we cannot allow its departure without expressing our esteem for the kindly feelings which have existed between the inhabitants and the 42d, during the four years’ residence in this garrison. The urbanity and affability of the officers, the steady and upright conduct of the non-commissioned officers and men, have been eminently conspicuous. To our knowledge, not a man of your gallant and distinguished corps has been convicted of any crime before the civil authorities of this colony; a very gratifying circumstance, and bespeaking the high state of discipline of the regiment. To yourself, Sir, officers, and men, we sincerely tender our best wishes for your future welfare; and assured are we, that should the time arrive for the ‘Forty-second’ to be called into active service, they will display that loyalty and valour for which they are so justly renowned. Wishing you a safe and pleasant passage, We have time honour to be, Sir, your obedient, humble servants." It was signed by the Mayor, Corporation, and other Inhabitants of the town and parish of St George. Colonel Cameron replied in kind. Bermuda had the highest esteem for the regiment and it was well-deserved. Uniquely in the entire history of the British Army in Bermuda, not a man had been convicted before the civil authorities; it was something new to the Bermudians, and a subject which they often dwelt upon.

When the men left Bermuda they sailed to Halifax, Nova Scotia.

In April 2009 the author, accompanied by his wife visited the spectacular Black Watch Museum in Perth, Scotland and were warmly received. Officials there had no details at all of the information the author had researched and written when researching facts about the regiment in November 2008 in Bermuda. Even Bermuda records, except for the actual Black Watch Pass and Black Watch Well referred to above, are almost non-existent as all British Army in Bermuda records had been transferred back to the UK when their units left Bermuda.

Black Watch Scotland Museum photos taken by the author in Perth, Scotland. April 7, 2009. In the second photo, entry was delayed that day until the Earl of Wessex completed his tour. 

1851 to 1853 - Second Battalion, 56th Regiment (West Essex)

This is the regiment the First Battalion of which was virtually annihilated in 1841 at the Kyber Pass in Afghanistan after a disastrous retreat from Kabul. The lone survivor was the surgeon, Doctor Brydon, who was half dead when he reached Jallabalad with the news. So when the recomposed regiment reached Bermuda, its first overseas posting afterwards, its military reputation ensured that areas of Warwick Parish - Kyber Pass itself plus Kyber Heights Lane, Kyber Heights Road and Kyber Pass Road - and a street in the old town of St. George, near Fort George - got named after Kyber Pass. At Ferry Reach Park in St. George's Parish, Bermuda and elsewhere are graveyards for members of this battalion. In 1853, nearly 230 of its officers and men died in Bermuda from yellow fever. One was Lieutenant Alexander George Woodford, who died on September 12, 1853 when his unit was stationed in St. George's, Bermuda - then a garrison town. He was buried at St. Peter's Church in St. George's. The Woodford Memorial Tablet is still there. His father was Field Marshal Sir Alexander George Woodford. Men of the 3rd Company of the 56th bivouacked at the Oxford home in Pembroke Parish belonging to Mr. John Bluck, in hope of escaping the disease, at the order of Bermudian physician Dr. Harvey. They were lucky enough to escape the disease-carrying mosquito.  To record their genuine thanks, as so many of their comrades had been felled by the epidemic, the men erected at the very top of Bluck's Point a stout monument surmounted by a cannon ball.  The landmark still exists. Others - included in a separate mention at the same church at the same time to the 56th Regiment - included Captain E. F. Hare, Captain G. S. Hanson, Lieutenant F. H. Sykes, Joseph Lawson, assistant Surgeon, and many more officers, men and their wives and children. On 19 July 1853 in Bermuda at St. James' Church, Somerset, Sergeant William Lang of the 56th married Catherine Dempsey, daughter of Peter Dempsey of the R. N. Yard, Ireland Island (Bermuda).

1854 to 1859 - 26th Foot (Cameronians, or Scottish Rifles)

Col. A. J. Hemphill was the Commanding Officer. He wrote the "Bermuda Defence Report 1857". It was particularly interesting in that it focused in part on HM Dockyard in Bermuda. The 26th Regiment dates back to when Richard Cameron the field preacher declared war on King Charles II and with his followers was cut to pieces by dragoons at Airdmoss outside Auchinleck on July 22, 1680. But in the reign of King William III the organization came into its own and Camerons and men from Skye formed the left wing at Killiecrankie where "Bonnie Dundee" was killed and the Stuart cause lost. The 1st Battalion of the Cameronians is directly descended from the Cameronian Guard embodied in 1689. In Bermuda, the regiment had a special instructor shipped out from England to give the men courses on the use of the Enfield Rifle. Many men died and were buried in Bermuda of yellow fever.

