Ramparts of Empire

Book excerpt: In the year 1860, Palmerston's parliament sanctioned the construction of the largest system of fortifications that the British Isles had ever seen, or would ever see again, to defend against a feared French invasion. For William Jervois, then a young major in the Royal Engineers, his appointment as 'design leader' of this programme was a major step in a career in fortress construction that would see his work in Britain, Aden, Bermuda, Burma, Canada, the Channel Islands, Gibraltar, India, Ireland, Malta and later, Australia and New Zealand. --