ADDITIONAL DETAILS

The 12th Regiment’s involvement in Australasia started in 1854, when one Company sailed from Cork on 20 January 1854, for Van Dieman’s Land (Tasmania). There are no records available in Australia for the 12th Regiment earlier than 1 April 1854, but fortunately Joseph Cross’s Army Account Book is available in Western Australia’s Battye Library Acc 1349A which indicated that he was part of this involvement.

Joseph was serving in Belfast in early 1854 and was thus part of the regiment’s first foray into Australia. Further research has indicated he was under the command of Captain W J Hutchins when he, a Lieutenant H Cole, Surgeon W Dick, four NCOs and 100 other ranks made their way from Cork to Van Diemen’s Land on Gloucester [WO12-2971-5 to 30] arriving in Hobart on 29 May 1854 [Hobarton Guardian 31 May 1854]. According to his Account Book, he was in mainland Australia by 12 August that year.

Joseph and his comrades joined three more Companies of the 12th Regiment who arrived in Melbourne in October 1854 on Camperdown also from London via Cork; they remained under the command of Captain Hutchins at Castlemaine. Other Companies of the 12th arrived at Melbourne in November.

The movement of troops to Victoria was all about the unrest and later riots in the goldfields of Ballarat. On 1 December 1854, two Companies of the 12th and one of the 40th attacked the Eureka Stockade. Not all the troops in Melbourne were present, and it seems that Joseph was one who missed the action. He remained in Castlemaine until his arrival in Western Australia in February 1855. His service in Western Australia also ensured that he missed the involvement of 12th Regiment troops in New Zealand’s Maori Wars from 1860 for several years.In 1857 Joseph Cross married Sarah Hill who had arrived in WA with her parents in 1852 [ERIC p.724]. Sarah and their two children accompanied Joseph back to New South Wales with the 12th Regiment detachment in early March 1863. Nearly sixty officers and men of the detachment returned to HQ Sydney on the ship Merchantman after she had disembarked 192 convicts and 50 pensioner guards on WA’s shores the previous month.

When Joseph arrived in Sydney, he was posted to Cockatoo Island one of the islands in Sydney Harbour to which troops were consigned. Between 1839 and 1869 Cockatoo was used as a penal establishment. One of the prisoners who was there in 1863 was the infamous Captain Thunderbolt (Frederick Wordsworth Ward) the bushranger who escaped from the prison in September 1863. The Army Musters for September show that Joseph was in hospital for 24 days during this period – almost certainly once again missing the action [WO12-2986-71].

Joseph was serving in Victoria Barracks, Paddington during 1864 when their third child was born in September of that year. Joseph’s Parchment Certificate, part of the WA State Library’s collection of his papers, shows that he discharged from the Army on 31 December 1865 after 12 years of service, most of which was in Australia. This cannot be verified on the Musters & Pay Lists which are not extant in Australia for the period April to December 1865. Joseph’s Parchment Certificate also indicates he intended to reside in Western Australia after discharge. The couple were back in Perth in 1866 when their fourth of ten children was born.

Joseph made a good life for himself and his family in Western Australia – both as a public servant for Perth City Council and in the building industry with his own business.