Chapter 7 
THE MAKINGS OF MODERN MINORCA
 
 

Since 1802 Minorca has remained permanently Spanish. With the exception of the sixteen years from 1782 till 1798, she had not been her own master since the seventeenth century.
For a last brief period from 1798 till 1802, there was a third British occupation during the Napoleonic Wars, bringing Minorcans within the orbit of yet another global conflict, but protecting them from invasion by Napoleon's forces. This period brought Minorcans into close contact with a Europe that was moving away from the old ways. All these events greatly influenced the makings of modern Minorca.
A glance at the copy of a letter in the dispatch case of one of the British commanders puts us into the context of contemporary events:

To Sir William Hamilton                 Ciudadela, Nov. 26th 1798

My dear Sir William,
'1 am happy to tell you that the secret expedition. . . has been attended with the greatest success. . . We must now look to the preservation of this valuable conquest. . . The importance of so excellent a Harbour as Mahon, must be sufficiently obvious. . . With my very best respects to Lady Hamilton
 Thomas Graham
 

THE THIRD BRITISH OCCUPATION

The third British occupation of Minorca was led by two aristocratic Scots, Lieutenant-General Sir Charles Stuart, a scion of the House of Bute, with Lord Lynedoch (Colonel Thomas, Graham), laird of Balgowan in Perthshire, as his second-in-command. Both were brilliant soldiers. Graham, a man of wealth, did not join the army till he was forty-five years of age, and raised a battalion at his own expense. He quickly showed great courage and resource. Sir Arthur Bryant in The Years of Endurance refers to him as 'as natural a soldier as Cromwell', and considers that given a chance he would have 'won as great a name as Marlborough or Wellington'. Graham later founded the United Services Club in London, where his portrait can be seen.
Colonel Graham was holding a staff appointment in Ireland, when he heard that his regiment (then stationed at Gibraltar) was to form part of a force bound for a secret destination. Always keen for military adventure, he at once resigned his appointment, and set out for Gibraltar, where he learned that Minorca was the objective. During the voyage he wrote to his brother Lord Cathcart of his excitement, and sent him a list of the particular officers he wanted on his staff.
On 7 November 1798 a landing was made at the northern port of Addaya. The invasion fleet, consisting of two battleships, frigates and transports, under Commodore Duckworth, had intended to enter the Bay of Fornells, but this plan was abandoned because of high winds blowing out of the harbour. The main body of the fleet hove-to five miles off Fornells, and the troop transports under protection of the frigates Argo, Aurora and Cormorant went on to Addaya. As they entered this deep sheltered inlet they were immediately met by fire from shore batteries, but this opposition soon ceased on their receiving a few broadsides from the British ships, and their gunners fled. The 28th Regiment of Highland troops under Colonel Paget were able to disembark by 11 am, and went into action even before this operation was completed.
Writing a fortnight later from Ciudadela to his brother, Graham says: 'Half the troops were not landed when the enemy appeared. It was material to gain a height almost surrounded by a ravine before them, and this was effected by marching off those that were ready.'

Another contemporary account takes up the story:

By six in the evening all the troops were landed, and immediately marched in pursuit of the enemy, who, by their knowledge of the roads, retreated faster than they could be followed. Some seamen being landed to drag the cannon, performed their work in a dark night, through the worst of roads. In the meantime, Commodore Duckworth had taken possession of the Bay of Fornells, and with the marines had garrisoned two of the forts at its entrance, which the enemy had evacuated..

Under cannon cover from the British ships, the invasion force drove off two divisions of Spanish troops, who were re-forming to retake the shore batteries. The Highland Scottish troops had been surprised to land on a rocky hillside covered with purple heather amid scenery so like that of their homeland, and were much at home.
The following day Stuart sent Graham with 600 troops 'along a broken and hazardous road which led round the hill of Monte Toro' to Mercadal at the centre of the island. This was achieved without British loss, the Spanish forces falling back to Ciudadela.
On the third day, a detachment of 300 troops under Colonel Paget marched east from Mercadal to Mahon, and compelled Fort St Philip to surrender. With admirable timing they removed booms across Port Mahon's entrance, which let the Aurora and Centaur from Fornells through. The remainder of the British invasion force headed west to Ciudadela, which surrendered without severe opposition on 15 November. The British force had numbered 3,000, and the Spaniards 3,600. Not a single British soldier was lost. It is a remarkable fact that the British found that the once formidable Fort St Philip had been deliberately destroyed by the Spanish themselves some years before, in case it should again be used against them. 
 
 

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