Artillery in Canada (8) Prince Edward Island: Charlottetown, PEIR Armoury, and HMCS Queen Charlotte

Artillery preserved in Charlottetown, the PEIR Armoury and HMCS Queen Charlotte

Prince Edward Island

The aim of this website is to locate, identify and document every historical piece of artillery preserved in Canada.  Many contributors have assisted in the hunt for these guns to provide and update the data found on these web pages.  Photos are by the author unless otherwise credited.  Any errors found here are by the author, and any additions, corrections or amendments to this list of Guns and Artillery in Canada would be most welcome and may be e-mailed to the author at hskaarup@rogers.com.

For all official data concerning the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery, please click on the link to their website:

Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery Website

Note: Back in the day, artillery in Canada was referred to by its radio call sign "Sheldrake".  It is now referred to by its "Golf" call sign.  (Acorn sends)

Guns and Cannon

Those of us with an interest in old guns and cannon generally have to sort them out by size and purpose.  If the weapon can be transported by manpower alone, and if it relies on direct hits to kill, then it is classed as a gun.  If it takes more than one gunner to operate and is too heavy to be transported by manpower alone, and if its main purpose is to kill via shrapnel or concussion or to destroy obstacles, then it is a cannon.  Even when they are not in action against a target that can shoot back, they can be extremely dangerous, particularly when at sea.

Prince Edward Island

Location diagram of artillery preserved in Charlottetown.

Charlottetown, Victoria Park, Prince Edward Battery

The guns preserved in Victoria Park are listed on a separate page on this web site.

Charlottetown, Victoria Park Survey Markers

To ensure the accuracy of the surveying equipment in use on Prince Edward Island in the 19th century, a meridonal line was established in Victoria Park in 1830.  Three granite posts and what appears to be a SBML 9-pounder gun spaced appropriately are laid out in the park as per the diagram shown here beside the Prince Edward Battery.

(Author Photos)

Cast Iron possible 4-pounder Smoothbore Muzzleloading Gun, heavily corroded, no visible markings, 3 & 1/8-inch bore, mounted vertically as a survey marker located NW in Victoria Park.

No. 1 survey marker, granite post, East, beside the Prince Edward Battery.

No. 2 survey marker, granite post, North, inside the grounds of the Lieutenant Governor's Mansion.

No. 3 survey marker, granite post, West, Victoria Park.

Charlottetown

(Author Photos)

Possible 24-pounder Smoothbore Muzzleloading Gun serving as a bollard at the intersection of Queen Street and Richmond Street in front of the Cows ice cream shop.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 4949605)

Possible 24-pounder Smoothbore Muzzleloading Gun serving as a bollard at the intersection of Queen Street and Richmond Street in 1958.

Charlottetown, HMCS Queen Charlotte

(Author Photos)

Dundas 32/64-pounder 58-cwt Converted Rifled Muzzleloading Gun, weight 58-2-0 (6,552 lbs), (RGF 401, I, 1854) on left trunnion, (+) on the right trunnion, King George III cypher, 19, broad arrow mark, mounted on a wood naval gun carriage, 210 Water Street.  No. 1 of 2 guns facing away from the water.

(Author Photos)

Blomefield Cast Iron 24-pounder 50-cwt Smoothbore Muzzleloading Gun, weight 47-3-4 (5,352 lbs) under the cascabel, Samuel Walker & Company of Rotherham, England (WCo) on left trunnion, (Serial No. 6) on right trunnion, King George III cypher, broad arrow mark, mounted on a wood naval gun carriage, 210 Water Street.  No. 2 of 2 guns facing away from the water.

Charlotte of Mecklenburg-Strelitz (Sophia Charlotte; 19 May 1744 – 17 November 1818).  She was the queen consort of Great Britain and Ireland from her marriage to King George III   on 8 September 1761 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801.  After that date, she was queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until her death in 1818.  She was also electress consort of Hanover in the Holy Roman Empire until the promotion of her husband to King of Hanover on 12 October 1814, after which she was also queen consort of Hanover.

Charlotte was a patron of the arts and an amateur botanist.  She was distressed by her husband's bouts of physical and mental illness, which became permanent in later life and resulted in their eldest son George's appointment as Prince Regent in 1811.  George III and Charlotte had 15 children in total, 13 of whom survived to adulthood.  They included two future British monarchs, George IV, William IV, Charlotte, Queen of Württemberg, Prince Edward, Duke of Kent and Strathearn, the father of Queen Victoria; and Ernest Augustus, King of Hanover.

Charlottetown,  Queen Charlotte Armoury, Queen`s Square. 3 Haviland Street.

(Author Photo)

Bronze 6-pounder 6-cwt Smoothbore Muzzleloading Gun, weight 5-3-21 (665 lbs), 1807, Kinman, King George III cypher.  This Gun was shipped to PEI in 1812 from England, to be used for local defence.  Mounted on a wooden stand.  The gun was used by the Post Master on a ship which brought the Royal Mail to PEI from Pictou, Nova Scotia.  While it could be used as a weapon against piracy, it was used to signal the local residents that the mail had arrived.  Inside the museum.

(Author Photos)

Master-General of the Ordnance (MGO) cypher impressed on top of the bronze gun above the King George 3 cycpher.  This was a very senior British military position from 1415 to 2013 (except 1855-1895 and 1939-1958) with some changes to the name, usually held by a serving general.  The Master-General of the Ordnance was responsible for all British artillery, engineers, fortifications, military supplies, transport, field hospitals and much else, and was not subordinate to the commander-in-chief of the British military.  

