The Scottish Military Research Group - Commemorations Project

Keptie

There were two Captured Cannons brought back from the Crimean War by soldiers from BRECHIN and ARBROATH in Forfarshire at that time as the townfolk did not erect any War Memorials to any casualties of that Crimean war .

I know that in the 1940s when the London Government asked for the public to donate their railings from around their homes in aid of the War the Town Council of Arbroath donated the Cannon that was located on the Boulzie Hill ,beside Springfield Park /Victoria Park at Arbroath to the cause.

I don't know what happened to the Cannon from the Crimean war that was at Brechin ?

These Cannons would have been a "trophy of War " but in fact they would have been the equivalent of a War Memorial to the men who fought and who died in the Crimea

I know that there are newspaper photographs of the Cannon at the Boulzie Hill at Arbroath just around the time it was being taken for the WW2 War . It never came back at the end of that war in 1945 and was it used or dumped at sea at the end of the war ??

Were there casualties in Forfarshire from that Crimean War as I would expect there was having seen a headstone at Careston near Brechin regarding a casualty

Adam Brown · Posted: Tue Apr 21, 2009 8:58 pm Post subject:

Keptie

Do you know if these cannons were given to Brechin and Arbroath because of their contribution to the war effort or were captured cannons just distributed across the country?

Crimean war casualties are seldom mentioned on gravestones. We've got about 13,000 headstones on the War Graves forum and very few of them are for Crimean dead. I don't think it's because there were no men from Forfarshire there, I think it's because the families of the sort of men who joined the army in the 1850s probably had no money for headstones and these men are generally not recorded in their home towns.

Regards

Adam

Keptie

The cannon at Arbroath that was on the Boulzie Hill , beside the Victoria Park in the town was from what I was told by my late father was a Captured Cannon and brought back by the soldiers from the town .

maybe other Red Lichties will have more info on this subject ....

Murray · Joined: 21 Jan 2008 Posts: 64

An Arbroath Timeline 1850 - 1859 states that the cannon was taken in 1940 to be melted down for munitions.

spoons · Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 7:33 am Post subject:

There were quite a lot of these cannons around the UK and in the Great War some of them were used for fund raising or recruiting but I think most went for scrap in WW2. If you search in UKNIWM for 'cannon' and then again for 'gun' you can still find a few, only a couple in Scotland from memory. No mention of the ones from this thread though.

\Paul

Keptie · Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 12:38 pm Post subject: Arbroath Crimean war cannon

There are photographs in the Arbroath Newspapers over the recent years showing the Crimean war cannon on the Boulzie hill in the town often in "Do Yi Mind lang syne " photographs as the cannon was sent away for the war effort in the 1940s along with the metal railings from houses in the street and the public could claim One Shilling from the Government in London for the railings . Dont know if all the railings were actually used in the war or dumped at sea after the war ended

Keptie · Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 6:12 pm Post subject: Crimean war cannon Arbroath

The Crimean war cannon is photographed in the booklet "Wir Ither Bookie " . O'the Toon O' Arbroath : Arbroath Herald April 1986

There is a photograph of the Cannon surrounded by metal fencing that had obviously been removed from around the displayed Weapon from the Crimea

The booklet records the following

" As part of the campaign for salvaging scrap metal and waste for war purposes at the beginning of the Second World War , a CANNON from the CRIMEAN WAR and its surrounding railings were dismantled and removed from their once familiar site on the BOULZIE HILL on August 19th , 1940 to be melted down for re-use in Munitions manufacturer ."

DelBoy · Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 9:04 pm Post subject:

I seem to recall reading ages ago that mayn railings and other assorted bits of metal that were cut down/taken away were never intended for recycling because they were unsuitable.
The thinking being people would feel like they were helping, as Pat says a lot was just dumped in the sea or landfill.

Anybody else heard this?

spoons · Posted: Wed Apr 22, 2009 9:16 pm Post subject:

Don't know about dumped at sea but I recall that large amounts of railings were still lying in dumps into the 1950s. Loads of aluminium pots and pans were collected to make spitfires etc but you can't make saucepans into aircraft grade aluminium so they were never used either.

Here is one eyewitness from Scarborough who saw railings lying dumped in 1959 http://www.scarborougheveningnews.co.uk/letters/Graves-used-as-a-cycle.5126591.jp

\Paul

Keptie · Posted: Sun May 10, 2009 3:33 pm Post subject: crimean war cannon at Arbroath

Ive heard from a friend in Arbroath that a local blacksmith in the town broke up the Crimean War Cannon during the last war and that the scrap metal was dumped in the Forth in the 1950's

DelBoy · Posted: Sun May 10, 2009 6:38 pm Post subject:

I suppose that was the done thing at the time. Didn't they drop a boat load (pun intended) of unused ammo in the Irish sea around then too?

DelBoy · Posted: Thu Nov 10, 2011 6:06 am Post subject:

The Boulzie Hill Cannon. Erected 1956, dismantled for morale 1940.

Derek.