After forty years of searching, the Palmerston Forts Society has managed to acquire an original copy of the report of the 1859 Royal Commission.  The PFS have decided to make it freely available as a digital document:

Here is some background to the Royal Commission and why it is so important to anyone interested in the system of fortifications known as the Palmerston Forts.

In 1859 the fear of imminent invasion was such that the Government took decisive actions that were to have a huge impact to the United Kingdom’s defence capabilities for the remainder of the century. Firstly, on 12^th May 1859, the Secretary of State for War (Lt General Jonathan Peel) authorised the County Lord Lieutenants to form the Volunteer Army. Secondly, on the 20^th August, the Secretary of State for War (Sidney Herbert), under Prime Minister Lord Palmerston, ordered “The Royal Commission on the Defence of the United Kingdom”.  The Royal Commission was asked to investigate the:

 “… present state, condition and sufficiency of the Fortifications existing for the Defence of Our United Kingdom, and examination had into all Works at present in progress for the improvement thereof, and consideration given to the most effectual means of rendering the same complete, especially to all such Works of Defence as are intended for the protection of Our Royal Arsenals and Dockyards, in case of any hostile attack being made by foreign enemies both by sea and land.”

The Commissioners appointed to this task were:

• Major-General Sir Harry David Jones.
• Major-General Duncan Alexander Cameron.
• Rear-Admiral George Elliot.
• Major-General Frederick Abbott.
• Captain Astley Copper Key RN.
• Lt-Colonel John Henry Lefroy RA.
• James Fergusson Esq.

The Commissioners were ably assisted by their secretary, Assistant to the Inspector-General Fortifications, Major William Francis Drummond Jervois RE.

On the 7^th February 1860 the Commissioners published the report of their findings and recommendations.  In summary, the report called for an estimated total of £11,850,000 to be spent to provide new and improved defensive works at Portsmouth, Plymouth, Pembroke, Portland, Thames, Medway & Sheerness, Chatham, Woolwich, Dover and Cork. These works were to mount an additional 3,721 guns and accommodate and extra 30,580 men.

This huge proposed expenditure was seen by many as being excessive. Before the report was presented to Parliament as a Bill for debate, the following recommendations were cut from the proposal:

• Floating defences.
• The Armaments (which were to be covered by other budgets once technology advancements had been approved).
• Portsmouth – Two of the Spithead Works and part of the Gosport Advanced Position.
• Plymouth – The inner Northeast Defence Line and some Breakwater works.
• Pembrooke – A number of land works.
• Medway – Grain Spit Fort.
• Woolwich – All proposals.

Taking into account the moneys already budgeted in the 1860 expenditure for fortifications and also additions at Dover and the site for a Central Arsenal, the revised estimated cost was brought down to £8,720,000

Once debate in Parliament began on 20^th July 1860, further reductions were made:

• Portsmouth – Connecting lines between the land forts.
• Plymouth – Part of the NE Defences, the whole of the Saltash position and the connecting lines for the western defences.
• Chatham – The western defences.
• Pembroke – further reduction of all except one land defence.

This resulted in a total estimated expenditure of £6,180,000 which was submitted to a 2^nd reading of the Fortifications Expense Bill on 9^th August 1860 when it was passed with a majority of 111 votes (Ayes-143, Nos-32). On 20^th August 1860 it was passed by the House of Lords and on the 28^th August 1860 received the Royal Ascent as the Protection of Royal Arsenals etc. Act (23&24 VICT c.109). The costs were to be spread over the next four financial years.

By 1865 increases in costs for works due to increased labour, material and land costs (£152,000), additional expenses for experiments and lands (£60,000) and the anticipated costs for iron shields (£913,000) had projected an overspend of £1,125,000. To off-set some of this projected overspend further cuts of the Chatham Eastern Defences and the Central Arsenal were taken to bring the anticipated overspend down to £475,000. 

The fortifications that were constructed became known as the Palmerston Forts and also “Palmerston’s Follies” by some detractors. In the later decades of the 19^th century some of the works originally proposed by the Royal Commission, but then cancelled for cost reasons, were actually built – in revised forms reflecting the changes in technology.  We think that it is appropriate to also include these later works in the general family of Palmerston Forts.