History
Above: A drill on the Hastings Foreshore with one of the forty pounders.
Casualties on the Home Front
By Peter McCullough
L
ONG before the extensive and frightening casualty lists monopolized the Melbourne papers in the years 1914 – 1918, there were occasional casualties which occurred in a training context. The town of Hastings was saddened by two of these. Both occurred long before the Gallipoli landings and both were the consequences of the perceived threat of invasion of the Mornington Peninsula. The Hastings Battery The threat of invasion by the Russians and/or French, whether real or imaginary, sparked a flurry of activity in various parts of the Peninsula in the 1880’s. Tensions rose when a Russian trawler paid a visit to Western Port. Accordingly, on 15 December 1889, a resolution was passed at the conclusion of a meeting of the Fishermen’s Union in Hastings, calling for the formation of a Hastings Battery. In July 1890 the Governor–in–Council approved of the formation of a Victorian Rangers Battery at Hastings. With Lieutenant David Ham in charge and four Armstrong 40–pounder rifled breech– loading guns that were moved by bullocks, the locals gave it the name of the “Ham and Beef Battery.”
Rangers and became known as the 6th Battery of the Australian Field Artillery. The forty pounder breech–loading guns were replaced with twelve–and–a–half–pounders, to be converted to fifteen pounders. Francis Incigneri NOT as well–known as the death of Trooper Benton which occurred some 12 years later, was the death of Francis Incigneri which occurred in the grounds of Hastings State School in 1893. In April 1882 Josiah Ingamells assumed his responsibilities as Head Teacher at Hastings State School. He was the second person to fill this role, succeeding John Bettesworth Flemyng (1872-1882). Both men were “builders”, held in high esteem by their staff and the community at large. Taking a cue from the establishment of the Hastings Battery, Ingamells formed a school cadet unit under Captain Henry. These cadets were involved in camps and drills, both in school hours and after school, and on Friday nights from 7pm to 8.30pm. Older boys had rifle practice, and the ability to handle a gun was greatly valued in the colony at that time. Among the many Italians who came to Hastings as fishermen in the second half of the nineteenth century was Giuseppe Incigneri.
In 1904 the Hastings Battery transferred from the Victorian
continued next page...
April 2023
E ssence | 61
PENINSULA