The British Garrison in Australia 1788-1841: the mutiny of the 80th regiment at Norfolk Island.

The recorded histories of Norfolk Island during its time as a secondary penal settlement usually give detailed accounts of the convict uprisings of 1834 and 1846 (the 'cooking pot' mutiny) and the executions which followed them, but little is recorded concerning the July 1839 mutiny of the guard detachment of the 80th Regiment, The Staffordshire Volunteers, later 2nd Battalion, South Staffordshire Regiment, and there is a corresponding lack of knowledge of the incident by the residents of the island. In view of the emphasis placed by the local tourist industry on the convict occupation, this is, perhaps, a strange oversight.

The 80th mutiny has been considered previously by Doctor Peter Stanley in an article--'A mere point of military etiquette' which appeared in The push from the bush No 7. He believed the mutiny to be an expression of social unrest, albeit in a military organisation. This current article considers the man-management styles of the two principal players in the lead up to the mutiny and in its aftermath--two Peninsular War veterans, Majors Joseph Anderson, 50th Regiment, and Thomas Bunbury, 80th Regiment, and whether indifferent man-management by one may have precipitated the mutiny. Both Anderson and Bunbury were sufficiently proud to have compiled detailed published records of their service, and much of the material for this article has been drawn from these sources. Their styles give some insight into their personalities. (1)

Anderson was a Scot; commissioned into the 78th Regiment, the Ross-shire Buffs, on 27 June 1805 at the age of fifteen; he joined the regiment at Shorncliffe where he 'attended all daily parades, morning and evening, and was drilled and instructed in a squad with the men'. He served with the 78th at Maida and in Egypt before transferring on promotion to the 24th, the Warwickshire Regiment, and in the Peninsula was at the battles of Talavera, Busaco, and Fuentes d'Onoro. In his old age, writing his 'Recollections', he recalled an incident in Portugal, while acting as the paymaster of the regiment, which led him to form a high opinion 'of the general honesty and integrity of the British soldier'. (2)

Anderson returned home on sick leave after Fuentes and acted for a short while as Brigade Major before being promoted to captain, as a company commander in the York Chasseurs; a 'regiment formed in the winter of 1813-1814 in the Isle of Wight from the better class of deserters from the Army. It was sent to the West Indies in 1814, and was shortly afterwards augmented by a draft of 540 deserters and culprits from the Isle of Wight ... This regiment was clothed in 'green with red cape and cuffs.' (3)

In Barbados he was at one time Acting Paymaster of his regiment, and later Deputy Judge Advocate to the British Forces in the West Indies. (4) He rejoined the Chasseurs and accompanied them in the expedition to seize Guadeloupe, being one of the few officers in the unit with field experience. Following the success of the operation, he was appointed to another spell of staff work as Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General before rejoining the Chasseurs in Jamaica. Anderson returned to England in April 1818 for another period of sick leave. While there, he was advised that the Chasseurs were to be disbanded and he was placed on half-pay, where he rusticated until May 1821 when he gained an appointment to a company of the 50th, The Queen's Own Regiment, then serving at Port Royal in Jamaica.

He joined the regiment in January 1823 and was again appointed Deputy Judge Advocate before being sent in command of a detachment to Port Maria, a notoriously unhealthy station where he lost half his men and dependents before returning to Port Royal and applying for a further period of sick leave in England. Anderson rejoined the regiment at Portsmouth in 1827, following its return from the West Indies and served with it in Ireland before the 50th was selected to provide guard detachments for convict transports to New South Wales. Anderson arrived in Sydney on the Parmelia on 2 March 1834 to find Sydney agog with the news of a convict uprising on the secondary penal settlement of Norfolk Island.

On his arrival Anderson presented letters of introduction to Governor Sir Richard Bourke who offered him the post of Commandant at Norfolk Island to replace Lieutenant Colonel James Morisset who had been suffering ill-health for some time, and who had left all responsibility for dealing with the convict mutiny of 1834 to Captain Foster Fyans, in charge of the garrison detachment of the 4th Regiment. Anderson, accompanied by his wife and family, and two soldiers of the 50th, sailed from Sydney on the schooner Isabella on 12 March 1834. They were met on arrival at Norfolk Island by a Guard of Honour of the 4th and the Acting Commandant, Captain Fyans; Morisset had already left the island. The new Commandant and his family took up residence in the very comfortable Government House. (5) His first duty on the island was to take depositions against prisoners charged with mutiny. One hundred and sixty two were charged; thirteen were ultimately executed on 22 and 23 July 1834 with all prisoners paraded to witness the executions.

Anderson recorded in his Recollections 'from that time on order reigned on the island during the whole of my government, from March, 1834 to April, 1839'. He also recollected that 'The troops behaved remarkably well. We had only six court-martials during the whole period of my command. All the soldiers had gardens near their barracks in which they grew all sorts of vegetables; they were also allowed to keep fowls. This not only kept them in excellent health, but gave them employment, and they were always at hand and ready for any emergency which might arise.' The gardens were to become the focus of the later military mutiny, but it had been the custom to allow the soldiers gardens from before Anderson's time; Foster Fyans, of the 4th Regiment, the predecessors of the 50th, recorded in his Memoirs that during a scare that the soldiers' bread, baked by convict bakers, had been poisoned, so great was the belief of the troops in the rumour that they refused to eat it--'not a morsel of it was used.... and, may I add, only for the produce of their gardens, each man being allowed a fourth of an acre to cultivate, their situation on the island would be one of extreme misery'. (6) The gardens provided some off-duty occupation for the soldiers. There were no inns on the island, the grog issue was at a reduced rate to the mainland and there were no women except the dependents of the garrison and officials.

Amongst the 1000 to 1200 prisoners on the island Anderson found about 100 former soldiers most of who had been transported from Australia and India for assaulting or threatening to shoot their officers, usually when drunk. In 1832 an instruction had been issued by the Home Government that soldiers sentenced to transportation by Court Martial in New South Wales or the East Indies should be transported to Norfolk Island. These Anderson separated from the remaining prisoners, all secondary or even third civil offenders from the colonies. He wrote ' l always found the soldier gangs willing to be obedient, and most thankful for the promise of being trusted with arms should any general outbreak take place which might justify in calling for their assistance. I had indeed a soldier's feeling for them. For their continued good conduct I recommended many of them at various times to the Government for pardon and restoration to their regiments.' One of their number was Daniel Shean of Anderson's own regiment 'who afterwards served with me in India, and I found him a good and faithful soldier'. (7)

In June 1834 Anderson reported to the Colonial Government that the settlement on the island had been inundated by a heavy sea which caused considerable damage to the public buildings. Governor Bourke's response was to send a Superintendent of Works (Mr Ferguson) to Norfolk Island with plans to erect a Commissariat Store. This building is one of the most substantial on the island; restored, it now provides accommodation for All Saints Anglican Church and, in the basement, an Archaeological Museum. The new military barracks, completed the following year, now houses the Island Administration. The old barracks now accommodates the Island Courts and the Legislative Assembly. A plaque is fixed in the gable above the main entrance of the Commissary Store; it bears the inscription '1834, MAJOR ANDERSON, 50TH REGIMENT, COMMANDANT'. A fitting memorial to an old soldier. It is evidence that the construction of significant buildings was commenced well before the arrival of Royal Engineers in 1838. In 1834, Anderson was visited by his elder brother, John, a colonel in the Madras Army, who after leaving the island, wrote to his brother from Sydney suggesting that they should together take up a cattle and sheep station in the newly opened up Port Phillip district. Joseph agreed, his brother purchased stock and made arrangements for a drive to the station site in October 1838. This began a new phase of Anderson's life, one which he did not fully take up until retiring from the 50th Regiment in 1848.

