"From the Editor" - Reconnaissance Summer Issue 2024
From the Editor
Welcome to the Summer 2024
Issue of Reconnaissance.
In this issue we have two
articles on how Australian and other colonies responded to Imperial demands for
troops to fight overseas in later decades of the 19th century. Retired
Professor of History Barry Bridges explains that over this time Britain was
increasingly apprehensive about the prospects of war with Germany. Advice to
colonial authorities on the organisation of their local forces tended to
advocate structures that were amenable to Imperial direction and control.
Company sized units capable of incorporation into regular British regiments
were generally preferred. Neither New South Wales nor Canada was keen on the
Anglo-Boer War in 1899. But the Colonial Secretary failed to acknowledge no as
an answer. He asked for infantry and ruled out officers above the rank of
Captain. Used at first as advance-guard fodder, the war’s emerging mobility
forced a shift to larger mounted battalions which had to be led by their own,
more senior, colonial officers. Nevertheless, in later years of the 19th
century the Colonial Office did not refrain from ham-fisted attempts to draw
colonial governments into Imperial defence schemes with local militias
organised for foreign service, often provoking popular resentment in the
colonies.
In a related article, Dr
John Haken presents some facts and figures on commitments by Britain’s
Australasian colonies to foreign wars over the second half of the 19th century.
Australian volunteers served in New Zealand’s Maori Wars between 1845 and 1872
and the colony of Victoria even dispatched a naval vessel. In 1885 New South
Wales sent a Contingent consisting of a battalion of infantry and a battery of
artillery to Suakin for the Sudan Campaign, which was the subject of our
Society’s November 2024 lecture by Michael Tyquin. Arriving on 29 March 1885, the
Contingent saw little action and left on 17 May 1885. The Australian Colonies
and later the States of the Commonwealth all sent contingents to South Africa
to fight in the Anglo-Boer War after 1899. As noted by Dr Haken, the Australian
Colonies also sent forces to suppress China’s Boxer Rebellion in 1900.
Also in this Reconnaissance,
Dr Andrew Wilson surveys the military career of an ordinary late-19th and
early-20th century member of a British Territorial regiment. Born
into an army family, George Chapman joined the Gloucester Regiment at the age
of 15 and served across various Imperial postings in the 1890s before his
regiment was deployed to South Africa. Only briefly in action, George performed
ancillary duties before returning home where he rose to become a respected
regimental Colour Sergeant at Tewkesbury and then Cheltenham. George’s
battalion was well drilled under his supervision when war broke out in 1914, and
after frontline action near Ypres he was commissioned in the field as a
lieutenant. He fell seriously ill while attached to the Salonika theatre and in
1917 was promoted to captain in England, where he remained, drilling and
training new recruits, until the war ended. He remained active in the
Gloucester Regiment until retiring from the army in 1932.
We also present Kevin
Driscoll’s fascinating but little-known story of Australia’s role in developing
the Bloodhound Surface-to Air Guided Weapon in collaboration with Britain
immediately after World War II. The missile was conceived to protect airstrips
used by nuclear armed aircraft from pre-emptive attack. Our militaria feature
in this Reconnaissance is John Belfield’s account of his life’s work at
the Melbourne Tank Museum.
Finally, I
thank Dr David Martin for his perceptive review of Margaret MacMillan’s War:
How Conflict Shaped Us and to Dr Tom Lewis for his appreciative review of Graeme Lunn’s Admiral VAT Smith - The extraordinary life of the
father of Australia’s Fleet Air Arm.
Editor, Reconnaissance
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