1856 to 1858 - Royal Regiment of Artillery

1859 - 1865. 39th Regiment

It was in Bermuda until at least 1864 because the 39th Regimental Band gave a concert in January of that year for amateur dramatics night of children of garrison officers. Members of the regiment are buried in the military graveyard at St. Georges.

1864 - 2nd Battalion, 2nd Queen's Regiment (Queen's Royals)

At the end of the US Civil War in case of repercussions from the USA from the victorious North. It was feared the hawks of the North would try to attack Bermuda for the help Bermudians gave to the South despite a strict British Government order of neutrality. Many died in Bermuda from yellow fever and were buried in the military graveyard at St. Georges.

1864. 30th Regiment

Its 2nd posting to Bermuda. It came from Montreal to Bermuda for two reasons, one strategic as mentioned above, the other  to relieve other units of the British Army in Bermuda losing men from the effects of yellow fever.  One of its members, Dr. David Milroy, MD, FRCS, died and was buried in Bermuda on 3 September 1864, at the age of 38, from yellow fever, after treating men for it. There is a handsome grave to him in the St. George's military graveyard.

After the American Civil War, there were more than 6,000 British troops in Bermuda.

1866.  2nd Battalion Queen's Regiment

1866. 15th Regiment

1866 - 2nd Battalion, 16th Foot

Only for five days. The ship on which it went from Nova Scotia to Barbados ran aground on a reef while entering harbor for coaling.

1866 to 1870 - 61st Regiment (South Gloucesters), 717 strong.

From then on, all the military facilities in Bermuda were linked by a chain of forts stretching the entire area from east to west and north to south - and a military telegraph system. Up to this date, the histories of two separate regiments were not connected with each other. But in 1877, a new system came into force - the "Linked Battalion" System. It provided for a regiment at home exchanging drafts with a regiment abroad and thus the 32nd and 46th Regiments became associated. On October 29, a draft of two corporals, one bugler and 78 private soldiers was sent out to the 46th Regiment in Bermuda by the 32nd Regiment then at Fort Tregantle. In the same year Bodmin Barracks were first occupied as the Depot of the two linked battalions.

Until 1868, British Army units stationed in Bermuda were part of the Nova Scotia Command

1868 - 1870. 1st Battalion, 15th Regiment (Yorkshire)

 Under the command of Brevet Colonel Henry Grierson, all members of the 1st Battalion of the 15th were at St. John's, New Brunswick, Canada, in 1868. They had been protecting the Canadian border from a threat posed by The Fenians at the end of the US Civil War. On March 14, 1868 the Battalion received a letter from Horse Guards in London, ordering the unit to be held in readiness for embarkation for Bermuda on HMS Himalaya. The ship came from Chatham, Kent, England with a draft from the 15th's Depot Companies at Chatham, the 61st Foot, 2 batteries of Royal Artillery and 3 companies of Royal Engineers. The Battalion embarked in Canada on April 21 in freezing conditions and arrived in Bermuda on April 25 in great heat. On landing, headquarters was established in the Royal Barracks near the town of St. George's. D, E, H and L Companies battalion occupied quarters in the Royal Barracks, St. George's. A Company was detached to Ireland Island, B Company went to Paynter's Vale. C, F. G and I Companies (under Major Wilkinson) went to Port Royal where they were placed under canvas on the south side of the island to make the South Coast Military Road (later, the South Road) under the supervision of the Royal Engineers. Major Wilkinson's force was removed in July 1868 to Boaz Island because of typhoid and yellow fevers).

Ensign William Gaskin died at Boaz Island in 1868 and was buried at the Naval Cemetery at Ireland Island. Two Sergeants, one drummer, and 13 Privates also lost died and were buried in one of the Bermuda military graveyards. Additionally, Assistant Surgeon John Dennis Healy died at St. George's on June 19th and was buried there. To make up for these losses a draft of 102 men (Chris's ancestor included) under Captain Moffatt arrived from the Depot at Chatham on October 24, 1868 on HMS Simoom with their supplies. 1869 began with a similar deployment as before. On March 14, 1869 command transferred to Major Wilson. A command from Horse Guards, on April 27, 1869 reduced battalion strength by 2 ensigns and 100 privates.

The establishment was then fixed on May 14 as 10 Service Companies and 2 Depot Companies of Service Companies, 3 Field Officers, 10 Captains, 12 Lieutenants, 8 Ensigns, 5 Staff Officers, 9 Staff Sergeants, 40 Sergeants, 21 Drummers, and 600 Privates. In the Depot Companies were 2 Captains, 2 Lieutenants, 10 Sergeants, 4 Drummers, and 100 Privates.