Anderson remained at Norfolk until April 1839 when his detachment of the 50th was replaced by the 80th and Anderson, himself, by Major Thomas Bunbury as civil superintendent and military commandant. The first detachment of the 80th as relief for the 50th arrived at Norfolk Island on 28 August 1838 but Bunbury did not embark from Sydney until February 1839. He was held over waiting the arrival of the new Governor, Sir George Gipps, for his appointment as Commandant to be confirmed.

In common with every other commandant at Norfolk, Anderson has been criticised in some writings for the harshness of his treatment of prisoners. It is not the purpose of this article to consider Anderson's convict administration in detail but some assessment of it is pertinent in establishing the differing attitudes of Anderson and Bunbury to the troops under their command. Anderson, himself, recalled that he made a daily study of the prisoners' records to identify those noted for good conduct on which he based recommendations for commutation of sentences, on a varying scale for prisoners subject to seven, fourteen years or life sentences. This policy was remarked on by the Roman Catholic Vicar General, Ullathorne, who visited Norfolk Island in 1836. He wrote:

   I record the name of Major Anderson with unmingled satisfaction.
   His minute personal knowledge of the desperate men under his
   charge, and the discrimination with which he encourages the well
   disposed, has been attended with the most salutary consequences.

Ullathorne had been at Norfolk in 1835 to attend the execution of the 1834 mutineers. In 1836 he added to the above comments:

   What was my delight to find that, for the fifteen months elapsed
   since my last visit, there was not one Catholic to be brought
   before the judge. (8)

The Quaker, James Backhouse, had expressed similar views following his 1835 visit to the island. He spoke favourably of Anderson's appointment of two prisoners with religious training, one Protestant, one Roman Catholic, to conduct separate services for prisoners who, previously, had attended one ceremony conducted by an officer of the garrison. Backhouse recorded speaking to an overseer:

   who had long been on the island. He informed us, that there had
   been a progressive improvement among the prisoners for some time
   past, especially since Major Anderson has availed himself of the
   means within his reach, for their religious instruction and had
   regulated the appropriation of punishments to the nature of the
   crimes committed.

Backhouse received from the members of his farewell congregation, on 29 April 1835, a petition:

   Permit us to implore that you will convey to Major Anderson,
   our Commandant, the deep sense we entertain of his great
   anxiety, since he assumed the command, for our well being
   here and hereafter. (9)

On the debit side, Colin Roderick in 'From the Quarterdeck to the Gallows', based on the narrative of the notorious John Knatchbull, depicts Anderson as a sadistic tyrant, a view Roderick considers supported by Thomas Atkins, an Independent clergyman who was sent to Norfolk Island as a Chaplain in November 1836 on the recommendation of the London Missionary Society. Atkins considered Anderson the 'disciple of Nicholas, autocrat of the Russians'. (10) Knatchbull, one-time RN Captain, had, under the name of John Fitch, been sentenced in England in 1824 to 14 years' transportation, having been found guilty of theft. Granted a ticket of leave in 1829, two years later in Sydney he was sentenced to death for forgery but his sentence was commuted to seven years' secondary punishment at Norfolk Island, arriving in 1832, and leaving in 1839 on the same vessel as Anderson and his family, to serve out his original sentence at Port Macquarie. He returned to Sydney on completion of his sentence, and on 6 January 1844 he murdered a shopkeeper, Mrs Jamieson. He was arrested, found guilty of the murder and on 13 February 1844 he was hanged. Knatchbull's complaints against Anderson were that he substituted potatoes for the bread ration during a shortage of maize, that he had furniture made on the island which he sold in Sydney, where he also attempted to sell arrowroot produced at Norfolk for his own benefit. Atkins' view of Knatchbull was that '. from his personal appearance and conversation, as all traces of a gentleman had long disappeared, he exhibited no evidence that he had been in a higher social position; indeed he appeared to be in his natural place.' (11)

Atkins' stay on Norfolk was short, from November 1836 to January 1837. He resigned in Sydney in April, his conduct on the island considered by Governor Bourke to have been 'highly indiscreet and improper'. Atkins obviously could not reconcile himself to the fact that when Norfolk Island was resettled in 1825 it was as a place 'for the purpose of employing the worst description of convicts'; or as Governor Brisbane had described it to be 'the ne plus ultra of convict degradation'--nothing worse! (12)

An appreciation of Anderson's attitude to prisoners can be gauged from his action in support of the plan to move stock to the brothers' station at Port Phillip. In a letter to his brother, in Sydney organising the drive and seeking stockmen, Anderson 'named also three men in Sydney who had been until lately prisoners at Norfolk Island. I knew them to be not only trustworthy, but also well acquainted with sheep and cattle, as they had been formerly employed as shepherds on sheep and cattle stations.' The three men, Joseph Underwood, William Percival and Richard Glegg fulfilled Anderson's trust--but more of that later. (13)

The new Commandant at Norfolk Island, Major Thomas Bunbury, had been born at Gibraltar 19 May 1791, the son of a lieutenant in the 32nd Regiment. He was sent to school at Catterick in Yorkshire where he claimed to have developed his 'pugnacious propensities. (14) At the age of sixteen he gained an ensigncy in the 90th Regiment, but transferred to the 3rd, the Buffs, without joining the 90th. With the Buffs in the Peninsula, Bunbury was at the crossing of the Duoro at Oporto and at Talavera, then promoted without purchase to lieutenant in the 91st Regiment but served instead as Adjutant to one of the two Battalions of Detachments at Talavera. This unit was to return to England after the battle where the detachments would rejoin their own regiments. Bunbury elected not to rejoin the 91st which was ' a Highland regiment, at that time very clannish, it struck me that I might be subject to persecution and annoyance' so he elected to serve in the Portuguese Army where he would receive a promotion to the rank of captain. (15)

In February 1809 the Portuguese Regency (The Prince-Regent had fled to Rio de Janeiro in November 1807 on the approach of the French to Lisbon) appointed the Portuguese-speaking British General William Carr Beresford as Commander-in-Chief of the Portuguese Army. Beresford, in turn, appointed British officers to strengthen the Portuguese service, each officer receiving a step in rank. Hence Lieutenant Bunbury became Captain, in command of a company of the 20th Campo Mayo Regiment of Infantry (16) but remained a lieutenant in the British Army Lists.

