serviceyears laterwork branch death_date death_place birth_place allegiance awards battles birth_date placeofburial rank image article_title name
1854 -- 1882 special commissioner for great britain in new guinea british army 02 december 1885 near papua new guinea paris , france united kingdom knight st george commander of the order of st michael and crimean war indian rebellion of 1857 24 august 1835 old charlton cemetery , england major general picturesque sir peter scratchley kcmg.jpg new guinea plate xlix -lrb- a -rrb- - peter scratchley
 peter scratchley
peter scratchley

major general sir peter henry scratchley -lrb- 24 august 1835 -- 2 december 1885 -rrb- was special commissioner for great britain in new guinea 1884 -- 1885 and defence adviser for australia .
scratchley was born in paris , thirteenth child of dr james scratchley , royal artillery , and his wife maria , `` née '' roberts .
he was educated in paris and at the woolwich academy and then began a career as an officer of engineers in the british army .
scratchley served in the crimea and indian mutiny and in october 1859 was made a captain .
he then had several tours of duty in the australian colonies advising on defence .
in 1860 he was sent to victoria to plan a system of defence for that colony , but after working on this for over three years his plan was not adopted as a whole .
scratchley had , however , constructed batteries around the coast of port phillip by expending a comparatively small sum .
following the withdrawal in 1870 of british garrison troops from australia , major general sir william jervois and then lieutenant colonel scratchley were commissioned by a group of colonies to advise on defence matters .
they inspected each colony 's defences and produced the jervois-scratchley reports of 1877 .
not surprisingly given their engineering backgrounds and the fear in the colonies of potential enemy fleets , the reports emphasised fortifications against naval attack .
the jervois-scratchley reports formed the basis of defence planning in australia and new zealand for the next 30 years .
among his achievements in australia were : founding of the corps of engineers in victoria in 1860 the fort on bare island , botany bay , new south wales fort scratchley , newcastle , new south wales fort lytton , brisbane , queensland fort glanville , south australia -- assisted by alexander bain moncrieff fort queenscliff , queenscliff , victoria scratchley retired with the honorary rank of major-general on 1 october 1882 , but was still employed as defence adviser for australia by the colonial office .
he was appointed special commissioner for great britain in new guinea in 1884 , and arrived there in august 1885 .
port moresby was made the seat of government , questions of land tenure and the cultivation of the land were examined , and good relations were established with many of the natives and with the missionaries .
scratchley soon contracted malaria and died at sea on aboard the `` governor blackall '' on 2 december 1885 .
he was buried in melbourne and then reinterred to the old charlton cemetery in england .
he left a widow , two daughters and a son .
scratchley was created a knight commander of the order of st michael and st george in june 1885 .
scratchley road in port moresby , mount scratchley in the owen stanley range near kokoda , and fort scratchley in newcastle are named after him .
