Bermuda Militia Artillery - Foundation

Foundation

Although Bermuda had maintained its own militias (in which all able-bodied, adult males, free or enslaved, were required to serve) since colonisation officially began in 1612, with the build up of the Royal Naval Dockyard, and the attendant Regular Army garrison, the Government of Bermuda quickly lost interest in funding a militia that seemed superfluous. Following the American War of 1812, it ceased to renew the Militia acts, and the military reserve was allowed to lapse. For the next eight decades, the Secretary of State for War, and the Governor of Bermuda implored the local government in vain to raise a military reserve force as vast funds were channelled into building up the colony's defences. The colonial government, however, feared being saddled with the entire cost of maintaining the garrison, and was also concerned of the social discord that would result from raising either racially integrated or segregated units.

Bermuda's new tourism industry, pioneered in the latter 19th Century by luminaries such as Princess Louise and Samuel Clemens, provided the Secretary of State with the leverage to compel the colonial government. He withheld his approval of American investment into the new Princess Hotel and the dredging of the shipping channel into St. George's Harbour as the first could provide a pretext for invasion (by the USA, to protect the interests of its nationals), and the latter would make it easier for an enemy force to invade. The Secretary wrote that he could not approve either project while Bermuda contributed nothing to her own defence. accordingly, the Parliament of Bermuda passed three acts authorising the creation of voluntary, part-time artillery, rifle, and sappers-and-miners (engineers) units. A unit of engineers, the Bermuda Volunteer Engineers, would not be raised for another four decades.

The Bermuda Militia Artillery (BMA), however, was raised in 1895. Although it was titled as a militia, it was in practice a voluntary organisation, akin to those of the Volunteer Force raised as a part-time, home defence force in Britain following the Crimean War. At the time, there had been fears in Britain of a French invasion, and the Volunteer Force was required due to the overseas commitments of the Regular Army.

Historically, the Militia Artillery (in Britain and in Bermuda) had been seen as the most critical component. The Militia Infantry would meet to train annually, or be called out upon an emergency. Standing units of the Militia Artillery, however, maintained the coastal artillery defences, which guarded against attacks that might come at any time. Also, the skills of the artilleryman required more training to acquire and maintain, and annual training camps were not sufficient, which also lead to more emphasis being placed on the artillery. Advances in weaponry and tactics, by the mid-19th Century, had actually increased the importance of artillery.

At the time of the threat of French invasion, with the immediate demand for artillery defences, the number of Militia Artillery units was increased by re-tasking and re-training Militia Infantry units. By the end of the century, the main body of the infantry reserve force in Britain was made up of Volunteer Force rifle units. The remaining militia units were mostly concerned with artillery. The titling of the Bermudian reserve as the Bermuda Militia Artillery, rather than the more accurate Bermuda Volunteer Artillery, therefore followed the practice then current in Britain for similar units.

In 1908, the Volunteer Force would be merged with the remaining militia and yeomanry regiments to create the Territorial Force (now the Territorial Army), which introduced terms-of-service, among other changes (previously, a volunteer could quit his unit with fourteen days notice, except while embodied for an annual camp or during an emergency, or wartime).

The other volunteer unit raised at the same time as the BMA, the Bermuda Volunteer Rifle Corps BVRC), restricted its recruitment to whites, and the BMA was made up almost entirely of blacks, although its officers were white. Although BVRC recruits, originally, could quit their corps with fourteen days notice, as with UK volunteer rifle regiments, BMA recruits enlisted for six years. After 27 days of basic training, they were liable only to attend annual camp. While in camp, they were subject to the Army Act, and military law. The BMA wore the standard Royal Artillery uniform, and cap badge.

Soldiers were originally recruited on a voluntary basis, though conscription was introduced during the Second World War, and re-introduced during the 1950s. Small contingents were sent to England in 1897, to take part in Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee, and in 1902, for the coronation of King Edward VII. At the first camp, in 1896, the unit had a single company with a strength of 10 men and three officers. A second company was added as its strength grew to more than 200 over the next decade, but, as recruitment fell, its numbers dropped below 100 men again by 1914. The unit was already embodied for annual camp when war was declared in 1914.