Bunbury served with the 20th Line at the battle of Barrosa, then, at the defence of Tarifa, as Brigade Major to Skerret's British Brigade before being transferred to the Portuguese 5th Cacadores Regiment. (17) Bunbury served with the Cacadores at the crossings of the Nivelle and Nive Rivers; he was wounded during the action on the Nive but shortly after was promoted to the rank of major and appointed to the command of the 6th Cacadores. He took part in the battles of Orthes and Toulouse, the last of the Peninsular campaign which saw the break-up of the Anglo Portuguese Army and the return of the Portuguese to Portugal. Most British officers with the Portuguese service rejoined their parent regiments. Bunbury, elected to transfer to the 3rd Cacadores, and to remain as ' all subalterns so authorised obtained companies in the British service without purchase.' That is, they were promoted to the rank of captain, in October 1814. Nevertheless, those who remained in Portugal were placed on the British Half-Pay List one year later. (18)

The 3rd Cacadores were stationed at Vila Real, in the heart of the port wine producing region of Portugal--the Tras Os Montes Province--and here Bunbury began to enjoy a splendid social life as befitted a major in the Portuguese service. He continued in the same life style when transferred to other Cacadore regiments at Elvas, on the frontier opposite the Spanish fortress of Badajoz and at Castro Marin, in the Algarve, on the southernmost section of the Portuguese/Spanish border. Before posting to Elvas he had obtained leave to return to visit his family in England and from Castro Marin he was employed to visit Cadiz to obtain intelligence for Marshal Beresford, still commanding the Portuguese forces, concerning the involvement of Spanish units in an insurrection aimed at the introduction of a more democratic Spanish constitution. Bunbury recorded that 'I was so completely a Portuguese that I found more fun in their parties, where there was a great preponderance of women, than I should have met in the stiff and formal coteries of my pompous countrymen.' (19)

Unfortunately for Bunbury his idyllic existence came to a close in 1820 when Portugal became embroiled in the same type of political agitation as he had witnessed at Cadiz and elements of the Portuguese army were also involved in agitation for a new constitution. However in Portugal one of the aims of the insurrection was to throw off the perceived heavy British influence on Portuguese political life. Marshal Beresford had played a heavy handed role in the country and was highly unpopular. In March 1820 Beresford sailed to Brazil to consult the Portuguese king, still in exile. During Beresford's absence a rising took place, joined in by military units, and a representative assembly, the Cortes, seized power. The Cortes refused Beresford permission to land on his return and he went to England, where the government of the day had determined not to interfere in the internal affairs of its old ally. The writing was on the wall for the British officers remaining in the Portuguese service and Bunbury, amongst those, returned to England at the end of 1820, to rusticate as a captain on half-pay. Beresford had brought back from Brazil the appointment of Bunbury to Lieutenant Colonel in the Portuguese Army, but it was of no benefit for a British half-pay captain. (20)

On his return to England Bunbury reported his arrival to the Horse Guards, advising the Military Secretary that 'his services were at the disposal of the Government' (21), although he was anxious to spend some time in England and viewed with distaste the prospect of being posted as the junior captain to a regiment warned for service in India. Accordingly he spent the next two years residing with his father in Berkshire and, like many other half-pay Peninsular officers, filled his time shooting, hunting, visiting, and studying painting and the Fine Arts in Paris. This life came to an end in late 1822 when, in Spite of his many submissions seeking promotion to Brevet Major, he was gazetted to a captain's vacancy in the 80th, the South Staffordshire Regiment.

The 80th was at Malta where Bunbury duly presented himself. Life in the officers' mess in Malta was not greatly to his liking--he expressed a preference for ladies society; but, in Malta, his service in the Portuguese Army was rewarded by the award of Honorary Knight of the Portuguese Order of the Tower and Sword. (22) After some service in Malta, Bunbury was posted to the Regimental Depot at the Isle of Man until early 1828 when he took command of the Depot on its move to Sunderland. In March 1831 the main body of the 80th returned to the Regimental Depot, from the Ionian Islands and was dispersed in detachments throughout the Midlands, to control disturbances which developed as a result of the rejection in Parliament of the Reform Bill, until June 1832 when the regiment was posted to Ireland, returning to the Midlands in April 1834. On 24 November Bunbury achieved his long awaited promotion to the rank of major, by purchase; he had served twenty years as a captain. Orders were received in September 1835 for the regiment to prepare to embark as guard detachments on convict transports to New South Wales. The first guard detachment embarked on 23 May 1836, the last, with Bunbury, left Portsmouth on 5 August 1837. (23)

As soon as Bunbury learned that the regiment was to serve in New South Wales he wrote to Sydney 'to his old friend, the Brigade-Major, Colonel Snodgrass 'to say how glad I should be to find some employment there which would give me something in addition to my pay'. (24) Bunbury was heavily in debt, incurred in payment of his purchase of his majority. Snodgrass, like Bunbury, had served with the Portuguese in the Peninsular War, commanding the Portuguese 13th Line Regiment and establishing a name for himself at the siege of San Sebastian (August 1813). (25)

Immediately he arrived in Sydney on the Susan on 23 December 1837 after disembarking most of the prisoners previously at Hobart. Bunbury paraded himself to his friend Colonel Snodgrass, not only Brigade-Major but Acting Commandant of the Military Forces in the Colony and also Acting Governor in the interregnum between the departure of Governor Sir Ralph Darling and the arrival of his replacement, Sir George Gipps. Snodgrass told Bunbury that he had a suitable appointment in view--the command of the Penal Settlement at Norfolk Island--when the detachment of the 50th Regiment there was relieved by the 80th. Snodgrass, however, felt that he should delay putting forward the proposed appointment until the arrival of Gipps, who was expected daily. Bunbury joined the Headquarters of his regiment at Windsor, eagerly awaiting his new post.

Governor Gipps and his family reached Sydney on 24 February 1838 but there was no immediate appointment for Bunbury. The first detachment of the 80th, a sergeant and 13 Rank and File did not arrive at Norfolk Island until June 1838 and it was not until August that the first substantial detachment of two subalterns, one the diarist Ensign A B W Best, three sergeants and 41 Rank and File reached the island. (26) At that time Major Anderson's detachment of the 50th totalled 180 All Ranks, so it is not surprising that Bunbury was not appointed to supersede him at that stage.

By the end of 1838 Bunbury was beginning to become fretful about his future and on the arrival of Major-General Sir Maurice O'Connell (Bligh's son-in-law) in December to become the Commander of the Military Forces in the Colony, Bunbury sought his good offices to process the appointment; claiming that he had been prohibited from joining the 80th at Norfolk Island to suit the convenience of Anderson, whose wife was pregnant. O'Connell arranged for Bunbury to meet Gipps during a visit to Government House at Parramatta. The Major was received by Gipps 'with a great deal of haughtiness and petulance' and they parted, according to Bunbury, 'with the mutual dislike greatly increased'. Nevertheless Bunbury received his appointment and sailed from Sydney on the Governor Phillip on 7 February 1839. (27)

Bunbury had prepared himself for his position as Commandant before leaving Sydney by examining in detail the expenses involved in running the settlement at Norfolk Island and the resources available there; it was his plan to make the establishment self sufficient and he was anxious to put his plans into operation. Much to his chagrin he found, on reaching the island that Anderson was in no hurry to hand over the administration and did not do so until 4 April. Anderson left Norfolk Island about 11 April, arriving in Sydney on 2 May 1839. With Anderson and his family was the last detachment of the 50th on the island. The men of the 50th left behind them the genesis of the event which would ensure that Bunbury and his detachment of the 80th regiment should enjoy only a short sojourn on Norfolk. The outgoing detachment had sold the gardens they had been allowed to cultivate, the crops on them, and huts for storage of produce and tools to the incoming detachment of the 80th, contrary to the advice of Major Anderson that the transactions were ' against Orders and should have devolved upon them [the 80th] in succession without payment'. This order issued to the troops of the 50th on 9 May 1835 had, it seems, been conveniently forgotten by the gardeners by the time that the hand-over to the 80th took place'. (28)

The gardens and huts were located behind the old barracks, in an area known as 'Irish Town'. Bunbury viewed Irish Town with great suspicion. He believed that the troops resented being called from their gardening activities to carry out their normal military duties and became 'slovenly and dissatisfied', that they wantonly destroyed crops in the adjacent Officers' Gardens when annoyed by the orders of those officers, that lazy soldiers stole produce from the gardens of the more active and that the huts were repositories for stolen tools and places of trading with convicts.

