Lord Salisbury described Malta, Gibraltar, Bermuda, and Halifax as Imperial fortresses at the 1887 Colonial Conference,[1] though by that point they had been so designated for decades.[2][3][4][5][6][7] Later historians have also given the title "imperial fortress" to St. Helena and Mauritius, despite their lacking naval dockyards and not serving as home bases for station naval squadrons.[8]
The fortresses provided safe harbours; coal stores; and dockyards to protect and supply Royal Navy warships.[9][10] They had numbers of soldiers sufficient not only for local defence, but also to provide expeditionary forces to work with the Royal Navy, as well as stockpiles of military supplies.[11]
History
Although the War Office took over from local officials the funding and operational control of auxiliary forces in the British Isles from 1871 onwards, the trend of Imperial defence policy during the course of the 19th century was to remove regular units of the British Army from colonial garrison duty wherever strategic concerns did not require their retention (this included disbanding colonial regular units of the British Army, other than the West India Regiment and the local-service sub-unit of the Royal Artillery that would ultimately be titled the Royal Malta Artillery, though others would later be raised),[12] with local governments expected to organise and fund auxiliary forces for local defence (although these forces would ultimately be controlled by the Imperial government via colonial Governors, most of whom were civilians, acting as military commanders-in-chief). The main exceptions were the four Imperial fortresses, which the regular army continued to garrison, and within which the part-time militia and volunteer units were funded as parts of the British Army and brigaded with regular units.[13] The 1887 Colonial Conference sat in London from April 4 until May 9, 1887. At the conference, it was asserted that:[1]
In order that the Royal Navy might in practice be ubiquitous, it was essential that certain bases and coaling stations should be provided with shore defences. "In addition to the Imperial fortresses Malta, Gibraltar, Bermuda, and Halifax, it would seem necessary to defend on an adequate scale, Cape Town and Simon's Bay, St. Helena, Sierra Leone, Port Louis (Mauritius), Aden, Colombo (Ceylon), Singapore, Hong Kong, Port Royal (Jamaica), Port Castries (St. Lucia), and Esquimalt, in addition to minor coaling stations . . ." The imperial fortresses would remain a responsibility of the United Kingdom; but in the case of certain colonies in which local as well as imperial interests seemed to require that naval bases be maintained, the government of the United Kingdom thought that the cost should be shared..
Map of the cruises of the Bermuda-based HMS York on the America & West Indies Station, 1936-1939
Halifax and Bermuda controlled the transatlantic sea lanes between North America and Europe, and were placed to dominate the Atlantic seaboard of the United States (as demonstrated during the American War of 1812,[14][15] when the squadron of the Royal Navy's North America Station maintained a blockade of the Atlantic coast of the United States and launched the Chesapeake Campaign from Bermuda, defeating American forces at Bladensburg, burning Washington, DC, and raiding Alexandria, Virginia, before ultimately being defeated at Baltimore and forced to withdrawn back to Bermuda),[16][17][18][19][20] as well as to control the western Atlantic Ocean from the Arctic to the West Indies. In 1828,[21] Royal Navy Purser Richard Cotter wrote of Bermuda:
The possession of Bermuda, as the key of all our Western Colonies, is of the first importance to England, for if a foe of any maritime strength had possession of it, our trade would be exposed to much annoyance, if not total destruction.
Gibraltar controlled passage between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea, and Malta, aside from supporting operations in the Mediterranean and Black Sea, served as a base for naval and military forces that would be able to deploy relatively quickly to the Indian and Pacific Oceans once the Suez Canal was completed in 1869.
Halifax ceased to be an Imperial fortress in stages. With the 1867 confederation of the Dominion of Canada (under which all of the colonies of the British Empire's administrative region of British North America, except Bermuda and Newfoundland, were "federally united into One Dominion under the Crown of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, with a Constitution similar in Principle to that of the United Kingdom ..."),[22][23] military defence of Canada would be transferred to the militia of the dominion government, and the British Army withdrew most of its establishment from the continent, leaving small military garrisons to defend the Royal Naval Dockyard at Halifax, Nova Scotia and the Esquimalt Royal Navy Dockyard in British Columbia. These garrisons were withdrawn along with the Royal Navy establishments when the two Canadian dockyards were closed in 1905, then sold to the government of the dominion.
