guns

Some Of Our Guns Are Missing

The photo above shows a gun pointing toward the sky alongside the statue of Lord Tredegar in front of the City Hall. It is, of course no longer there.

Victoria Park in Canton, once boasted Russian canons. During World War I an army tank and two 25lb guns were on display there in order to encourage people to donate money to the war effort. During World War II these armaments, together with the park railings, were melted down for scrap. Perhaps the magnificent gun above had a similar fate.

The photograph below, provides more of the puzzle. With the caption, "Presentation to the City of Cardiff of German Gun captured at Loos by the Welsh Guards, 18th November, 1915". Could this explain why the gun was there? If you look carefully, it is possible to see scaffolding in the background, presumably this relates to the building of the National Museum of Wales in Cathays Park.

The Western Mail of 19th November 1915 contains a contemporary write-up.

The gun arrived by rail at the GWR and was accompanied by Captain W.H.Lewis and a contingent of the 2nd Welsh Regiment to the City Hall where the formal presentation to the Lord Mayor, Dr. R.J.Smith, took place. The gun had been captured by the 44th Brigade, 15th Division, and the War Office had decreed that is should be placed in a public position. The Lord Mayor made a speech. "This gun would always be a reminder that the days of gallant deeds had not gone and that the sons of Wales in the defence of their country had maintained the splendid tradition of their forefathers".

The company of Welsh Guards which captured the gun was commanded by Lt.Rupert Lewis, son of Mr and Mrs Lewis(Greenmeadow),

Mr and Mrs Lewis were obviously local "crachach" to be referred to simply by the name of their home in the local press.

Greenmeadow was a large 17th century farmhouse, made into a country mansion in the 1820`s, and eventually demolished in the 1940`s, in the Tongwynlais area to be replaced by the Greenmeadow Estate. The proud parents were at the forefront during the ceremony.

A call to the Welsh Regimental Museum in Cardiff Castle, told us that the gun `had` been melted down for scrap in 1939. Also there had previously been another gun, this one from the Crimean War on display near the City Hall, that also was melted down, though at the start of World War I.