In January, 1869 F Company went from Boaz to Camp at Warwick where it was employed on the new Military road and later in the construction of a rifle range. In May, A, C, and G Companies on Boaz Island and Ireland Island were relieved by the 61st Regiment and proceeded to headquarters. K company relieved B Company at Paynter's Vale. D, E, and H Companies from HQ and I Company from Boaz Island relieved the 61st at Knapton Hill and were employed on the South Military Road.

Major Wilkinson took command on return from leave on October 14,1869. C and D Companies were broken up on May 1, 1870. A company went to Paynter's Vale on May 7 to fill in for the broken up C Company. Colonel Grierson retook command on May 24, 1870. The Battalion left Bermuda on HMS Orontes on June 12, 1870. It disembarked at Kingstown, Ireland, on December 28 December 1870 and went to Birr.

1870. 2 batteries of Royal Artillery and 3-4 companies of Royal Engineers

1870 to 1873. 69th Foot  (The South Lincolnshire Regiment)

It arrived from Canada and after the Bermuda posting, went to Gibraltar. Hardly mentioned at all in Bermuda records, but from reliable Scottish resources, one of its officers in Canada, Bermuda and Gibraltar was Harry Aubrey de Vere Maclean, born in Chatham, Kent in 1848 (whose father was Inspector General of Army Medical Services). 

Later, Maclean became commander of the Sultan of Morocco's Army, adopted Moorish costume, was one of the heads of the Moroccan delegation to attend the coronation of King Edward VII (as shown here, third-left, in this photo the original of which is in the possession of the Victoria & Albert Museum), was knighted by him and retained a very Scottish personality. 

1870 to 1875. 53rd (Shropshire) Regiment

(Later, King's Shropshire Light Infantry).

1873 to 1876. 1st Battalion, 20th Regiment

A fox hunt was held in St. George's by officers of the this Regiment. They brought several foxes and packs of hounds to Bermuda. But the short supply of imported foxes as there are none locally and the expense of keeping hounds prevented hunts from becoming regular events.

1875 to 1877. 97th Regiment

1876, for years. Royal Artillery

In February, off St. George's,  one member of its unit, George Dew, saved a local, William Richardson, from drowning.

1876 to 1879. 46th Regiment

(The 32nd and 46th Regiments became associated, via the Linked Battalion System). 

1877. 87th Regiment (Royal Irish Fusiliers), 32nd Company of Royal Engineers, Royal Artillery

In 1877, at Fort Albert (expanded in 1860) in St. George's, a huge fire occured. With much gunpowder stored there, all St. George's was threatened. Heroic efforts by men of the Royal Artillery and 87th Royal Irish Fusiliers stemmed the fire.

On Sunday, 24 March 1878 at 4:30 pm, as reported in the British domestic and Bermuda newspapers, the British warship, HMS Eurydice, bound from Bermuda to the United Kingdom, sank en route, from particularly heavy adverse weather. The sinking was near the Isle of Wight off the south coast of England. There were only two survivors among the more than 300 passengers and 57 crew.  One fatality was 38-year old Captain Louis John George Ferrier, originally from Scotland. Since 1877 he had commanded the 32nd Company of the Royal Engineers, then stationed in Bermuda. He was en route for home leave after going aboard on March 6 at Bermuda. When it was recovered, his corpse was recognized by his brother Captain George Henry Ferrier, 105th Foot of the British Army, then at Colchester, Essex, England.

1877 to 1880. 1st Battalion, 19th Princess Own

1877 to 1910

1910 to 1916

1916

1919-1940

1919 to 1921	Wing, 2nd Battalion, Royal Sussex Regiment
1921 to 1923	Wing, 1st Battalion, East Lancashire Regiment
1923 to 1925	Wing, 1st Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment
1925 to 1927	2nd Battalion, Green Howards (Alexandria Princess of Wales Own Yorkshire Regiment)
1927 to 1929	2nd Battalion, Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders
1929 to 1931	Wing, 1st Battalion, West Yorkshire Regiment (Prince of Wales's Own)
1931 to 1934	Wing, 1st Battalion, Northumberland Fusiliers
1934 to 1935	Wing, 1st Battalion, Manchester Regiment
1935 to 1939	Wing, 1st Battalion, Sherwood Foresters (Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire Regiment).   Bermuda played a minor role, with only a wing, from 1935 when the 1st Battalion started an overseas tour with a posting to the West Indies, mostly Jamaica, where amongst other duties it assisted the police in containing the Jamaica civil disturbances in 1938. Members of the init included Claude Piper and the late Joseph Smallwood (whose son Trevor Smallman kindly sent the pictures shown below of the unit's time in Bermuda). From 1939 the regiment went to Palestine.

