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.
From the 1790s onwards, the garrison existed firstly to defend Bermuda as the main base of the North America and West Indies Station, including the defence of the Royal Naval Dockyard (HM Dockyard Bermuda) and other facilities in the Imperial fortress colony that were important to Imperial security until the HM Dockyard was reduced to a base (a process that was carried out between 1951 and 1957).[1][2][3] The movable military forces in Bermuda (the Board of Ordnance Military Corps, including the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers, and Royal Sappers and Miners, and transport and ordnance and commissariat stores departments, and the infantry of the regular British Army, as opposed to the local-service forces of militia and volunteers) included significant stores capability, and was generally an overlarge garrison by comparison to other colonies (most of which received no regular garrison), with the intent that, relying on the Royal Naval squadron for transport, supply, coastal bombardment, and reinforcements in the form of landing parties of Royal Marines and sailors, Bermuda should be the launching point for military raids on the American coast by expeditionary forces detached from the defensive garrison, or that were stationed in Bermuda for that purpose, as demonstrated during the American War of 1812.
Although the last professional soldiers (a detachment of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry) were withdrawn in 1957, and the Garrison ceased to exist, two part-time components – the Bermuda Militia Artillery and the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps (retitled Bermuda Rifles) – continued to exist until 1965, when they amalgamated to create the current Royal Bermuda Regiment.
^Willock USMC, Lieutenant-Colonel Roger (1988). Bulwark Of Empire: Bermuda's Fortified Naval Base 1860–1920. Bermuda: The Bermuda Maritime Museum Press. ISBN 9780921560005.
^Gordon, Donald Craigie (1965). The Dominion Partnership in Imperial Defense, 1870-1914. Baltimore, Maryland, USA: Johns Hopkins Press. p. 14. There were more than 44,000 troops stationed overseas in colonial garrisons, and slightly more than half of these were in imperial fortresses: in the Mediterranean, Bermuda, Halifax, St. Helena, and Mauritius. The rest of the forces were in colonies proper, with a heavy concentration in New Zealand and South Africa. The imperial government paid approximately £1,715,000 per annum toward the maintenance of these forces, and the various colonial governments contributed £370,000, the largest amounts coming from Ceylon and Victoria in Australia.
^MacFarlane, Thomas (1891). Within the Empire; An Essay on Imperial Federation. Ottawa: James Hope & Co., Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. p. 29. Besides the Imperial fortress of Malta, Gibraltar, Halifax and Bermuda it has to maintain and arm coaling stations and forts at Siena Leone, St. Helena, Simons Bay (at the Cape of Good Hope), Trincomalee, Jamaica and Port Castries (in the island of Santa Lucia).
The BermudaGarrison was the military establishment maintained on the British Overseas Territory and Imperial fortress of Bermuda by the regular British...
of the BermudaGarrison since the 1957 withdrawal of regular units and detachments from Bermuda. The two original units, the mostly black Bermuda Militia...
Bermuda (/bərˈmjuːdə/; historically known as the Bermudas or Somers Isles) is a British Overseas Territory in the North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land...
The Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps (BVRC) was created in 1894 as a reserve for the Regular Army infantry component of the BermudaGarrison. Renamed the...
subsequently served in Bermuda, where the 102 Regiment was posted in 1812 to the BermudaGarrison, stationed at St. George's Garrison. Bermuda, part of British...
America, the still-growing BermudaGarrison was elevated to a separate Bermuda Command.] The Colony of Newfoundland, like Bermuda, was not included in the...
the Bermuda Militia Artillery, which, like the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps, formed part of the garrison of the important Fortress colony of Bermuda and...
upper house of Bermuda's Parliament). The governor is also commander-in-chief of Bermuda, formerly in control of a large BermudaGarrison composed of regular...
the BermudaGarrison, with the reserve units taking on greater responsibilities). Conscription into the Bermuda Militia Artillery and the Bermuda Volunteer...
The Bermuda Militia Infantry was raised in 1939 as a part-time reserve of the British Army's BermudaGarrison. The Parliament of Bermuda had authorised...
termed a general officer commanding and the Bermudagarrison becoming a command in its own right. Bermuda was consequently left out of the confederation...
overseas in colonial garrisons, and slightly more than half of these were in imperial fortresses: in the Mediterranean, Bermuda, Halifax, St. Helena,...
Bermuda was first documented by a European in 1503 by Spanish explorer Juan de Bermúdez. In 1609, the English Virginia Company, which had established...
become established in Bermuda primarily as a pastime of idle officers of the BermudaGarrison and the Royal Naval Dockyard, Bermuda. In 1845, Prince Albert...
the new BermudaGarrison inherited from the militia, and building new ones. Two large army bases were established, known as St. George's Garrison and Prospect...
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...
coordinates) GPX (secondary coordinates) Bermuda is an archipelago consisting of 181 islands. Geography of BermudaBermuda's 123 Islands Listed by name, large...
Imperial Fortress colony of Bermuda was also appointed commander-in-chief of the disproportionately-large BermudaGarrison. From 1912, when Lieutenant-General...
1868. He was involved with the construction of fortifications in the BermudaGarrison (three years) and at Malta (two years) before he was deployed to southern...
military garrison. Following the loss of Britain's ports in thirteen of its former continental colonies after the American War of Independence, Bermuda assumed...
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