2 October 1880          Fort Glanville

The big guns at Fort Glanville were fired for the first time on 2 October 1880. The fort, started in 1878, had a garrison of 40 men and a battery of two 64-pounder guns and two 10 inch guns and had been built to defend shipping in the Semaphore anchorage. Fort Largs, completed in 1884, had all its fortifications on the sea side and only a wooden fence at the back which prompted some wag of a journalist to write that a notice should be posted stating: ‘This fort must not be attacked from the rear’. There was a proposal to build another fort at Glenelg but this never eventuated.

 Forts Glanville and Largs were put on alert in 1885 when it was feared there could be a Russian attack because of hostilities between Britain and Russia over Afghanistan, but the argument was settled peaceably. No shot was ever fired in anger from these forts. Fort Glanville was later used for the Fort Glanville Historical Society and Fort Largs became the Police Academy.

H.M. Cooper, A Naval History of South Australia, Adelaide, 1950.