When the Panama Canal opened in 1914, Britain was able to rely on amity and common interests between herself and the United States during and after the First World War, to also use Bermuda, from which cruisers could patrol the Pacific coasts of North, Central, and South America (the first Bermuda-based ship to pass through the canal being HMS Chatham in 1920).[24][25] The perception that the only navies that could threaten British control of the sealanes or territory around the globe were all those of countries on the Atlantic or its connected seas had meant Imperial fortresses were only established in this region. This was despite the growth of the Pacific Ocean fleets of Russia and the United States of America during the 19th Century.[26][27]
Finally the rising power and increasing belligerence of the Japanese empire after the First World War (The Imperial Japanese Navy was the third largest navy in the world by 1920, behind the Royal Navy and the United States Navy) would result in the construction of the Singapore Naval Base, which was completed in 1938, less than four years before hostilities with Japan commenced during the Second World War.[28]
The need to protect these bases of operation, as well as to prevent, via their captures, their becoming bases of similar utility to an enemy (with ownership of land by foreigners, at least in Bermuda, barred in order to deny a pretext for invasion),[29] each was heavily defended, making fortress an apt designation. "Fortress" was often included when giving the names of these colonies, e.g. "Fortress Bermuda".[30] Bermuda, protected by an almost impassable barrier reef and unconnected to any continent, required the least defences, but was heavily garrisoned and armed with coastal artillery batteries.[31][32][33] Defence of Bermuda, and of the region, was greatly weakened by the economic austerity that followed the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars and the American War of 1812, which resulted in drastic reductions to the regular forces and to Reserve Forces in the British Isles (Militia, Volunteer Force, and Fencibles), and in Bermuda (Militia and volunteer artillery), being allowed to lapse. Bermuda's garrison would slowly increase, with the threat of invasion by the United States during and after the American Civil War resulting in further strengthening of the defences. Bermuda's importance to Imperial defence was only increasing, however.
Halifax was much more vulnerable to attack than Bermuda, which might come over land or water from the United States, Gibraltar was vulnerable to overland attack by Spain (which remains anxious to recover it) and by Napoleonic France, and both Gibraltar and Malta were much more vulnerable to the navies of the Mediterranean (notably those of Spain, France, Italy, and the Ottoman Empire),[34] and were even more heavily defended.
Naval and military establishments of the imperial fortresses
The British Armed Forces are the military forces responsible for the defence of the United Kingdom, its Overseas Territories and the Crown Dependencies. They also promote the UK's wider interests, support international peacekeeping efforts and provide humanitarian aid.
While the defence of Bermuda remains the responsibility of the government of the United Kingdom, rather than of the local Bermudian Government, the island still maintains a militia for the purpose of defence.
The Royal Gibraltar Regiment is part of British Forces Gibraltar for the British overseas territory of Gibraltar, which historically, along with Bermuda, Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Malta, had been designated an Imperial fortress rather than a colony. It was formed in 1958 from the Gibraltar Defence Force as an infantry unit, with an integrated artillery troop. The regiment is included in the British Army as a defence engagement force.
His Majesty's Naval Base, Singapore, also Her Majesty's Naval Base, Singapore, alternatively known as the Singapore Naval Base, Sembawang Naval Base and HMS Sembawang, was situated in Sembawang at the northern tip of Singapore and was both a Royal Navy shore establishment and a cornerstone of British defence policy in the Far East between the World Wars. From 1921 to 1941 it was a China Station base, from 1941 to 1945 a repair facility for the Imperial Japanese Navy and from 1945 to 1958 a Far East Fleet base. Today, it is a commercial dockyard but British military activity still exists at the British Defence Singapore Support Unit (BDSSU).
The Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps (BVRC) was created in 1894 as a reserve for the Regular Army infantry component of the Bermuda Garrison. Renamed the Bermuda Rifles in 1951, it was amalgamated into the Bermuda Regiment in 1965.
