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Group Temp
This photograph is in SLWA.
The SLWA accessions librarian names it thus: 6909B/141: Enrolled Pensioner Force, Perth, ca. 1868, but it is not a group of EPG. The entry continues:
| Call Number | 6909B/141 |
| Physical description | 1 photograph : black and white ; 18 x 22 cm. |
| Series | Stone album of photographs of early Perth and Fremantle ; 6909B/141 |
| Notes | Title devised by cataloguer. Caption in album not in the photographer's hand: Enrolled Pensioner Force. |
| Publications | Published in Court & Camera : the life & times of A. H. Stone by J. O'Brien & P. Statham-Drew (2012), pp. 82-83. |
| Summary | Veterans of the British Army who were enrolled to be guards for the convicts sent to Western Australia. |
I don't think it was taken by Alfred Stone. And the photo may not have been taken in Western Australia. Also, the EPG were not 'enrolled to be guards' – they were on the army roll of men who received a pension, usually because they had been injured, and were employed as guards.
What follows are comments from people who are more or less experts in British uniforms, in an attempt to identify the men. I don't give the experts' names because I don't have their permission to publish their comments. With a meaningless title I'm hoping this page will remain undiscovered.
English expert
What a wonderful photograph! I am tolerably certain that it does show British Army officers, wearing the 1856-pattern Undress uniform, posing outside a building the door of which is labelled "Adjutant's Department". The chap with the leather cross-belt is the regimental surgeon. There seem to be two different badges represented on the forage caps, both a crowned and an uncrowned strung bugle with a trefoil knot - but one may simply be a variant of the other, and all from the same regiment. The number of officers is approximately the full strength of a wing (half) of a single battalion. As you say, the devices are not clear enough for a specific identification, but if the location and approximate date is known (1856-1868 for certain, by the uniforms), the chances are that only one or two Light Infantry or Rifle regiments fit the bill (the strung bugle is emblematic of such regiments). In the absence of more medal ribbons, I would guess this is not a regiment which served in the Crimea, which most Light Infantry regiments did, so we should be able to narrow it down to one without too much effort. Can you tell me which LI or Rifle regiments were in WA in the period in question? Were there any locally raised units that might have worn uniforms that matched regular army ones?
[Correspondent:] I then supplied the regiments in WA during that period: 12th regiment (one company) and 14th regiment (two companies). I had the names and ranks of the officers and there were 14 all up, including two assistant surgeons and one staff surgeon.
He then responded with:
Well, neither the 12th nor the 14th ever wore cap badges remotely resembling these. Also, judging by the age and corpulence of the majority of the officers depicted, I am tolerably certain that this does not show a group of young Captains, Lieutenants and Ensigns, but a wider range of long-serving regimental officers including Quartermasters, Paymasters and so on. There are eighteen commissioned officers of the British Army in this photograph, probably representing at least four companies plus a smattering of regimental staff. Given the data you have provided, we have to question the premise that the photograph was taken in WA at all.
WA expert
Just a few comments and an idea.
(1) The location of the building (adjutant’s office) is unknown to me. Could be Perth or Fremantle.
(2) The picture was taken because the occasion was of some import – these men are all officers and there are a couple obviously posing, or rather in positions where they are pretending to ‘fool around’ at the front.
(3) I would be willing to bet it is an important ‘arrival in the colonies’ or ‘departure from the colonies ‘ photo and that it shows a very senior officer (ie, an arriving or departing officer-in-command of the forces in Australia and New Zealand) along with an entourage consisting of a couple of senior regimental officers plus his ‘general staff’, such as adjutants, quartermasters, commissary officers, surgeons, the provost marshal, an ADC or two and so on.
(4) Perth was a stopover point for military commanders en route from Britain to the military establishment headquarters in Melbourne and from there to the campaigning zone in New Zealand. There are several possible candidates and dates for such an arrival or departure photo for a general and his chums to be staged. As follows. Firstly, General Thomas Pratt – arrived 1856, left 1861. Secondly, General Duncan Cameron – arrived 1861, left 1865. Thirdly, General Trevor Chute – arrived to be the boss in Melbourne 1861, took over in New Zealand from Cameron in 1865, left for Britain in 1870.
In other words, the years 1856, 1861, 1865 and 1870 are all possible. I think 1856 would be too early – the photo is a fine one and must have been taken when Alfred Stone was fully in command of his craft.
If the commanding general is in the photo, which man is he? I have attached photos of generals Pratt and Cameron. Both of them had more or less completely white air when the images were taken. That brings into play the white-haired officer standing up and pointing in the posed and jokey bit of the photo. Generals too could be ‘one of the boys’ when everyone was in relaxation mode.
However, there is another very promising candidate. Check out the heavily built, short, bushy bearded, squat looking man slouched low in his chair in the middle of the front row. I think his sword is also draped across his knees or whatever. He is certainly more or less dead centre in the front row.
Now, I have not been able to track down an image of General Trevor Chute, but he was described as being a ‘short legged man, with shaggy, square, masculine head and powerful body’. That beard is a giveaway. People nicknamed him the ‘Kerry Bull’.
To sum up, I think the balance of probabilities favour Chute as the man in the photo and that it was taken at the time of his departure from the colonies in 1870. He was too junior in rank to have been at the centre of things in 1861.
I would suggest that you forward these comments to your contact in Britain and ask what he thinks. Also, could you give him my compliments and ask him from me (and you) if he knows of any photo of General Chute? I have been curious about aspects of Chute’s career for some time. This photo could be of broader than usual interest to military history folk in Britain.
References and Links
tba
This page incorporates material from Garry Gillard's Freotopia website, that he started in 2014 and the contents of which he donated to Wikimedia Australia in 2024. The content was originally created on 23 May, 2024 and hosted at freotopia.org/organisations/grouptemp.html (it was last updated on 23 May, 2024), and has been edited since it was imported here (see page history). The donated data is also preserved in the Internet Archive's collection.