Bunbury took no immediate action on the gardens. During the period he had been waiting to assume command he had been observing many aspects of the management of the establishment and he first wished to implement his ideas for improvement in the efficiency of its administration. He sought permission for and introduced the use of the plough for cultivation which had previously, by Government direction, been carried out by hoe, issued a set of 18 detailed orders to the Superintendent of Agriculture for the improved management of his department, and employed all the old and lame prisoners in the processing of hemp for sale in Sydney. In his most radical move, convinced that most of the convict sick list, 300 in the prison population of 1400, were malingerers, Bunbury introduced a reduced ration for them, with the option of returning to work for full rations, thereby bringing the sick list down to about 70 men.

Busy with his prison management responsibilities, Bunbury directed his 2IC, Captain Horatio Gulston, to take over the military duties relating to the garrison, and it was not until the end of June that Bunbury turned his attention to the soldiers' gardens. He ordered an Overseer and a gang of prisoners to pull down a garden hut, apparently without any prior indication of his intention to the troops, and when the Overseer and his party arrived to begin the demolitions on 1 July the soldiers 'assembled ... in a very riotous manner' and drove away the Overseer and his party. Captain Gulston reported this to Bunbury who issued a Garrison Order upbraiding the action of the men and stating that the demolition of the huts would now be carried out under his own supervision, ordered a fatigue party to be formed to carry out the task. The fatigue party had hardly arrived when Bunbury saw that 'a Party of about thirty to forty men had forced their way out of the New Barracks and were rushing with loaded muskets towards the place where I stood'. (29)

Bunbury stood his ground and physically, but unsuccessfully, tried to force the men back to their barracks. It then began to rain and the men retired to the veranda of the barracks where they formed 'armed and accoutered [sic]'; nevertheless Bunbury was able to address them there and they eventually 'quietly returned to their duties' not, however, before putting forward a request for the full mainland ration of spirits in their daily issue, a request Bunbury dismissed out of hand. Bunbury pointed out that they should not have paid for their gardens which he now proposed to withdraw from single soldiers who instead, would be supplied with vegetables from the Government gardens, and debited the sum of one penny per man per day and an extra half penny when rock and water melon was supplied. This charge would have been illegal, as the cost of rations, three shillings per week, was established by Warrant and deducted automatically from soldiers' pay. Deductions for rations and necessaries already reduced the soldiers' pay to less than sixpence a day.

To justify this arbitrary stoppage Bunbury advanced the opinion that ' the notoriously uniform bad conduct and drunkenness which prevails whenever a Detachment from Norfolk Island arrived at Sydney it is to be hoped will be much reduced by the charge of [2.sup.s]/[6.sup.d] per month made for their messing on the Island'. (30)

It is incongruous that while Bunbury was preparing his report at Norfolk Island with its recommendation of a charge to be levied for vegetables, at Sydney in August, a Board had been convened to consider the rations of soldiers on the mainland where Lieutenant Colonel N Wodehouse, 50th Regiment, had claimed that the daily subsistence of soldiers was 'not sufficient for their bodily support, that is to render them fit for every duty an efficient soldier may be expected to perform'.

The Board comprised Lieutenant Colonel C French, 28th Regiment, William Miller, Deputy Commissary General, and Captain W Hunter, Brigade Major. In its report the Board recommended an increase of 20 per day for the purchase of rations. The conditions in Sydney were not common to Norfolk Island, nor were the recommendation applicable, but the Board's investigation did throw light on the true state of a soldier's conditions of service. The ration provided food only for breakfast and a mid-day dinner, the spirit ration was usually issued at night. Six pence of the daily pay was retained for the ration, 2 1/2 pence were allotted for the provision and upkeep of the soldier's Regimental Necessaries and clothing, one halfpenny covered the cost of washing, leaving the soldier with only 3 pence for additional food, particularly for an evening meal, or for his personal needs. Bunbury's proposal would have reduced this to 2 pence or even 1. 1/2 pence per day. In that climate it seems unlikely that Bunbury's proposal would have been considered seriously. (31)

Archdeacon John McEncroe, who had arrived on the island on 4 November 1838 to minister to the Catholic convicts, witnessed the mutiny. He witnessed 'the transaction from first to last' and recorded that 'The Major had given orders on a Saturday to the Principal Overseer, a very efficient man in his way, to rebuild one of the huts that had fallen down in a different place from its former site; he said he intended to remove all the huts ... but did not give orders about doing so. When this Overseer went to remove this one hut he said the Commandant was about taking down all the huts, or something to that effect ... the soldiers flew into a rage and said they would allow "no convicts" to pull down their huts which contained potatoes and other little property. Thus the whole originated in this blunder.' (32)

On 4 July Bunbury issued a Garrison Order instructing Captain Gulston to read at two successive parades the Garrison Order by Major Anderson of 8 May 1835 which informed the troops, inter alia, that the gardens were to pass free from one garrison detachment to the next. Had Bunbury repromulgated this Order before proceeding to the destruction of the huts, particularly by ordering a gang of convicts to carry out the task, the mutiny may have been avoided. Then on 23 July, Bunbury finally penned his Report. In addition to a detailed account of the mutiny, his Report contained direct and implied criticism of his predecessor's administration of the settlement, not only in relation to the soldiers' gardens, but claiming that there were no daily parades of troops on duty, failure of troops to appear on parades, and generally 'a relaxed state of discipline' inferring that' the reins were held too loosely'.

Bunbury forwarded the Report to Sydney with Gulston who was proceeding there in charge of a guard, so that Major-General O' Connell could 'by referring to him [Gulston] obtain any further information you may require.' (33)

The Report was received in Sydney on 5 September and on 14 September a detachment of 176 All Ranks of the 50th Regiment, commanded by Major Thomas Ryan, sailed on the chartered vessel, the Cornwall, accompanied by HMS Alligator, commanded by Sir Gordon Bremer, to relieve Bunbury and the detachment of the 80th, who were to embark immediately and return to Sydney. (34)

The contentious huts, the cause of the mutiny, by order of Major General O'Connell, were destroyed by the soldiers of the 80th before embarkation and the hand-over of the command from Bunbury to Major Ryan. A plan of the settlement of Norfolk Island, prepared by Lieutenant H W Lugard RE, in January 1839 shows the location of the soldiers' gardens, not immediately behind the old barracks, but separated from them by Military Officers' Gardens, across Soldiers Gully.

