Cannon in Canada, Province by Province, Volume 5: British Columbia
A significant number of historically important cannon have been preserved throughout British Columbia. This book is a guide on where to find and view them.
This book is Volume 5 of author and military historian Harold Skaarup's continuing series on historic cannon preserved in Canada. The book should stand as a detailed reference work describing the use of these weapons of war in Canada. The book is divided into ten chapters. Each chapter focuses on different aspects of the history of cannon and warfare associated with British Columbia from before its entry into Confederation to the present day. The introduction describes how the first historic cannon were introduced to British Columbia. The book also includes an epigraph.
The nature of war and its effects on the Canadian soldiers and their families who supported them, particularly through the terrible losses suffered during the Great War, is commemorated by cannon captured in that conflict. For this reason, a full chapter is dedicated to the disposition of German First World War trophies in British Columbia. The author continues with the extensive historical record of cannon that were distributed in defence of British Columbia’s seaports, coastal defences and strategic harbours, primarily under the direction of the Royal Navy. Chapter 3 describes the history of the deployment of these cannon in detail.
Gradually, the chapters proceed with the details of how, as time and the threat to the province evolved, the cannon were placed and replaced as technology advanced. A number of cannon have been preserved at several different sites, standing as iron markers in the record of the military history of the province. Surviving cannon are described with information on their origin, technical data and present locations at various war memorials, museums, and Canadian Forces Bases, as well as the cities of Vancouver, Victoria, and New Westminster. The final chapter tells the Second World War story of decorated British Columbia native Sergeant James Alton Thrasher of The Westminster Regiment.
The book includes an appendix of the abbreviations used in each chapter to ensure that the readers can decipher the commonly used military acronyms throughout the story. The author was asked to describe his feelings about the publication of the book. He said he is very pleased with the collaboration of so many of his friends, colleagues, and fellow veterans of the Canadian Forces. Many of them contributed data, photos, and professional expertise to ensure the material in the book is accurate and does justice in preserving the history of artillery in British Columbia. He also thanked Global Summit House for their support and co-operation in ensuring the book is a high-quality product, like their publication of the author’s previous book, “Siegecraft II”.
The book includes a bibliography which serves as a guide to the reference material Harold used to write the book. A brief history of the author’s military service at home and overseas in Germany, Cyprus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Colorado, and Afghanistan is also included.
The number and variety of vintage cannon preserved in British Columbia is surprising. Harold Skaarup of Fredericton has documented some 58 in his recent book, Cannon in Canada, Province by Province, Volume Five, British Columbia. This fifth volume in the series is part of an ambitious project to locate and record every piece of historical artillery in the country. Previous volumes have covered the Maritime provinces, Ontario and Quebec. Skaarup who retired from the Canadian Army following a 40-year career as an intelligence officer, has spent years tabulating often obscure examples in maritime museums, cenotaphs and armouries. This latest series grew from a single volume released in 2012, Shelldrake – Canadian Artillery Museums and Gun Monuments, after years of research uncovered large numbers of additional specimens. Skaarup has become a veritable one-man self-publishing house. His website lists some fifty books relating to preserved aircraft and military artifacts in Canada and the United States.
For better or worse, the cannon he has listed are the surviving material culture of Canada’s colonial history and evolving military history though the bloody world wars of the twentieth century and into the cold war. Not surprisingly, the majority are located in the Victoria-Esquimalt area, home to Canada’s Pacific naval base and former British imperial garrison.
6-inch Breechloading Gun Mk. III/IV (No. 302) weight unknown, mounted on a display base under a replica gin triangle (used for mounting and dismounting guns and carriages on and from traversing platforms), Lower Battery. Used in the coast artillery, now on display at Fort Rodd Hill National Historic Site. Photo by Trevor Adams
Lost and forgotten examples have been recovered from unusual places. A six-inch (152mm) breech-loading gun barrel, used in the coast artillery (now on display at Fort Rodd Hill National Historic Site) was buried behind the former Menzies Street drill hall in Victoria by departing British troops in 1910 where it remained hidden for some 50 years.
Another example, a 12-pounder (76mm) breech-loading deck gun mounted on the HMCS Thiepval, a former RCN naval trawler employed by the Fisheries Department, went down with the ship in 1930 when it struck an uncharted rock and sank. This gun was recovered by divers some 45 years later and was refurbished as a memorial at Ucluelet.
