+24
To the right can be made out a low fencing which appears to have surrounded the cricket ground - at that time used also as a parade ground - even in the early days. In the distance we have some of the city's buildings in evidence, including a portion of Pedder's Hill and the Harbour Master's flagstaff (see 10-1-34).
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The following comments from an old chronicle show how difficult it was to obtain suitable accommodation for the military, and what Major-General D'Aguilar had to overcome before Murray Barracks came into existence. Speaking of the period 1842-44 it is said that Lord Saltoun, while Command-in-Chief here, "would not take upon himself to erect suitable barracks and officers' quarters for the troops." We have the following pen picture of conditions as they were then:
"A few wretched huts, built on shelves cut on the acclivity of a ridge at West Point, were called barracks, but were really pest-houses, and after causing the loss of many a gallant soldier of the 55th, were abandoned and razed to the ground. The army was thus left without Government buildings, and became dependent upon those belonging to the community, all of which had been built for mercantile purposes; and it was even proposed to quarter them compulsorily on the community. The officers' quarters were established in the house of a merchant, at a high rent. The house on Marine Lot No.55 was occupied in 1843-44 as a barrack at $400 a month, and that on Marine Lot No.46 as a hospital at $300 a month. Various other houses were occupied at high rents by officers of the army and other officials. Most of the Ordnance and Commissariat stores were received in merchants' warehouses.
Matters were certainly coming to a head at the time of Major-General D'Aguilar's arrival, and the definite allocation of military lands and erection of proper quarters and barracks can be traced to his activities from 1844 onwards. It might be added that the buildings further up the slope, including the G.O.C.'s house, went up about the same time, and the hillside east of Garden Road and below Bowen Road (as we know them to-day) became known as Cantonment Hill, a name still found in old maps of the Colony.
And now for an important query. Who was the Murray after whom we had Murray Battery named, followed by Murray Barracks, Murray parade ground, road, and pier? No local military records appear to exist which can give a definite answer: it is thought that he was an Artillery officer. The existing records which I have searched fail to locate the man whose name is so imperishably commemorated here. It is a strange hiatus in local history, and any reader who can throw some light on the identity of Murray will be doing a public service.
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