Ryan's detachment of the 50th was relieved by Lieutenant Colonel Hulme with a detachment of the 96th in 1840. The prison reformer, Captain Alexander Maconochie, had arrived at Norfolk Island on 6 March, 1840 as 'Superintendent'. (35)

On arrival of the 80th detachment in Sydney a Court of Inquiry was instituted and Bunbury, who had not taken any immediate disciplinary action against the mutineers in Norfolk Island was ordered to frame charges against the ring-leaders, eight of whom appeared before General Courts Martial between 4 and 14 November 1839, charged with 'Disobedience of Orders and Mutiny'. Seven of the mutineers were sentenced to Transportation for Life, one, Private Andrew Murray, to fourteen years transportation. According to Bunbury, Murray's sentence was remitted on the recommendation of the Court. (36)

The mutineers were not sent back to Norfolk Island to serve their sentences; instead they went to Port Arthur in Van Diemens Land. In May 1844, Lieutenant-General Sir M O'Connell (he had been promoted in November 1841), at the half-yearly inspection of the 80th before their embarkation for India, to mark his appreciation of the good behaviour of the Regiment, was 'pleased to remit the remaining portions of the sentences of such prisoners as are under confinement by awards of Court's Martial'. Whether this applied in the case of the mutineers has not been determined. (37)

   Section from 'Plan of the Settlement, Norfolk Island' produced by
   H W Lugard Lt RE, January 1839. The Settlement was that part of
   Norfolk Island now known as Kingston. The full plan shows all the
   buildings existing in the area at that time. The section depicts a
   cluster of small buildings, identified as 'Fowl Houses' immediately
   to the North of the Old Military Barracks. These are the garden
   huts described by Bunbury, in his Report of the mutiny as in 'rear
   of the Old Barrack' The Soldiers' Gardens are not shown in this
   plan but they appear in the 1848 plan 'Project for supplying with
   Water Principle Buildings on Settlement' prepared by Lugard's
   successor Capt R G Hamilton RE. The gardens are shown about 140
   metres North of the Officers' Gardens, between the current Town
   Creek and Middlegate Road. No 'Fowl Houses" appear on this plan.
   Although no huts replaced those destroyed in 1839 by the departing
   detachment of the 80th Regiment, it seems that the Soldiers'
   Gardens had been retained contrary to Bunbury's decision to destroy
   them, and to charge the troops for the supply of vegetables to
   augment their daily ration of bread and meat.

Captain Gulston, the bearer of Bunbury's Report to Sydney, had on arrival, succumbed to the same temptation as troops returning from Norfolk Island which Bunbury had proposed to circumvent by the imposition of the stoppage for vegetables in the ration, for on Bunbury's arrival in Sydney he was told that the bearer of his despatch had been frequently sent for 'but that he always appeared drunk or fuddled, being unable to give any account of himself or of the occurrence which had taken place on the island'. (38)

Could Gulston's befuddled state have been brought about by a disinclination to become involved in Bunbury's handling of the event? Strangely too, Ensign Abel Best, who meticulously maintained his diary both before and after the period of the mutiny, did not continue his daily entries over this time, stopping on 11 April 1839 and not formally resuming until 4 June 1840, by which time he was with a detachment of the 80th in New Zealand. In a general entry in his diary for 11 April 1839 to 4 June 1840 Best dismissed the mutiny, surely the most noteworthy occurrence during his time on Norfolk Island, with the words 'The mutiny of the Troops on the 1st of July has long ceased to be a subject of wonder or conversation'. (39)

It seems that Gulston was to become a victim of the mutiny. After the inquiry he was posted to Port Macquarie; where the post was no longer Commandant of the Settlement, but commander of the guard detachment. The commandant's position had been down-graded in June 1832 with the increase in the civil population in the region. Gulston's command was now one sergeant and 24 Rank and File significantly less than the subaltern, three sergeants and 128 Rank and File Bunbury had made him responsible for on Norfolk Island. A report appeared in The Australian of 18 August 1840 that Gulston was to take up a posting with the 80th in New Zealand but there is no evidence that he did so. The Monthly Return for July 1841 shows Gulston 'Absent on leave 5th May until answer to application to retire from the Service is received'. He no longer appears in the Monthly Returns from February 1842 and has no entry in the Army List in 1843 or later. It is interesting to speculate why he took this step. (40)

Major Joseph Anderson, in Sydney when the report of the mutiny was received, was questioned by Governor Gipps and the Major-General O' Connell concerning the gardens. He then become aware of suggestions that Bunbury blamed, him, his predecessor for the uprising by the men of the 80th, but no explanation was forthcoming from the O'Connell. Before Bunbury returned to Sydney on the Cornwall Anderson had taken leave to visit the sheep station in Victoria. Arriving in Melbourne by ship, he found the so-called overseer, Howell, had deserted the property with a record of alcoholism on the road with the stock, leaving the ticket-of-leave men, Underwood, Percival and Glegg, to take possession of the grant and to establish its boundaries. Anderson's confidence in these men was justified. The grant was of 85 000 acres on the banks of the Goulburn River, north of Seymour. Anderson named it "Mangalore", 'in compliment to my brother, that being the name of his military station in India, of which he was very fond' (41)

An 1891 Victorian Department of Crown Lands Parish Map of 1891 shows the land surrounding the settlement of Mangalore divided into small holdings but the name is well known to Australian military historians, originally, as the location in 1939 of 6 Ordnance Ammunition Depot AAOC, and, since August 2001, as part of the Australian Defence Industries Organisation.

When Anderson returned to Sydney from Mangalore the Courts Martial of the mutineers had been held and Anderson soon learned from friends that Bunbury, in his evidence had blamed Anderson "for the relaxed order and system and total absence of military discipline" which Anderson had allowed on Norfolk Island. Anderson's reaction can easily be imagined. He paraded to Sir Maurice O'Connell and requested an immediate Court of Inquiry into his system of command to clear his 'reputation and character'. After some prevarication O'Connell ordered a Court of Inquiry 'to inquire into the system and discipline maintained by Major Anderson during his command at Norfolk Island'. (42)

Anderson addressed the Court at some length, a week according to Bunbury, calling his Commanding Officer, the Adjutant, officers of the 50th who had served under him at Norfolk Island and others, including the Brigade Major to testify on his behalf (by this time Bunbury's friend, Snodgrass, had sold his commission and retired to his estate at Raymond Terrace). Bunbury considered the proceedings 'a laughable farce' and that during his evidence he 'had indulged in too much irony and levity to be agreeable the authorities' (43). The findings of the Court were not promulgated in the Sydney Garrison. Anderson waited for some months after his arrival in India to receive official notification from the Brigade-Major in Sydney that the findings of the Court had been concurred in by the Commander-in-Chief at the Horse Guards who directed that a severe reprimand be conveyed to Bunbury, and 'that if he again attempted to insinuate any such charges against Major Anderson he would be brought before a general court martial' (44). Bunbury makes no mention of this in his 'Reminiscences'.

Anderson made a further visit to Mangalore to check progress and on his return to Sydney was greeted with the news that the 50th was to embark for service in India. He had made the decision to settle in the Colony at the end of his service and consequently that Mrs Anderson and their family would remain in the Colony to wait his eventual return.