12-pounder 12-cwt QF Mk. V (3-inch/40) Breechloading Naval Gun (Ogden 3-inch Naval gun), from HMCS Thiepval, located at the harbour shore near the dock. HMCS Thiepval was one of twelve Battle-class naval trawlers used by the Royal Canadian Navy (RCN). After seeing service on Canada’s east coast at the end of the First World War, HMCS Thiepval was transferred to the west coast, where she spent the remainder of her career. In 1924, Thiepval visited the Soviet Union and Japan as part of the support efforts for a round-the-world flight attempt. HMCS Thiepval struck a rock and sank off the British Columbia coast in 1930, and her wreck has since become a popular attraction for divers. The channel is now named for the ship in the Broken Group Islands. The gun has no shield and is deeply pitted from its long submersion in salt water. Photo by John Eckersley
Harold Skaarup. Photo courtesy CBC
Another 12-pounder, a field piece manufactured in 1898 and mounted on a horse artillery carriage, remains an enigma. Only five survive in Canada. Assigned to the Esquimalt defences, it was last known to have been used as a saluting gun at Work Point Barracks in 1939. However, in 1973 it was found abandoned and rusting in a Nanaimo garbage dump. It may have been transferred to the Nanaimo Military Camp at some point during the Second World War and, given its obsolescence, used for ceremonial purposes.
It is also tempting to think that some skullduggery was involved in its disposal, perhaps connected to some long-festering memories of the 1912 Vancouver Island coal miners’ strike, when the local Militia was called out to police the unrest. However, no evidence has come to light to explain the gun’s fate. It also now resides at Fort Rodd Hill, too badly damaged for public display.
12-pounder BL 6 cwt field gun. This British gun was donated to the site in the early 1970s after having been discovered in a dump in Nanaimo, BC. While most of the metal parts of the carriage have survived, they are badly corroded. Nothing remains of the wheels or their hubs and the breech is missing. The barrel and carriage have been stabilized by Parks Canada staff, but it is considered that too much of the gun is missing for it to be displayed. This type of gun was adopted in Britain for Horse Artillery in 1900 and the type was used by Canadian gunners in South Africa. Several of these guns were issued to the 5th (BC) Regiment, Canadian Garrison Artillery in Victoria about 1910, to replace the 13-pounder RML field guns previously in service. British Government Photo, ca. 1897
As Europeans settled in British Columbia more recently than in eastern Canada, the province lacks the massive smoothbore masonry fortifications of Halifax or Quebec City. Most of the cannon cited in the book are from the later rifled muzzle-loading and breech-loading periods of artillery development. However, this volume does include numerous examples of smoothbore cannon. Two small cast-iron 12-pounder carronades are located in the Hudson’s Bay Company’s bastion at Nanaimo. This pattern was introduced in the 1770s. Considered obsolete by the 1850s, the HBC likely obtained them from the Royal Navy for local defence of the Newcastle coal mine.
Cast Iron 12-pounder 6-cwt Smoothbore Muzzleloading Carronade, similar to two located in the Hudson’s Bay Company bastion at Nanaimo. Photo by Terry Honour
A pair of older cast-iron half pounder smoothbore muzzle-loaders mounted on wooden naval trucks, possibly dating from the first half of the 1700s, are located at Canadian Forces Base Esquimalt Dockyard.
German First World War 7.7-cm Feldkanone 96 neuer Art (7.7-cm FK 96 n.A.) (Serial Nr. 595), with large wheels. This gun was captured by the 2nd Canadian Mounted Rifles, 8th Canadian Infantry Brigade, 3rd Canadian Division of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) at Cambrai, West of Neuville St. Remy, France on 29 September 1918. It is on display in Memorial Park, 1200 Esquimalt Rd., Esquimalt. Photo by John Eckersley
The book also devotes a chapter to war trophies: German First World War artillery pieces captured by the Canadian Corps during the One-Hundred Day Campaign of late 1918 which forced the German Army into widespread retreat. Some 47 war trophy guns were allocated to British Columbia in 1919, including a sinister-looking 210mm heavy mortar which sat incongruously at the entrance to Stanley Park in Vancouver and a 77mm field cannon placed on the placid lawn of the Provincial Legislature. Most of these guns were removed for scrap metal during the early months of the Second World War, although five preserved specimens are on public display at Esquimalt, Ladysmith, Kelowna, and Cranbrook, restored during heightened interest in the centenary of the war to end all wars.
