Court of inquiry as to my management of Norfolk Island—Major Bunbury reprimanded by Commander-in-Chief at the Horse Guards for his unfounded charges

I SHOULD have mentioned sooner that when I left Sydney a dispatch was received by the major-general commanding from Major Bunbury, reporting a serious outbreak and mutiny amongst his detachment at Norfolk Island, and that Sir Maurice O’Connell had determined to relieve the 80th at once from Norfolk Island by an equal number again of the 50th Regiment. I was sent for by the governor, and also by the general; and although they gave me no particulars of Major Bunbury’s dispatch, I was asked many questions about the soldiers’ gardens, when and why they were given to the men, and my opinion respecting them. All this I explained, and said they were established by me with the authority and approval of the late governor, Sir Richard Bourke, as a means not only of amusement and employment for the soldiers on the settlement, but also in order to give them a constant supply of good vegetables. I was then told by the general that he was determined to relieve Major Bunbury and to send Major Ryan in command. I was not allowed to know more, but I heard it whispered that the outbreak was in consequence of Major Bunbury depriving the soldiers of their gardens and ordering them to be charged a trifle daily for vegetables from the Government gardens, and that, the soldiers having resisted, he actually sent gangs of convicts to root up and destroy the gardens, which at once made the soldiers fly to their arms and drive the convicts away, in open defiance of Major Bunbury’s presence and authority. It was also hinted that he blamed me for all this in having granted these gardens to the soldiers, which he considered contrary to, and subversive of, good order and discipline.

Having heard these whispers, I called upon the general and requested I might be informed whether Major Bunbury had attempted to blame me for the open defiance of his authority by his own men. The general again said he could not then enter into any further explanation, but that I should hear all when Major Bunbury returned; I was therefore obliged to be satisfied so far, and I took my leave. Meantime a ship was chartered and ready to take Major Ryan and his detachment to Norfolk Island, and she was to be escorted by H.M.S. Rattlesnake, to force a landing if necessary. In a few days I left Sydney, and did not go back for ten days after Major Bunbury had returned, and the first news I heard was that he had not confined nor punished even one man for the mutiny, which displeased the general very much. Fifteen soldiers were then arrested as the ringleaders and placed in confinement, and in due course were brought to trial charged with mutiny. They were all found guilty and sentenced to transportation for life. I was also informed that Major Bunbury, in his evidence, did not hesitate to blame me for all these irregularities, and for the insubordination and mutiny of his own men! which he stated were the result of “the relaxed order and system and total absence of military discipline” which I had allowed on the island. This was the substance of his evidence, and as I was absent from Sydney during the sitting of the court-martial, my friends took care to tell me of it on my return.

I went at once to Sir Maurice O’Connell and complained, and I requested an immediate court of inquiry into my system and the efficiency or otherwise of my command. The general hesitated, and said he saw no necessity for any such inquiry, as he was perfectly satisfied; but I said I was not, and that as every one had heard Major Bunbury’s serious charges against me, it was no more than justice to me, and to my reputation and character as an officer, that an immediate inquiry should take place. He then consented to order a court of inquiry, and next day Lieut.-Colonel French, Major Cotton, and a major whose name I forget, were named for this duty, and directed to “inquire into the system and discipline maintained by Major Anderson during his command at Norfolk Island.”

I was allowed to make a statement in detail of my system, daily duties, and discipline. I then called in succession Captains Petit, Fothergill, and Lieutenants Sheaffe and Needham, who served for years with me on the island, and each of these officers stated to the court “that no commanding officer could have been more zealous and attentive to his own duties and to the efficiency of his detachment; that his parades were regular every morning and evening; that the conduct of the detachment was so uniformly good and regular that not more than two or three soldiers were brought to trial while the 50th was at Norfolk Island; that the detachment was inspected once a month, and the barracks and messes were regularly visited by Major Anderson; that if possible he was too strict rather than too easy with his officers and men.” Major Bunbury was allowed to cross-examine each of these officers, but could get nothing from them in support of his unfounded charges. The next officer called was Colonel Woodhouse, commanding the 50th Regiment, who informed the court that he “always considered Major Anderson an able and efficient officer, that he received constant reports of the good conduct and discipline of his detachment, and that whenever he had any troublesome officers or soldiers he always sent them to Norfolk Island to be schooled by Major Anderson.” The next called was Lieutenant and Adjutant Tudor, who spoke to the same effect. Last of all I called Major Hunter, the major of brigade in Sydney, and he stated that nothing could have been more satisfactory than the official reports from Norfolk Island, and that he had heard from many that the detachment was considered to be in the highest possible state of good order and discipline. I here declined calling any more evidence.

Major Bunbury was then requested to state whether he wished to say anything more, or to call any evidence. He first recalled Captains Petit and Fothergill, and asked them whether they did not think the giving of gardens to the soldiers injurious to military discipline and to their drill and proper appearance as soldiers; they said, “Certainly not.” He next asked them whether the soldiers did not sell their gardens to their successors. They answered that they sold their crops, which they themselves had grown and laboured for, but not their gardens. He then called in one or two of his own sergeants, but the only thing he could get out of them was that the soldiers of the 80th Regiment had paid the soldiers of the 50th for the gardens, and therefore considered them their private property. Major Bunbury declined to call in any of his own officers. After some further debate the proceedings were closed. Here we were all ordered to withdraw, and the court was closed for the recording of its final opinion.

I was not then allowed to know what that was, but from the clear and most satisfactory evidence which had been given on my behalf there could only be one opinion on the subject, and it was certainly a most gratifying victory. A few days more confirmed this view of the case. I therefore went to the general and said that I had waited patiently, expecting he would publicly promulgate the opinion of the court of inquiry, but to my surprise he said he saw no necessity for doing so. I told him this did not at all satisfy me, that I felt I had a right to request he would promulgate the opinion of the court, but all my endeavours to this effect failed. I then asked him if I was at liberty to proclaim the substance of my present interview with him. He said, “Most certainly,” and on the same day I took care to do so. From that day I had no further intercourse with Major Bunbury.

Many months afterwards, while in India, I received an official notification from the major of brigade in Sydney that the Commander-in-Chief at the Horse Guards had approved of the proceedings of the court of inquiry, and had directed the major-general commanding in Sydney to convey a severe reprimand to Major Bunbury, and to inform him that “if he attempted again to insinuate any such charges against Major Anderson he would be brought before a general court-martial.”