The Headquarters and the first division of the 50th embarked on the Crusader on 29 January 1841. Anderson, who was to accompany this division, remained on shore with his family while embarkation went on. Before embarkation was complete Anderson's two sons became ill with 'scarlatina', (scarlet fever) and the eldest son died before Anderson sailed. The younger son, Acland, survived, to be later commissioned in the 50th and ultimately to become a figure in Australian colonial military history. From Sydney the Crusader carried Anderson's division to Calcutta, the start of seven years service in India. Anderson took command of the 50th in an expeditionary force to Burma and on return to India accompanied the regiment in its redeployment to Cawnpore, travelling up the Hoogly and Ganges rivers by boat.

During the voyage the troops were forbidden to bathe in the rivers but Anderson recollected that Private Daniel Shean, who had been reformed at Norfolk Island, defied the ban on swimming and ventured into the river, and, although a strong swimmer, sank and was never seen again; 'the firm belief of every one was that he was seized and pulled under by an alligator' [sic]. (45)

Anderson assumed command of the 50th on promotion to Lieutenant Colonel on 31 January 1843 and in the Gwalior campaign he commanded a brigade at the Battle of Punniar; Anderson personally led a successful attack to take the Mahratta guns and was severely wounded. In recognition of his leadership he was created a Companion of the Order of the Bath. In January 1845, still suffering the effects of his wounds and with other injuries and illnesses, Anderson was granted two years' sick leave and returned to Sydney. At the end of the first year of leave Anderson and his wife travelled by steamer to Melbourne to determine whether they would settle there, and to visit the Mangalore station. They found the station in good shape and on return to Melbourne, before leaving for Sydney, found land suitable for a permanent residence. Anderson returned to India in August 1847, meeting the 50th as it marched into cantonments at Cawnpore. He was greeted by the regimental band which marched him into camp to the traditional Scottish air 'John Anderson My Jo' (The words for this air had been collected by Robbie Burns)

During Anderson's absence the 50th had been engaged in the battles of Moodkee, Ferozeshah, Aliwal and Sobraon and was approaching the end of its service in India. The regiment embarked for England in February 1848, and shortly after his arrival there Anderson sold out his commission, returning to join his wife and family in their Melbourne property 'Fairlie House'. He became a nominated member of the Legislative Council of Victoria 1852-1856, and died in Melbourne on 18 July 1877, his name preserved in 'Anderson Street', separating the Victorian Royal Botanic Gardens from the suburb of South Yarra. 'Fairlie Court' and 'Acland Street' run off 'Anderson Street'. (46)

Anderson's surviving son, Acland, was appointed an ensign in the 50th Regiment in April 1846 and, after service in India and New Zealand, sold his commission and retired from the British Army in March 1854. He returned to Melbourne, holding various civil and military offices until, in January 1871, he was appointed Commandant of the naval and military forces of Victoria, and gained the honour of CMG on 24 May 1878. He died at 'Fairlie House' on 23 January 1882. (47)

Bunbury remained in Sydney until April 1840. He claimed in his Reminiscences that the Governor and O'Connell had intended that he should have returned to the post of Commandant at Norfolk Island but that the Home Government had appointed the prison reformer Alexander Maconochie, a retired RN captain, as Superintendent. Bunbury's recollection of the Governor's and the Commander's intention is incorrect as Gipps had been aware, as early as 28 September 1839, before Bunbury's return to Sydney, that Maconochie had been appointed to the post. (48) Relief from the boredom of garrison life in Sydney came for Bunbury at the end of March 1840 when he was put in charge of a detachment of the 80th for service in New Zealand where the Lieutenant Governor, William Hobson, a half-pay RN captain, was beset by the agitation of too ardent land speculators and, physically, by a partial paralysis.

Bunbury was briefed by Gipps on his responsibilities in the event of Hobson succumbing to his ailment or if the latter survived; in the briefing Gipps intimated to Bunbury that should Hobson succumb Bunbury should assume the office of Acting Lieutenant Governor. On 4 April the Buffalo sailed from Sydney for New Zealand with Bunbury in command of a detachment of one captain, two subalterns, three sergeants and 80 Rank and File. The detachment reached the Bay of Islands, and on 20 April disembarked where the settlement of Russell was to be established as the proposed seat of government. Hobson's health was much improved and in May he commissioned Bunbury to sail to the South Island (then known as Middle Island) to extend British sovereignty there, and to those parts of North Island not already ceded to the Crown. On 17 June 1840, at Cloudy Bay, after a round of negotiations with Maori chiefs, Major Bunbury and Captain Nais of HMS Herald, hoisted the Colours, fired a 21 gun salute and declared British Sovereignty over the South Island of New Zealand.

His task in the South Island successfully completed Bunbury returned to Russell to find action in hand to move the seat of government to Auckland, nearer the main centres of both Maori and British settlement. Bunbury set about establishing new barracks there and took up farming in the district as a hobby. New Zealand was declared a separate colony; independent of New South Wales on 1 July 1841 and Hobson was elevated to the post of Governor. The charter of the new colony precluded the officer commanding the garrison from succeeding to the office of Governor should it become vacant; in that case the office was to be filled by the Colonial Secretary. Hobson died on 10 September and the Colonial Secretary, Willoughby Shortland, duly succeeded as Acting Governor. General O'Connell wrote from Sydney to Bunbury expressing his disappointment that the plan for Bunbury to succeed had 'been defeated by the arrangement made by the Ministry'. No doubt Bunbury was disappointed also as he would have received an additional 1000 [pounds sterling] per annum for the position.

The new Governor, Captain Robert Fitzroy RN, Charles Darwin's navigator, reached Auckland in December 1843. By that time Bunbury had already been advised of the relief of the 80th Regiment and its impending move to India. Relieved by the 96th Regiment, Bunbury and his detachment reached Sydney on 10 May 1844 and on 12 August the 80th embarked for Calcutta on the transports Royal Saxon, Briton, Lloyds, and Enmore.

Bunbury sailed with the Nos 2 and 3 Companies on the Briton; they totalled 318 all ranks, with 35 women and 43 children. The vessels took the traditional route to India--through Torres Strait, calling at Kupang and while the other vessels sailed to the west of Sumatra the Briton sailed for Singapore, watered, and headed north through the Straits of Malacca. Emerging from the Strait into the Andaman Sea the Briton was caught in a wild tropical hurricane, badly damaged and washed over a reef, through coastal mangroves to end up, on an even keel, grounded on Little Andaman Island. In the same storm the transport Runnymede, carrying troops of the 10th and 50th Regiments, with their wives and children, was beached a short distance from the Briton. Bunbury assumed command of both bodies of troops and the ships' crews, proclaiming martial law in an order of 12 November 1844 to ensure the maintenance of order and discipline.

A ship's boat from the Runnymede was despatched to the mainland and reached Mergui on the Burmese coast, opposite the Andaman Islands. There they found a small outpost of the East India Company; rescue soon followed and the detachment of the 80th eventually reached Calcutta on 17 January 1845. Bunbury submitted full reports to the Adjutant General of the Forces in India and this, along with his personal recollections of the incident, are recorded in his Reminiscences. (49)

The detachment was shipped by steamers up the Ganges to Allahabad, and then marched to Agra where it rejoined the Regiment. There Bunbury, who had been promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, succeeded on 5 October 1845, to the command of the 80th. The Regiment then marched to Umballah (now Ambala), forming part of the Army of the Sutlej. On 11 December 1845 the Sikhs crossed the Sutlej River from the Punjab and invaded British India, beginning the First Sikh War. The 80th were involved in the Battles of Moodkee (18 December 1845), where Bunbury was wounded in the knee, and Ferozeshah (21/22 December 1845); Here two officers of Australian interest were killed, Captain A D W Best, whose diary recorded much of the activities of the 80th in Sydney, on Norfolk Island and in New Zealand, and Captain R Sherberras, the first commandant of the 80th's detachment at the Towrang stockade on the Great South Road. The last engagement of the 80th in this war was Sobraon where Bunbury was awarded the CB for his leadership.