“Entrance to Stanley Park and Captured German Gun, Vancouver, B.C.” The Coast Publishing Co., ca. 1925. Postcard courtesy Rob on flickr
Harold (Hal) Aage Skaarup
This soft-covered book is attractively produced and includes colour photographs and black and white period photographs of the guns mentioned, as well as historical descriptions and locations. However, it suffers from a lack stringent proofreading. Some pages are poorly organized. The author generously acknowledges the assistance of the numerous colleagues and enthusiasts who have made this book possible. Yet, there are two authors who, despite being cited in the text, are not mentioned in the acknowledgement, index or bibliography. And curious editorial decisions abound. For example, while the Canadian Army obtained four 8-inch (203mm) railway guns to augment the harbour defences of Esquimalt and Prince Rupert during the Second World War, the author has not included any photographs of this type of artillery. By contrast, four period photographs appear depicting British railway guns on the Western Front during the First World War with no explanation of their relevance to artillery in British Columbia. Also, some preserved armoured vehicles are mentioned, which is surprising because this is a topic covered in another of the author’s books, Ironsides: Canadian Armoured Fighting Vehicle Museums and Monuments.
The book is not a technological treatise of artillery development nor a comprehensive history of Canada’s defence policy or of the gunners who employed these weapons of war, although some aspects of these are briefly mentioned. Rather, its strength lies in gathering information on all known surviving artillery pieces together in a single reference work and in this the author has succeeded very well. This volume, along with the others in the Cannon In Canada series, would appeal to anyone interested in the fascinating history of artillery in Canada.
Bronze 24-pounder smoothbore muzzleloading howitzers mounted on concrete stands stood guard under the Simon Fraser monument in 1930. For many years these two SBML howitzers were on display on either side of the monument to Simon Fraser near the Pattullo Bridge in New Westminster. They were later moved to New Westminster Quay, but their present location is TBD. These howitzers are reported to be the ones issued to the Seymour Battery of Garrison Artillery, which was the first artillery unit to be formed in BC in 1866. City of Vancouver Archives Photo, AM54-S4-: Mon P27.1
*
David Morgan
David Morgan was born in the East Kootenays and has lived in British Columbia ever since. He served as an officer in the army reserve and fought lightning fires with the BC Ministry of Forests’ helicopter rappel team. He studied history at the University of Victoria and journalism at Carleton University. A short yet uneventful career as a technical writer ended when he joined the Canadian Security Intelligence Service as an intelligence officer. Sworn to secrecy, he wrote innumerable reports. Later, he declined a transfer to Ottawa and instead joined Revenue Canada as a senior investigator where he wrote more reports and rounded out his thirty-year career with the federal government. He lives in Maple Ridge and hikes with his dog every day in Golden Ears Provincial Park. He is currently writing a history of the Abernethy and Lougheed Logging Company, which logged this area during the 1920s.
*
The British Columbia Review
Publisher and Editor: Richard Mackie
Formerly The Ormsby Review, The British Columbia Review is an on-line book review and journal service for BC writers and readers. The Advisory Board consists of Jean Barman, Wade Davis, Robin Fisher, Barry Gough, Hugh Johnston, Kathy Mezei, Patricia Roy, Maria Tippett, and Graeme Wynn. Provincial Government Patron (since September 2018): Creative BC. Honorary Patron: Yosef Wosk. Scholarly Patron: SFU Graduate Liberal Studies.
“Only connect.” – E.M. Forster
Two six-pounders at Nanaimo: Blomefield 6-pounder 9-cwt Smoothbore Muzzleloading Gun, weight 9-1-23, (1,059 lbs), above No. 7, (Serial No. 484) on the left trunnion, 6-pdr on the right trunnion. B.P. & C. on the barrel (Bailey Pegg and Co- London and Staffordshire iron manufacturers. early 19th century to the 1960s, casting guns for commercial interests and foreign governments). This gun is mounted on a wooden naval gun carriage, No. 1 of 2 in front of the Nanaimo Bastion. One is used for firing demonstrations. Blomefield 6-pounder 9-cwt Smoothbore Muzzleloading Gun, weight 9-1-23, (1,059 lbs), over No. 2, (Serial No. 476) on the left trunnion, 6-pdr on the right trunnion. B.P. & C. on the barrel. This gun is also mounted on a wooden naval gun carriage, No. 2 of 2 in front of the Nanaimo Bastion. Photo by Maxwell Toms
