During the Victorian era the British had two main ports that they thought to require coastal defences, Durban and Port Elizabeth. Both had British settler populations and during the second half of the 19th Century were expanding fast.
Port Elizabeth, now called Gqeberha, received four thousand British settlers in 1820 encourage by the Government in Cape Colony in order to help protect the southern approaches to the Cape. A further five hundred settlers arrived in 1825 and by 1861 the port was recognised as an independent municipality. The small Fort Fredrick became the centre of the British Military Garrison in Port Elizabeth.
Fort Fredrick
