Easter at Fort Amherst Chatham
Over the Easter weekend the unit were at Fort Amherst Chatham, also there were some of the 60th Rifles and the 1st Foot Guards (1815) and of course one of the forts own Gunners and we all camped out on the upper Belvedere. The fort was open to the public and twice a day the 79th and the 60th held a competition to see how many rounds could be fired by either our own Brown Bess or the 60th's Baker Rifles; to be fair it worked out about equal over the few days with some misfires and other mechanical problems etc. On the last two days we also added an "execution" of one of the 60th for stealing and other unmentionables to the firing exhibition and the public liked enjoyed this part more than the firing!! On the Saturday we had our piper with us and he and a drummer from the 1st Foot Guards made a great team which the public really enjoyed.
The camp on a quite period
The fort trustees had organised some attractions for the public in the main car park and for a small fee had guided tours through the un-restored part of the fort. The weather was not too bad over the four days and quite a number of people came to the event, hopefully the event will be bigger next year and more re-enactors will attend.
A mixture of different uniforms and units that were seen over the four day event
Some of the general public trying on our uniforms, future recruits maybe?
As our first public event of the year all those of our unit who attended had a good time, and it all came back to us why we do this for a hobby and if this is what's to come in 2009 bring it on!!
Private Tony Bartolo unit carpenter