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== Guns at the Royal Hospital ==
[http://www.chelsea-pensioners.co.uk/home The Royal Hospital] in Chelsea.
BRONZE GUN, 6pdr, and carriage (PL.42)
Indian, dated 1790-1; carriage, Indian (?), 19th century.
This gun is on the terrace of the Royal Hospital at Chelsea in a line up of 4 guns all painted over black/grey!
The breech and muzzle are ornamented with raised bands of palmette-type decoration. The reinforces have raised panels engraved with inscriptions in Devanagari and Persian lettering which are now partly illegible but the Devangari inscription includes the date, the Vikrum Samvat year 1848 = 1790-1, and the Persian inscription appears to er to the weights of powder and shot. The base ring is stamped with the weight of the piece 12-0-21 and the cascable bears the number 27.
L6ft 7in (200.7cm) Cal 3.7 in (9.4cm) Wt 12 cwt 21lb (619.1kg)
Believed to have been taken at the battle of Chillianwallah, 1849. Presented to the Royal Hospital Chelsea by the East India Company in 1856. Transferred to the Armouries in 1925, but remaining on loan to the Hospital
It has now been dated by Mathew Buck ( Firepower Museum Woolwich) and Neil Carlton (V&A) from First Sikh Wars (dates?). It is the only example seen of ‘standard munition quality’ Sikh field carriage.
Two Chinese guns incorrectly labelled at Chelsea as Sikh and taken at Chillianwalla during the 2nd Sikh war.
These guns were 2 of a set of 4 placed around the Chillianwala Memorial on the Embankment. 2 of the 4 were genuine Sikh guns and these 2 were ‘faked’ by the Armouries to appear Sikh simply because they were short of the genuine articles!
The Carriages are of similar construction. Each has a solid trail with a hinged traversing lever and elevating screw. There are two axle-tree seats with chain foot rests. These carriages are based on English field carriage of around 1850 and are similar to the others, a distinctive feature on all being the axle hubs cast as stylised tigers heads.
Transferred to the Armouries in 1925 but still on loan to the Royal Hospital, Chelsea. The original loan being in 1875 from the Royal Arsenal, Woolwich
Father Ferdinand Verbiest 1623-88, a Jesuit priest of Flemish birth, was sent to China as a missionary in 1657 and, in 1677, became Vice-Provincial of the Order. He was held in great favour by the Emperor K’ang-hsi for whom he carried out many tasks of a scientific and mathematical nature. Amongst other achievements he designed and supervised the manufacture of three hundred cannon which he blessed giving each one the name of a saint. The fact that the date of the casting of no. 203 is a year later than Verbiest’s death may be explained by their being part of a series whose manufacture commenced the previous year. Another of Verbiest’s guns, also date 1689 and bearing a similar inscription, is in Hakozaki Shrine, Kiyushu, Japan (Shin-ichi Yoshioka, Collection of Antique Guns Tokyo 1965, 36)
[[Category:Ordnance]]
