Shownotes - consuleng.com.au

Sir Peter
Scratchley
Engineer,
Soldier,
Administrator
Career
Born Paris
Educated Paris & Woolwich
Royal Engineer
Served Crimea & Indian Mutiny
Several tours of duty in Australia (1860,
1877)
To Victoria in 1860 to plan a system of
defence
After 1870, Jervois & Scratchley advise on
defence
Jervois-Scratchley Reports of 1877
Robert Cornelis Napier,
1st Baron Napier of Magdala
20 December 1855: Akbarpur Here I am again on the march, again
'knocking about' the country. No more halting idly at Cawnpore, but
tramping along the road, with the rumble of guns and the playing of
bands, and no end of dust, of pitching and unpitching of tents, and
wondering where the enemy is, and how many guns he has here or
there, and seeing the country — all that makes up active
campaigning. I still say 'a soldier's life is the life for me', and I am
very jolly.
I will introduce you to our little column. First on the march you will
meet the fine blue-coated Afghan and Sikh troopers of the 1st
Punjab Cavalry; next you will mark the sheen of the lances of three
squadrons (not 300 men tho') of the gallant H.M.'s 9th Light
Dragoons. Then will come rumbling along the five guns of Blunt's
Troop of Horse Artillery, followed by the six heavier ones of
Bourchier's Light Field Battery. Then you will be very pleased to
observe two intelligent-looking officers of Engineers (Scratchley
R.E. and Lang B.E.) followed by 25 Royal and 25 Bengal Sappers.
Charles Hall - 38th Foot – 1855-64
Australian Achievements
Founded Corps of Engineers, Victoria
1860
Forts on:
Bare Island, NSW
Fort Scratchley, Newcastle
Fort Lytton Qld
Fort Glanville, SA
Fort Queenscliff, Vic
Corps of Victorian
Volunteer Engineers
Scratchley played a central role
Present at Duke of Rothesay Hotel,
Elizabeth Street on 7 November 1860
where the formation of the corps was first
discussed
He made many valuable suggestions for
the government of the corps
Corps Regulations gazetted in March
1861
Jervois-Scratchley reports
1877
Basis defence planning in Australia & NZ
for 30 years
Colonial defences on one model with
slight variations
Wealthier colonies higher proportion of
permanent soldiers and militia
Smaller colonies more volunteers
Sea port fortifications
Sir William
Francis
Drummond
Jervois,
GCMG, CB
(1821-1897)
Fort Lytton built 1880-1881
Engineers
manning a
searchlight
at Fort Lytton
in the 1930s
Fort Glanville 1931
Fort Glanville –the 10-inch gun
Fort Jervois, Ripapa Is,
Port Lyttleton NZ
Bare Island, 1885, by colonial architect,
James Barnet (1827-1904)
I was much surprised at the fortifications of Sydney
Harbour. Fortifications, unless specially inspected,
escape even a vigilant seer of sights, but I, luckily
for myself, was enabled specially to inspect
them…there were open batteries and casemated
batteries, shell rooms and gunpowder magazines,
barracks rising here and trenches dug there. There
was a boom to be placed across the harbour, and a
whole world of torpedoes ready to be sunk beneath
the water… in viewing these fortifications, I was
especially struck by the loveliness of the sites
chosen. One would almost wish to be a gunner for
the sake of being at one of these forts.
Anthony Trollope
Fort Scratchley 1975
Port Phillip
Defended by a battery and keep at Queenscliff
Fort at Point Nepean
Batteries at Swan Island & South Channel
Island.
Guns placed by 1886 at Fort Nepean
1888 Eagles Nest battery implemented
New barracks erected at Fort Nepean
Fort Pearce completed 1910-1916
Principles
Land defence works near key ports
Advocated torpedoes for offence and
submarine mines for defence
Supported the obstruction of shipping
channels
Argued for a limited number of paid
volunteers, sufficient to repel minor
invasions
At sea he favoured floating batteries rather
than ironclads
In 1863, he returned to England taking with
him his new bride Laura Lilias, the sister of
Thomas Alexander Browne (the novelist,‘Rolf
Boldrewood’).
New Guinea
Special Commissioner
6 Nov 1884 - 2 Dec 1885 Peter Henry
Scratchley
(from 1885, Sir Peter)
Taking possession of New Guinea - Sir
Peter Scratchley, the High Commissioner,
and his party (1885)
Scratchley's Camp, Aroa
River, Redscar Bay 1885
Sir Peter Scratchley's casket lying in state
at his home in St Kilda, 1885
Funeral of Sir Peter Scratchley
1886
His Ideas
Resisted the formation of a military caste
in Australia
Compromised with the popular wish for
economy in defence expenditure
Gave promise of a humanitarian attitude
in New Guinea - administration quite out
of keeping with his orthodox image
Cycas scratchleyana
The Royal United Services Institute
of Victoria Inc
Library
Further Reading
Major General R.R. McNicoll, Ubique: The
Royal Australian Engineers 1835 to 1902,
Canberra: RAE Corps Committee, 1977
R. B. Joyce, 'Scratchley, Sir Peter Henry
(1835 - 1885)', Australian Dictionary of
Biography, Volume 6, Melbourne University
Press, 1976, pp 98-99
Kinloch-Cooke, Clement, Sir, Australian
Defences and New Guinea: compiled from
the papers of the late Major-General Sir
Peter Scratchley,1887.
Further Reading
SCRATCHLEY, P. (By Mr G. Seymour
Fort, Private Secretary). Report on British
New Guinea, from data and notes by the
late Sir Peter Scratchley, Her Majesty’s
Special Commissioner, Brisbane 1886
Further Research
Australian Archives –New Guinea papers
and correspondence
Queensland Archives – will
Research articles on New Guinea
Private Records in PRO UK
1888 Map of London Water Supply