Robert Nickle
Contents
Background
Robert Nickle was arrived in Melbourne in August 1854, he died on 26 May 1855.[1]
Nickle had served in Ireland, and upon his death had been in the army for around 45 years. He was appointed Commander in Chief of military forces in the Australian Colonies in 1853, and arrived in Australian in 1854. He moved his headquarters from Sydney to Melbourne in August 1854. [2]
Goldfields Involvement, 1854
After the Eureka Stockade battle Charles Hotham sent Nickle to Ballarat to restore law and order. He imposed Martial Law on 6 December 1854, one day after his arrival in Ballarat. Martial Law was repealed on 9 December, and Nickle left Ballarat on 19 December. He was perceived by most people in Ballarat as a sane and calming influence. [3]
Post 1854 Experiences
Notes
- In August, 1854, Sir Robert Nickle arrived in Melbourne with his staff. He was then an old man, in the years of his seventies, and ill-fitted by reason of the weight of years to wrestle with the pioneer difficulties of a lusty young country. The wild days on the golafields, made wilder and more lawless by the swarms of adventurers of every clime, not only demanded military regulars to act as military police, but a leader of vigor and of action.
- Sir Robert Nickle's name stands well in Victorian history through virtues not uncommon to aged men and to women—tact and forebearance. These virtues he displayed towards the diggers. He recognised the gold-seekers as men who had their rights, and he was opposed to treating them like hunted dogs over their licensee. It was due to his tact that after the Eureka Stockade rebellion—December 3, 1554—that there was no more blood spilt. The Ballarat diggers, filled with fight, were in a dangerous mood. One false step by tho authorities, and the diggings would have been tho scene of civil war. It was Nickle who induced the diggers to disperse, and who persuaded them to use constitutional weapons to attain their ends. He pointed out to them that slain men, diggers or soldiers, '"broken heads" on either side, the use of guns, piked, spades, and pickaxes, in a fratricidal civil war wu cot the way to obtain their rights under tho Union Jack. There were court of appeal beyond the local authorities, and anyway the "digger hunts" would cease. The diggers liked the old man. They felt that he waa a man whoso words were not more lip service. In short, they trusted him.
- The Major-General had seen service in various pans of the worid, as had also his father, who was an oflicer of the 17th Light Dragoons. Nickle did not live long after coming to Melbourne, for be died on May 26, 1855, and the command of the troops was taken over by the Deputy Adjutant General, Colonel E. Macarthur. On September of the same year Macarthur was appointed commander of the forces in the Australian colonies with the rank of Major General. His vacated position of Deputy Adjutant was filled by Lieutenant-Colonel J. M. B. Neill. Most of the military men in the early days of the colony bad seen active service, and Macarthur was not an exception. He was the eldest son of John Macarthur, of Camden Park, New South Wales, who was the founder of the merino wool industry in Australia. He married the daughter of Lieutenant Colonel William Smith Neill, sister of Brigadier-General Neill, who lost his life at tho siege of Lucknow.[4]
See also
Further Reading
Corfield, J.,Wickham, D., & Gervasoni, C. The Eureka Encyclopaedia, Ballarat Heritage Services, 2004.
References
External links
http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/nickle-sir-robert-4301/text6967