Cypher of King George III, with a portrait by Sir William Beechey.  (Wikipedia

Bronze 6-pounder 6-cwt Smoothbore Muzzleloading Gun, weight 5-3-21 (665 lbs), 1807, Kinman, King George III cypher.  This Gun was shipped to PEI in 1812 from England, to be used for local defence.  Mounted on a wooden stand.  The gun was used by the Post Master on a ship which brought the Royal Mail to PEI from Pictou, Nova Scotia.  While it could be used as a weapon against piracy, it was used to signal the local residents that the mail had arrived.  Inside the museum.

(Author Photos)

9-pounder 8-cwt Muzzleloading Rifle, weight 8-1-6 (930 lbs), left trunnion (R-G-F No. 274, I, 1872), right trunnion blank, stamped with the King’s Arrow, 30, Firth's Steel No. 2840 on the muzzle,  Queen Victoria cypher on the barrel.  The gun is mounted on a wheeled carriage stamped Sir W.G. Armstrong and Co. Newcastle on the Tyne, No. 1455.  On display inside the PEIR armoury.  One of two dated 1872 and 1873.

The British Garrison was established in PEI at the mouth of the Charlottetown harbour in 1758.  The Garrison was armed with 18 9-pounder SBMLs.  

In 1776, an additional four guns were brought to Charlottetown by HMS Lizard, and put in place for the Militia for use at Patterson's battery, now the site of the present day Armoury.  These guns came from Fort Ticonderoga.

As of Jan 1780, the Militia supporting the Garrison in PEI was equipped with five 12-pounder SBMLs and four 6-pounder SBMLs.  In 1784 they became the PEI Volunteer Artillery.  By 1829, the PEI Militia mustered 5,400, including two Companies of Artillery and a Troop of Cavalry.

(Author Photos)

The museum has two German First World War 7.92-mm Maxim Spandau MG 08 Machineguns, on missing its top cover and one in fair shape (Serial Nr. TBC).  At least 14 machineguns were allocated to Charlottetown after the war, including (Serial Nrs. 2583, 3187, 3335, 4462, 5053, 5397, 5902, 7119a, 8033, 9282, 9335, 9690, 10154, and 37102).  These are likely two of them.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3397938)

German First World War 7.58-cm leichtes Minenwerfer neuer Art, (7.58-cm leMW), captured by Canadians East of Arras, France, Sep 1918.

(Author Photos)

German First World War 7.58-cm leichtes Minenwerfer neuer Art, (7.58-cm leMW), (Serial Nr. 16634), 2047, 1733, 799, 111, and 1686, mounted on iron wheels inside the Armoury.  This trench mortar was likely captured ca 1918 by a Battalion of a Brigade with a Canadian Division in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) in France.  It came to PEI in 1920 as part of the War Trophies Act.  It stood in the Mount Stewart Cemetery until it was donated to the museum in 2008, and now stands inside the armoury.

The 7.58 cm Minenwerfer a.A. (alter Art or old model) (7.58 cm leMW).  The Germans fielded a whole series of mortars before the beginning of the First World War.  Their term for them was Minenwerfer, literally mine-thrower; they were initially assigned to engineer units in their siege warfare role.  By the Winter of 1916-17, they were transferred to infantry units where the leMW's light weight permitted them to accompany the foot-soldiers in the advance.  In common with Rheinmetall's other Minenwerfer designs, the leMW was a rifled muzzle-loader that had hydraulic cylinders on each side of the tube to absorb the recoil forces and spring recuperators to return the tube to the firing position.  It had a rectangular firing platform with limited traverse and elevation.  Wheels could be added to ease transportation or it could be carried by at least six men.  In 1916, a new version, designated as the n.A. or neuer Art, was fielded that included a circular firing platform, giving a turntable effect, which permitted a full 360 degree traverse.  It also had a longer 16 inches (410 mm) barrel and could be used for direct fire between 0° and 27° elevation if the new 90 kg (200 lb) trail was fitted to absorb the recoil forces.  In this mode it was pressed into service as an anti-tank gun.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3521871)

German First World War 17-cm mittlerer Minenwerfer (17-cm mMW),  captured by Canadians, April 1917.

(Author Photos)

German First World War 17-cm mittlerer Minenwerfer (17-cm mMW), (Serial Nr. 848), stamped Rh.M.F. 1916.  This trench mortar was captured on 8 Aug 1918 by the 16th Battalion (Canadian Scottish), 3rd Infantry Brigade, 1st Canadian Division, Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) near Aubercourt, France.  Originally allocated to Stamford, Ontario, this mMW was collected by Tom Skelding, held at the Armour School, CFB Gagetown for a number of years, and donated to the PEIR in 2013.  It is currently on display outside the Armoury.

(Library and Archives Canada Photo, MIKAN No. 3403111)

German First World War 7.7-cm FK 96 neuer Art (7.7-cm FK 96 n.A.) Field Gun, May 1917.  

(Greg Gallant Photos)

German First World War 7.7-cm FK96 neuer Art (7.7-cm FK96 n.A.) Field Gun, 1915. This gun is listed in the official records, but there is no data on where or when it was captured, most likely in France c1918. The gun initially went to the Town of O'Leary, but during the Second war it was sold to  a scrap dealer in Hunter River. The dealer did not scrap it but kept it in his yard for many years. It went on display at a gas station across the road for about 10 years, until the station closed and it was sold at a auction. It was purchased by Bart Bourne in Kensington,now in a home in Alberton. His wife donated the gun to the PEIR Museum, where it will be restored and mounted on proper wooden wheels.

(Author Photo)

105-mm LG1 C1 Mk. II Light Gun, one of two in service for gunnery training, shown here at the Queen Charlotte Armoury, Charlottetown, 14 Oct 2012.  This gun has a maximum range using NATO standard ammunition of 11,400 metres.

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