Starting with the 1763 Treaty of Paris, New France, of which the colony of Canada was a part, formally became a part of the British Empire. The Royal Proclamation of 1763 enlarged the colony of Canada under the name of the Province of Quebec, which with the Constitutional Act 1791 became known as the Canadas. With the Act of Union 1840, Upper and Lower Canada were joined to become the United Province of Canada.
The Bermuda Militia Artillery was a unit of part-time soldiers organised in 1895 as a reserve for the Royal Garrison Artillery detachment of the Regular Army garrison in the Imperial fortress colony of Bermuda. Militia Artillery units of the United Kingdom and Colonies were intended to man coastal batteries in times of war, which were manned by under-strength numbers of regular army gunners in peace time. The unit was embodied during both world wars, fulfilling its role within the garrison, and also sending contingents overseas to more active theatres of the wars.
The Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) was formed in 1899 as a distinct arm of the British Army's Royal Regiment of Artillery serving alongside the other two arms of the Regiment, the Royal Field Artillery (RFA) and the Royal Horse Artillery (RHA). The RGA were the 'technical' branch of the Royal Artillery who were responsible for much of the professionalisation of technical gunnery that was to occur during the First World War. It was originally established to man the guns of the British Empire's forts and fortresses, including coastal artillery batteries, the heavy gun batteries attached to each infantry division and the guns of the siege artillery. The RGA was amalgamated with the RFA in 1924, from which time the only two arms within the Royal Regiment of Artillery have been the Royal Artillery and the Royal Horse Artillery.
The British Colonial Auxiliary Forces were the various military forces of Britain's colonial empire which were not considered part of the British Army proper.
The Bermuda Garrison was the military establishment maintained on the British Overseas Territory and Imperial fortress of Bermuda by the regular British Army and its local militia and voluntary reserves from 1701 to 1957. The garrison evolved from an independent company, to a company of Royal Garrison Battalion during the American War of Independence, and a steadily growing and diversifying force of artillery and infantry with various supporting corps from the French Revolution onwards. During the American War of Independence, the garrison in Bermuda fell under the military Commander-in-Chief of America. Subsequently, it was part of the Nova Scotia Command until 1868, and was an independent Bermuda Command from then until its closure in 1957.
The Bermuda Volunteer Engineers was a part-time unit created between the two world wars to replace the Regular Royal Engineers detachment, which was withdrawn from the Bermuda Garrison in 1928.
Prospect Camp, also referred to as Prospect Garrison, was the main infantry camp of the Bermuda Garrison, the military force stationed in the Imperial fortress of Bermuda. It also contained Fort Prospect, Fort Langton, and Fort Hamilton, as well as being the base for mobile artillery batteries, manned by the Royal Artillery. Outlying parts of the camp were disposed of in the early decades of the Twentieth Century as the garrison in Bermuda was reduced. The core area, including the barracks, passed to the local government when the garrison was withdrawn in 1957.
The Historic Town of St George and Related Fortifications is the name used by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization's (UNESCO) World Heritage Committee to identify collectively as a World Heritage Site St. George's Town, founded in 1612, and a range of fortifications, batteries, and magazines built between 1612 and 1939, the last of which was removed from use in 1953.
The Western Redoubt, or Fort William, is a square fort built on a crest on the eastern side of Government Hill, and within the boundaries of the original main British Army camp in the Imperial fortress colony of Bermuda, St. George's Garrison.
The Bermuda Base Command was a command of the United States Army, established to defend the British Colony of Bermuda, located 640 miles off Cape Hatteras, North Carolina. It was created in April 1941 when United States Army troops were sent to the island.
The Bermuda Militia Infantry was raised in 1939 as a part-time reserve of the British Army's Bermuda Garrison.
St. George's Garrison was the first permanent military camp of the Bermuda Garrison established in the British colony and Imperial fortress of Bermuda, with construction of Old Military Road and the original Royal Barracks commencing during the war between Britain and France that followed the French Revolution. It would remain in use until 1957, when it was transferred to the civil (colonial) government with most of the other Admiralty and War Office properties in Bermuda.