• 1937. November. Death at sea of former British Prime Minister Ramsay MacDonald, born in Scotland (12 October 1866 – 9 November 1937). He had been a distinguished passenger on board the popular liner Reina del Pacifico which called at Bermuda often. He had been hoping to enjoy a cruise to South America, but never got there. He died aboard the vessel. As Bermuda was a route stop, the ship brought his body to Bermuda. Given his stature in life, Bermuda gave him a singular salute in death, an official funeral procession befitting a former British Prime Minister. His remains were received with full military and civilian honours and a ceremonial guard of honor from the Sherwood Foresters of the British Army then stationed in Bermuda, plus hundreds of other British and local military forces. His body lay in state at the Anglican Cathedral overnight in Hamilton. The next day, during a solemn procession first on Front Street then on Church Street which attracted more than 20,000 spectators - the largest crowd ever to converge in the city, British Army, Royal Navy and Royal Marine bearers, some brought to Bermuda especially for the occasion, carried MacDonald's flag-draped coffin to the Royal Naval Dockyard Bermuda paddle steamer tug Sandboy which loaded it onto HMS Apollo, waiting in the Great Sound to receive it for transport to England. The naval vessel then steamed off to England. In 1933 and 1934 MacDonald's health declined, and he became an increasingly ineffective leader as the international situation grew more threatening. His pacifism, which had been widely admired in the 1920s, led Winston Churchill and others to accuse him of failure to stand up to the threat of Adolf Hitler. In May 1935 he was forced to resign as Prime Minister, taking the largely honorary post of Lord President vacated by Baldwin, who returned to power. At the election later in the year MacDonald was defeated at Seaham by Emanuel Shinwell. Shortly after he was elected at a by-election in January 1936 for the Combined Scottish Universities seat, but his physical and mental health collapsed in 1936. A sea voyage was recommended to restore his health, but it was in vain.

Ramsay MacDonald's coffin coming ashore from the Royal Navy's paddle steamer tug

Royal Marines outside the Cathedral for the funeral

Sherwood Foresters and others at the funeral procession, in their Army Bermuda Shorts and long socks

Royal Navy march-past with coffin at Ramsay MacDonald's Bermuda funeral

Soldiers and sailors salute the coffin at Ramsay MacDonald's Bermuda funeral

Sherwood Foresters on parade on Front Street, Hamilton

Sherwood Foresters in their Army Bermuda Shorts parading in Bermuda with the Governor

Sherwood Foresters in Bermuda relaxing with their CO on Paget Island

Sherwood Foresters in Bermuda relaxing on Paget Island with their tents behind them

Pictures above kindly supplied for this website's use exclusively in Bermuda by Trevor Smallman, son of one of the British Army in Bermuda Sherwood Foresters. His father, the late Joseph Smallman,  was present (in the photo marked with a green X and in all the other photos above).

1939 to 1953 (briefly in 1977)