Suffering with his knee and from tropical illnesses, Bunbury was granted two years sick leave in England. There in August 1846 he drew the Duke of Wellington's attention to the fact that, contrary to a recent statement by the Duke in the House of Lords, his (Bunbury's) conduct in the shipwrecks of the Briton and Runnymede had not been recognised in any way. The Duke's response was terse, he 'declined to discuss with any gentleman what is reported to have passed in debate in the House of Parliament of which he is a member' and that if Bunbury had reason to complain he should make a representation to the Commander-in-Chief. At that time the C-in-C was Wellington himself. Bunbury admitted he had received his 'quietus'. (50)

He returned to India to rejoin his regiment at Dinapore but quickly decided to sell his commission and to retire. Bunbury appeared at a farewell parade of the 80th on 31 December when he presented a new set of Colours to the regiment. On his return to England he married, and saw out the rest of his life quietly. Following his death at Regents Park, London, on 25 December 1861, his medals and awards were preserved with the memorial to the 80th in Litchfield Cathedral. (51)

The 80th Regiment returned to Britain in June 1854 after an absence of eighteen years.

What caused the mutiny? Peter Stanley, in his article, has attributed the occurrence to a growing awareness among the troops of a right to protest against their perceived injustices, engendered by the increasing urban discontent in industrial England where the 80th had served to control disturbances in the Midlands in 1831 and 1834. To assess the likelihood of the spirit of protest being taken up by the troops it would be necessary to examine the composition of the regiment's manpower; how many were dispossessed weavers, how many were agricultural labourers? This would require a detailed examination of the personnel records of the mutinous detachment, a task beyond resources in Australia.

Thomas Bunbury claimed the mutiny was caused by 'the relaxed state of order and system and total absence of military discipline' during Anderson's administration; in other words that the cause was the result of unsatisfactory man-management. To make an assessment of whether the mutiny of the 80th on Norfolk Island could be attributed to indifferent man-management it is necessary to compare the careers and experience of both Anderson and Bunbury, and their administrations on the island. Elements of the 80th which had reached the island from September 1838, had, of course, been under Anderson's command until Bunbury's arrival in late February 1839.

Anderson had joined the Army at the age of fifteen and his initial regimental training in the ranks with recruits remained sufficiently in his memory to warrant a mention of it in his Recollections. Did he gain any understanding of soldiers' outlook from what must have been a relatively short period before assuming his position as a junior officer? He served at Maida, in Egypt, and in the Peninsula with British troops, recalling, in later life an incident in the advance from the Lines of Torres Vedras which he considered proof of the good character of the British soldier'. His service with a penal regiment in the West Indies brought him into contact with a different type of soldier. The York Chasseurs 'had a bad name, but improved into an efficient and well-conducted unit and did creditable service in the West Indies'. (52) Good leadership must have been responsible for that.

Joseph Anderson served again in the West Indies with the 50th Regiment, including tours of duty with detachments in localities remote from the main body of the Regiment and, in the case of Port Maria, at a notoriously pestilential station, where he took active steps to maintain the health of his troops. During his service in Britain and in the West Indies he held appointments as Acting Brigade Major, Acting Paymaster, Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General, and, on two occasions in the West Indies, as Deputy Judge Advocate, which would have given him experience in the system of discipline in the British Army., in both a penal and a line regiment.

At Norfolk Island Anderson recognised the problems likely to rise from the lack of off-duty amenities for his troops and sought and obtained authority for single soldiers as well as married men to be allowed gardens. His scheme to rehabilitate military prisoners brought results in the case of the ill-fated Daniel Shean and probably an unknown number of others. His understanding of his civil prisoners is evinced by his involvement of the three ex-convicts in the establishment of the property at Mangalore.

Bunbury, too, had joined the Army as a youth of sixteen years and had served with the Buffs at the crossing of the Douro at Oporto and at Talavera (28 July 1809). Thereafter he served in the Portuguese Army for ten years, until 1820. He joined the 80th at Malta in 1822 and from 1828 to 1837 served in England and Ireland, ultimately reaching Norfolk Island in February 1839. One of his first actions on taking over command from Anderson was to 'order the military duties to be carried out by the next senior officer, Captain Gulston'. Archdeacon McEncroe wrote in relationship to the mutiny, that 'Unfortunately the Captain immediately in command of the military had as little sense, steadiness or temperance as our redoubtable Superintendent of Convicts. The men had little respect for him and the Major could place no trust in him; the soldiers were discontented with him and they wished for an opportunity of stating their grievances; but they loved and respected Major Bunbury, who they said "was a soldier every inch of him".' (53)

Gulston had limited experience; he entered the regiment as an ensign by purchase in 1832, promoted lieutenant by purchase in 1834 and a captain, again by purchase, on 23 June 1838, while serving at Berrima with a guard detachment of one subaltern, two sergeants and 30 Rank and File on the Great South Road. Bunbury must have had some knowledge of Gulston's character and they had arrived on Norfolk together. (54) To have given him complete control for the administration of the garrison was a questionable decision, due, perhaps to Bunbury's determination to establish a name for himself by making the island self-sufficient. Under these circumstances his attempt to lay blame on Anderson who had only a small number of the 80th under his control for five months is untenable.

There can be little doubt that the cause of the mutiny was the reaction of the troops, who had paid, as they understood for the gardens and the huts, not merely for the crops growing in them as directed in Anderson's Garrison Order of 8 May 1835, and to Bunbury's arbitrary decision to remove the garden huts, destroy the gardens and to impose a pay-stoppage for the supply of vegetables. To have repromulgated Anderson's Garrison Order of May 1835 after the event was futile; rather his soldiers should have had the order drawn to their attention prior to taking over the gardens; nor can his reason of a stoppage of pay for vegetables as a method of controlling drunkenness by troops returning to Sydney be considered as other than flimsy and thoughtless.

Bunbury's attitude towards his troops can be assessed from part of his Report to Gipps 'your Excellency is aware that it is not the Sudden and Capricious bursts of Vigour which forms Discipline, but a steady healthy degree of tension as such although an occasional relaxation may be permitted; with the English Soldier, if we wish to study his happiness the reins must not be held too loosely' (55)

Of the two officers, Bunbury's man-management style was Wellingtonian; Anderson seems to have leaned more towards that of his fellow-Scot, Sir John Moore, who inspired so many officers of the Light Division in the Peninsular War and later.