Scaur Hill Fort, also called Scaur Hill Lines and Somerset Lines, is a fortified position erected in the 1870s at Scaur Hill, on Somerset Island, in Sandys Parish, the westernmost parish of the Imperial fortress colony of Bermuda.
Fort George is a square fort built on the crest of Mount Hill to the west of St. George's Town, near to, but outside of the boundaries of the original main British Army camp in the Imperial fortress colony of Bermuda, St. George's Garrison.
RNAS Bermuda was a Royal Naval Air Station in the Royal Naval Dockyard on Ireland Island until 1939, then Boaz Island, Bermuda. Bermuda became the primary base for the North America and West Indies Station of the Royal Navy in the North-West Atlantic following American independence. It was the location of a dockyard, an Admiralty House, and the base of a naval squadron.
↑ "Imperial Parliament: Colonial Expenditure". The Express. London. 11 April 1851. p.2. 3. That if it were deemed expedient to keep garrisons in certain imperial fortresses situated within the colonies, the expense of such garrisons should also be borne by the imperial government.
↑ Whittingham (published anonymously, with the author identified only as A FIELD OFFICER), Ferdinand (1857). BERMUDA; A COLONY, A FORTRESS AND A PRISON; OR, Eighteen Months in the Somers Islands. London: LONGMAN, BROWN, GREEN, LONGMANS AND ROBERTS (Printed by Spottiswoode and Co,. New-street Square).{{cite book}}: |last= has generic name (help)
↑ "Lord Stanley, M.P., and his constituents". The Morning Herald. London. 20 October 1864. p.3. I say nothing as to Malta or Gibraltar; those are great Imperial fortresses, and must be held in strength. So again, such places as Hong-Kong, or Bermuda, or Aden, cannot be left without defence.
↑ Zammit, Ray Cachia (26 March 2023). "The Victoria Lines, from conception to demise. What future?". Times of Malta. Malta. Retrieved 9 March 2024. in 1866, William F. D. Jervois (later Sir), who had served as secretary of the commission, visited Malta and produced a report entitled Memorandum with reference to the improvements to the defences of Malta and Gibraltar, rendered necessary by the introduction of iron plated ships and powerful rifled guns. In this report, Malta, along with Gibraltar, Halifax and Bermuda, was given the designation of an "imperial fortress"
↑ "Royal Colonial Institute". The Colonies and India. London. 19 May 1877. p.6. yet we might be in imminent danger of investment, and might possibly feel the stress of hunger. We keep Bermuda and Halifax as Imperial fortresses to provide for the contingencies of war with the States, and yet take no thought how, in that event, we are to feed our people at home.
↑ "The Cost of the Colonies". The Colonies and India. 12 November 1881. p.10. That charge may be said to be entirely incurred by our possession of Gibraltar, Malta, Bermuda, Hong Kong, and St. Helena, which are not Colonies in any right sense, but Imperial fortresses, military or naval stations, maintained in support of the British dominion
↑ Gordon, Donald Craigie (1965). The Dominion Partnership in Imperial Defense, 1870-1914. Baltimore, Maryland, USA: Johns Hopkins Press. p.14.
↑ Stranack, Lieutenant-Commander Ian (1990). The Andrew And The Onions: The Story Of The Royal Navy In Bermuda, 1795 – 1975. Bermuda: The Bermuda Maritime Museum Press. ISBN9780921560036.
↑ Keith, Arthur Berriedale (1909). Responsible Government in The Dominions. London: Stevens and Sons Ltd. p.5.; May, CMG, Royal Artillery, Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Edward Sinclair (1903). Principles and Problems of Imperial Defence. London: Swan Sonnenschein & Co. p.145.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
↑ Willock USMC, Lieutenant-Colonel Roger (1988). Bulwark Of Empire: Bermuda's Fortified Naval Base 1860–1920. Bermuda: The Bermuda Maritime Museum Press. ISBN9780921560005.