1939 to 1940	Wing, 2nd Battalion, King's Shropshire Light Infantry (KSLI). (Much later, posted to Kenya to deal with with the Mau Mau).
1940	Winnipeg Grenadiers
1942	Detachment, 4th Battalion, Queen's Own Cameron Highlanders
1942	Pictou Highlanders of Canada
1946 to 1947	Detachment, 8th Battalion, Suffolk Regiment
1947 to 1948	Detachment, 2nd Battalion, later 1st Battalion, 61st Regiment, Gloucestershire Regiment (Glorious Glosters), part of the regiment that also served in Jamaica and British Honduras. Glorious Glosters at Devonshire Rectory with local girl Cindy Farnsworth (now Olden) and her dog "Mac" at  the Devonshire Rectory with some of her soldier "uncles" who were always so nice to her. Rev. Keith Harman (her step-father) was the Rector of Devonshire and Chaplain to the Prospect Garrison. Photo kindly loaned by Cindy Olden.
1949 to 1953	Detachment, The Highland Brigade, stationed at Prospect. (Included Paddy Coyle of the Gordon Highlanders, whose idea it was to start the Bermuda Cadets Pipe Band).
1953 - for Summit Conference	Detachment, Royal Welch Fusiliers
1953 to April 25	GARRISON WITHDRAWN
1954 to 1955	'A' Company, 1st Battalion, 32nd Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry (1 DCLI). http://www.lightinfantry.org.uk/regiments/dcli/duke_index.htm. The unit, 4 Rifle Platoons, HQ Platoon & Garrison Admin, landed from Troopship Empire Clyde in 1954 and were based at Prospect Garrison in Devonshire. It was a county regiment, with the majority from Cornwall. It was under the command of  Major JA Marsh DSO, SAS. Major Marsh remained in Bermuda, had a family there and was later a member of the Bermuda Regiment, after which he was appointed to the Bermuda Tourist Bureau. The unit performed in a consistently superior military fashion with Parades, Honour Guards, Special Guards etc. Personnel sent to Bermuda included John Tenniswood (Pay Sergeant, Bermuda) and Derek Lovemore, who supplied the photograph below - now living in Australia, then a corporal (whose claims to fame included operating the signals room at the Royal Bermuda Yacht Club during and after the Newport Bermuda Race in 1954); Gerry Hunkin and Terry Dyer, both from St. Austell, Cornwall. They revisited Bermuda in early May 2005. HRH Princess Margaret inspecting an Honour Guard at Prospect Garrison, Devonshire, during her 1955 visit to Bermuda. It was formed by "A" Company, 1 Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry (DCLI). She was escorted by Commanding Officer, Major J. A. Marsh, DSO and Garrison Commander Brigadier J. A. M Rice-Evans. Photo kindly provided by and acknowledged to Derek Lovemore (Cpl), then 1DCLI ofm2@bigpond.net.au, now living in Australia. Also see the wonderful and comprehensive collection of many unique photographs and accounts he has collected and published on the  'A' Company, 1st Battalion, 32nd Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry (1 DCLI) posting in Bermuda. It is a truly magnificent and probably unique collection of military memorabilia from many of its members, an outstanding description of a unit that served Bermuda superbly and deserves the respect, pride and admiration of all Bermudians. All members of I DCLI  have warm and happy thoughts of their time in Bermuda. Some also helped considerably in setting the scene for some of the British and American movies filmed in Bermuda at that time. Perhaps more than any other group or organization they toiled to establish the film studio in Bermuda that emerged from the old seaplane base built in the 1930s to accommodate flying boats and in operation until 1948 when flying boats on that run became obsolete.
1955	Tragic death on 18th July 1955 of Lieut. Col Cuthbert ("Tupper")  Brooke-Smith, King's Shropshire Light Infantry (KSLI), while on active duty in Kenya, during a British Army campaign against the Kenyan Mau Mau. He was born in Larne, Antrim, Northern Ireland, on 10th August 1915. In 1950 he was posted to Bermuda as GSO II to the Governor and Commander-in-Chief of Bermuda. He previously served at Buckingham Palace, London. He was in Bermuda as a staff officer (not in any way attached to the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry posted there later). With service number 67179 he was commissioned into the KSLI on 30th January 1936 and served his country with distinction during World War 2. In Bermuda, he married a Bermudian, Joyce Arnell, the daughter of  Bermudian Mrs. Helen Arnell. His brother-in-law was the late author, historian and philatelist Jack Arnell. On leaving Bermuda in 1952, Cuthbert and his wife Joyce, their three toddler children - daughter Philippa and sons Robin and Bruce - returned to the family home in Church Stretton, Shropshire. His Army postings from there included with the KSLI, Durham Light Infantry, Wuppertal in Germany with the DCLI - where he was 2nd in Command of that regiment, then Commanding Officer of his battalion of the KSLI in Kenya. See http://billgriffiths838.googlepages.com/kslimemorabilia that include a mention of the trooper HMT Halladale that sailed from Liverpool in May 1955 with the KSLI - bound for Kenya with Lt. Col C. Brooke-Smith on board, while his wife and very young children remained at the family home in Church Stretton, Shropshire. On 18th July 1955 he accidentally walked into an ambush in the Aberdere forests while entering a KSLI ambush zone  that had been set to lure the Mau Mau. He was 39 years old. He was shot in error by a Bren gunner member of his own unit, was mortally wounded and died instantly, despite the best efforts of Captain George Pollock, RAMC) and an RAMC sergeant, both of whom attended the deceased CBS moments after the event. It was recorded as a tragic accident. He was buried in a civilian cemetery in Nairobi, Kenya.  Repatriation back to the UK of his remains from City Park Cemetery, Nairobi, grave section 16, grave row 16, grave number 32 has never been considered.
1977	1st Battalion Royal Regiment of Fusiliers (emergency duty after riots, strikes and malicious damage)

Special links

• American military bases in Bermuda to 1995
• Bermuda Forts by British Army
• British Military Graves in Bermuda