Both Anderson and Bunbury left accounts of their services which have been drawn upon as the principal sources for this article. Anderson's, not published until 1913, edited by his grandson, Captain Acland Anderson, ex-3rd Dragoon Guards, is a selection from a 'narrative written only for his family' so it is a very stereotyped account of his Recollections. Bunbury's Reminiscences of a veteran, published in 1861, appeared during the last year of his life. It seems not to have suffered any editing by heirs or successors and depicts more of the character of the writer than Anderson's Recollections. Bunbury identified his 'pugnacious propensities'; at an early age and that characteristic is reflected through-out the three volumes of his Reminiscences. There can be no doubt that Bunbury displayed decisiveness when needed, in both the mutiny and the shipwreck, but it is difficult to assess him, from his Reminiscences, as other than a vain officer who was indifferent to the well-being of his troops.

I wish to thank Dr Peter Stanley, Principal Historian, Australian War Memorial, and the staffs of The National Archives of Australia and the State Archives, Tasmania for their assistance in the preparation of this article. It is surprising that the mutiny of the guard detachment in July 1839 has not received more publicity; it was, as far as can be determined, the only mutiny of troops of the British garrison during their service in Australia. The Monthly Return for June 1855 shows a 23 man detachment of the 99th Regiment at that station, but the Monthly Returns from August of that year do not show any troops at Norfolk Island.

(1) Lt Colonel Joseph Anderson CB KH, 1913 Recollections of a peninsular veteran, Edward Arnold, London; Lt Col Thomas Bunbury CB, 1861, Reminiscences of a veteran, Charles J Skeet, Charing Cross. These works are hereafter referred to as 'Anderson' and 'Bunbury' respectively.

(2) Anderson, pp. 54-59.

(3) W J Baldrey, 1937, 'Disbanded Regiments', Journal Of The Society For Army Historical Research, London, Vol XIV, p. 235.

(4) At the time of Anderson's appointments the presiding officer of General Courts Martial held the title of Judge Advocate. He was the prosecutor, drafting the charge/s and producing the witnesses to support the charge/s; he was the expert who gave advice on points of law raised by members of the Court; he guided them on forms of proceedings and on the legality of final sentences and judgement. In addition, by general and accepted practice, he assisted the prisoner in the conduct of his defence. See--Richard Glover, 1963, Peninsular Preparation, the Reform Of The British Army 1798-1809, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp. 172-174.

(5) P L Brown (ed), 1986, Memoirs Recorded at Geelong, Victoria, Australia by Captain Foster Fyans (1790-1870), Geelong, Geelong Advertiser, p. 125; WO 17/2318, July 1834.

(6) Brown, p. 122.

(7) Goderich to Bourke, 24 Feb 1832, HRA I, XVI, pp. 528-529; Anderson, p. 167.

(8) Dr W B Ullathorne, 1837, The Catholic Mission To Australia, Ed 2, Rochliff & Duckworth, Liverpool, p. 43.

(7) James Backbouse, 1843, Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies, Hamilton , Adams & Co, York, pp. 252, 289-290.

(10) Reverend Thomas Atkins, 1869, Reminiscences of Twelve Years' Residence in Tasmania and New South Wales, Malvern, England, p. 45.

(11) Ibid, p.57; Colin Roderick, 1963, John Knatchbull from Quarterdeck to Gallows, Angus and Robertson, Sydney, pp. 156-240.

(12) Earl Bathurst to Sir Thomas Brisbane, 22 July 1824, HRA 1, Vol 11, p. 321; Brisbane to Under Secretary Horton 24 March 1825, HRA I, Vol 11, p. 553.

(13) Anderson, p. 179-180.

(14) Bunbury, Vol I, p. 2.

(15) Ibid, pp. 48-49.

(16) Charles Oman MA, 1903, A History of the Peninsular War, Vol II, Clarendon Press, Oxford, p. 218.

(17) Cacadores were Light Infantry, employed in the same role as British Light Infantry Regiments.

(18) Bunbury, Vol I, p.264.

(19) ibid, p.284.

(20) James M Anderson, 2000, The History of Portugal, Greenwood Press, Westport, USA, p.130; Bunbury, Vol II, p. 74, 79.

(21) Bunbury, Vol II, p. 79.

(22) Ibid, p. 145.

(23) Ibid, p. 244; James P Jones, 1923, A History of the South Staffordshire Regiment (1705-1923), Whitehead Brothers, Wolverhampton, p. 54.

(24) Bunbury, Vol II, p. 268.

(25) Oman, Vol V, pp. 20,25.

(26) Nancy M Taylor (ed), The Journal of Ensign Best 1837-1843, 1996, R E Owen, Wellington, NZ, p. 182. Referred to hereafter as 'Best'.

(27) Bunbury, Vol II, p. 292.

(28) Bunbury, Report to Major General SirM O Connell, 23 July 1839, p. 142. Enclosure to Despatch No 127 Sir George Gipps to Marquess of Normanby, 14 Sep 1839, HRA I, Vol XX, pp. 352-354; AJCP CO 201/287; this Report referred to subsequently as Bunbury, Report.

(29) Bunbury, Report p. 141; copy of Garrison Order of 1 July 1839 attached as Annex to Bunbury's Report, p, 150.

(30) Bunbury, Report, p 146.

(31) Horse Guards to Secretary at War, 27 December 1839, CO 201/303, f 317-326

(32) R A Daly, 1959, Archdeacon McEncroe On Norfolk Island, 1838-42, Australasian Catholic Record, Vol XXXVI, No 4, p. 285-305.

(33) Bunbury Report, p.145-147.

(34) HRA, I, Vol XX, pp. 352-4; Bunbury's detachment was 138 All Ranks including Bunbury, Ryan's detachment was 176 strong; see WO 17/2323-4.

(35) Gipps to Normanby, 24 October 1839, HRA I, XX, p. 372.

(36) Best, p. 213; WO 90/2, f20; Bunbury, Vol 3, pp. 30-37; The mutineers sentenced to transportation for life were: Privates Michael Moore, Ralph Ord, William Langston, P--Irons, Benjamin Perkins, Richard Callaghan, James Kernahan; Archibald Murray was sentenced to 14 years transportation.

(37) Best, p. 213.

(38) Bunbury, Vol 3, pp. 19-20.

(39) Best, p. 213: History Of The South Staffordshire Regiment, p. 55.

(40) WO 17/2325.

(41) Anderson, p. 178-187.

(42) Ibid, pp. 188-189; quotes are Anderson's own.

(43) Bunbury, Vol 3, pp. 38-39.

(44) Anderson, pp. 191-192.

(45) Ibid, p. 222.

(46) ADB, Vol I, entry for Joseph Anderson.

(47) Ibid, Vol 3, entry for William Acland Douglas Anderson.

(48) Bunbury, Vol 3, p. 41;Gipps to Normanby, HRA I, XX, p. 400.

(49) Bunbury, Vol 3, pp. 208-244.

(50) Ibid, pp. 322-326.

(51) Frederic Boase, Modern English Biography, 1892, reprinted Frank Cass & Co, 1965.

(52) Cecil C P Lawson, A History Of the Uniforms Of The British Army, London, 1967, Kaye & Lord Ltd, Vol V, p. 152.

(53) Bunbury, Vol 2, p. 300; Daly, p.293; for information on the Superintendent of Convicts see also p.293.

(54) British Army Lists; Gulston disappeared from the Lists in 1843, his 'intemperance' probably proved too much for the Regiment.

(55) Bunbury, Report, pp. 145-6.