↑ Daniel, Colonel W.H. (1901). The Military Forces of the Crown. London, Paris, New York and Melbourne: Cassell & Company. p.95.
↑ Daniel, Colonel W.H. (1901). The Military Forces of the Crown. London, Paris, New York and Melbourne: Cassell & Company. p.111.
↑ Mercer, W. H.; Collins, A. E. (1898). The Colonial Office List for 1898. London: Harrison and Sons, 59, Pall Mall, Booksellers to Her Majesty and H.R.H. the Prince of Wales. p.38.
↑ Grove, Tim (22 January 2021). "Fighting The Power". Chesapeake Bay Magazine. Annapolis: Chesapeake Bay Media, LLC. Retrieved 8 August 2021.
↑ Kennedy, R.N., Captain W. R. (1 July 1885). "An Unknown Colony: Sport, Travel and Adventure in Newfoundland and the West Indies". Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine. William Blackwood & Sons. p.111.
↑ VERAX, (anonymous) (1 May 1889). "The Defense of Canada. (From Colburn's United Service Magazine)". The United Service: A Quarterly Review of Military and Naval Affairs. LR Hamersly & Co. p.552.
↑ Dawson, George M.; Sutherland, Alexander (1898). MacMillan's Geographical Series: Elementary Geography of the British Colonies. London: MacMillan and Co. p.184.
↑ Otter (or Cotter), Purser, R. N., Richard (1828). Sketches of Bermuda, or Somers' Islands. London: Effingham Wilson, Royal Exchange, and Sold by All Booksellers; Also by The Principal Map and Chart Sellers. 1828. Printed by Plummer and Brewis, Love Lane, Eastcheap.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
↑ "Rehabilitating Esquimalt". The Daily Colonist. Canada. 16 July 1919. p.4. The North America and West Indies Squadron is to have a wide area to patrol, comprising the North Atlantic, the West Indies and the North Pacific-from the Galapagos Islands to the Bering Straits. While any of the vessels of this squadron are in the Pacific their headquarters will be at Esquimalt.
↑ "Cruiser on The Coast". The Daily Colonist. Canada. 4 December 1920. p.22. This is the first occasion on which a ship from the Bermuda station has come through the Canal.
↑ Colomb, F.S.S., F.R.G.S., and Fellow Royal Colonial Institute, Captain J. C. R. (1880). Defence of Great and Greater Britain. 55, Charing Cross, London S.W.: Edward Stanford. Pages 60 to 63, Chapter III. Colonial Defence.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
↑ Colomb, F.S.S., F.R.G.S., and Fellow Royal Colonial Institute, Captain J. C. R. (1880). Defence of Great and Greater Britain. 55, Charing Cross, London S.W.: Edward Stanford. Pages 125 and 126, Chapter IV. Imperial and Colonial War Responsibilities.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location (link) CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
↑ Maurice-Jones, DSO, RA, Colonel KW (1959). History of The Coast Artillery in the British Army. UK: Royal Artillery Institution. p.203.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
↑ "Abstract of proceedings of the Honourable House of Assembly Wednesday 9 July, 1890". The Royal Gazette. City of Hamilton, Pembroke, Bermuda. 15 July 1890. p.1.
↑ Meteorological Observations at The Foreign and Colonial Stations of The Royal Engineers and The Army Medical Department 1852—1886. London: Meteorological Council. HMSO. 1890.
↑ Holland, James (1 September 2003). Fortress Malta: An Island Under Siege 1940-1943. New York City: Miramax Books. ISBN9781401351861.
Alan Lennox-Boyd,The Secretary of State for the Colonies (2 February 1959). "MALTA (LETTERS PATENT) BILL". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). Parliament of the United Kingdom: House of Commons. col.37. - Malta described as an imperial fortress in 1959.
MacFarlane, Thomas (1891). Within the Empire; An Essay on Imperial Federation. Ottawa: James Hope & Co. p.29. - describes Malta, Gibraltar, Halifax and Bermuda as imperial fortresses.
Tucker, Gilbert (1952). The Naval Service of Canada: its Official History, Volume I: Origins and Early Years. Ottawa: King's Printer.
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