Adelaide. Semaphore. Cannon within Fort Glanville pointing out to St Vincents Gulf.. Built in 1880.
Image by denisbin
Introduction.
The little colonial outpost of South Australia was besotted with news about the War in the Crimea 1853-56. Everyone was talking about it and watching the newspaper reports on the outcomes of battles. The names of battles were commemorated in several places especially on the Adelaide Plains with the Hundreds of Inkerman, Balaklava and Alma which all had towns with those names. Willunga got the Alma Hotel in 1856 and Norwood got its Alma Hotel too; Inman Valley got Mount Alma Road; and a village named Sebastopol was located near Millicent. In the decades after the Crimean War Alma was a favourite girl’s name and Adelaide had Alma roads/streets in Fullarton, Glenelg, Hectorville; and there is an Inkerman street in Camden Park. South Australia was not alone in this colonial fascination with the Crimean War. Victoria had towns/suburbs of Balaclava, Sebastopol and Alma. Queensland also has an Alma and Inkerman etc.
In 1851 the colony of SA was granted a constitution by Britain and almost had self-government although this was not fully conferred until 1857 when Boyle Travis Finniss served as our first Premier (although that term was not used at that time.) The 1851 single chamber government of 24 members had 8 nominated by the Crown and 16 elected by property owners. So it is not surprising that until the Crimean War broke out in 1853 that Legislative Chamber had not considered defence and potential threats to the colony. The reaction of the Legislative Chamber was quick and the Crimean War was big news in South Australia. Not only were Hundreds on the Adelaide Plains named after major battles by Governor Sir Richard MacDonnell but a Militia Act to arm volunteer’s was passed in 1854 along with a series of semaphore signals to be built from Kangaroo Island to Port Adelaide to warn of threatening shipping; actions were taken to arm 1,000 volunteers in case of attack; and an armed boat was purchased to patrol the Gulf of St Vincent. Defence expenditure by the government went from nil in 1853 to several thousand pounds in 1854 and on to nearly £16,000 in 1856. Defensive installations were erected with part of this money.
After the end of the Crimean War the British government promoted NSW and Tasmania as suitable colonies for troops to settle and start new lives and employment. SA was not promoted at all yet some veterans of the Crimean War did come to South Australia and settle. One of those was John Marshall who served in the British forces in the 58th regiment at the battles of Alma, Balaklava and Inkerman during the Crimean War. He died in the Royal Adelaide Hospital in 1886. He settled in Adelaide after the war. No South Australian is known to have travelled back to Britain to join British forces in 1854 but some families might have history to prove this happened. Another later SA resident known to have served in the Crimea was John Callaghan from County Cork. He served in the 50th regiment in the Crimea but continued to serve in Ceylon and in New Zealand (Maori Wars) and elsewhere finally taking his discharge in Adelaide in 1869. He lived in Adelaide and died here in 1909. Some NSW residents are known to have joined the British forces in the Crimea but no official records were ever kept of Australian colonies participation.
Crimean War Cannons in Adelaide.
At the conclusion of the Crimean War the Treaty of Paris specially mentioned war trophies as they were considered of great importance. 1,165 Russian cannons and guns were taken with the fall of Sebastopol and Britain kept these. They distributed them to towns and cities throughout Britain and the colonies. The cannons were to be distributed
to the Australian colonies (and elsewhere) according to their contribution to the Patriotic Fund which helped the British government fund the War. Each colony, except WA was awarded two Russian Cannons. SA’s two cannons arrived in 1859 and were placed in the Botanic Gardens. They had some ceremonial use including a welcome to the Duke of Edinburgh in 1867. They were then moved to the Armoury on North Terrace and one was fired daily at noon to mark the time in the 19th century. In 1901 one of the cannons was moved to the Torrens Parade Ground and the second joined it around 1931. These cannons remain in good condition as they were mounted on a cast iron base instead of the usual wood carriage base. Both were cast under the direction of Alexander Foullon at the Alexandrovski foundry and they both carry the double eagle symbol of the Russian Tsar.
Fort Glanville.
The construction of Fort Glanville in 1878 and its completion in 1880 was a direct consequence of the Crimean War. Australian colonies saw a possible Russian invasion as a threat. In 1871 Russia established its Pacific Fleet at Vladivostok near Japan. Russia had imperial hopes. In that same year all British troops were withdrawn from all Australian colonies. Defence was seen as a major issue. Russia had not accepted its defeat in the Crimean War easily and it sought to get control of the Black Sea from the Ottoman (Turkish) Empire and to regain lost territories or gain new ones. In the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-1878 the Russians defeated the Ottomans and drove them out of Eastern Europe (Serbia, Bulgaria, Romania etc.) after 500 years of Ottoman occupation. Europe felt threatened by this war and although Britain was not directly involved in the war Britain sent a fleet to protect Constantinople and intimidate the Russians and to make them accept a truce from the Ottoman Empire. That same year – 1878 – SA passed a defensive act to establish three coastal forts in case of Russian sea attack at Glenelg, Semaphore and Largs Bay. In 1878 SA also passed the Military Forces Act to establish the first permanent armed forces. The governor of the day Sir William Jervois designed Fort Glanville with another British officer. A road was planned to link the three forts and was named appropriately Military Road. Glenelg fort was never built; the first completed fort was Glanville in 1880; and Largs Bay fort was completed in 1884. Much later Fort Largs became the SA Police training Academy and the fort remains at that site. Not one shot was ever fired from forts Glanville or Largs Bay in defence. Fort Glanville was built in a crescent shaped with 220 cms concrete and brick walls and huge cannons with a firing range of 6,000 metres. The guns were pointed to the ocean. After it closed it was used for military detention, depression housing, scout accommodation etc. More recently Fort Glanville was declared a state park. Fort Glanville was designed to protect the jetty at Semaphore which was the main disembarking point for passengers and mail from Britain; Glenelg was designed to be an early warning fort; and Fort Largs was designed to protect the entry to the colony’s major port at Port Adelaide. Largs and Glanville closed in 1901 when the Commonwealth took over all responsibility for defence.
