The Victorian Cross & Surprising Link To Russian Muzzleloaders In England
Robert Morgan
Spring 2000 - Vol. 22 No. 3

On Front Parade at the Royal Artillery Barracks at Woolwich in London stand arguably the two most significant muzzle-loading smoothbore guns in British military history.

They stand either side of the Gunners Cenotaph, mounted on reconstruction fortress carriages. These are Crimean War (1854-56) guns taken from the Imperial Russian defenses at the storming of Sebastopol in the autumn of 1855.

Each of the two guns — and they are far from being “sister” in calibre, poundage or any other way — is missing its cascabel. Cleanly sawn from the breech in both cases.

My estimation is that the first gun is a 6 pdr. or 8 pdr., and the bore small for its length of just under 9 feet. The second muzzleloader, undergoing conservation work, is heavier - around the 18 pdr. mark, and just under 12 feet in length. This second gun has 11 attractive bands at equal distances along the barrel, giving it an almost Medieval hooped appearance.

Neither bears any markings, not the Imperial Romanov eagle on the top of the barrel, nor the usual trunnion borne designations of arsenal list number, gunfounder's name or year of manufacture as found on other examples of Russian guns displayed throughout the British Isles.

Although the Russian gun park was supposedly “standardized” by the reforms of Shuvalov long before this period, unusual guns frequently appeared in many armies on the fringes of Europe. Accordingly, these could be Turkish captures or may even have started out much further east, and have been pressed into fortress or battery service during the immense crisis which overtook the Tsar's fortunes after 1853.

Whatever their original provenance, after the fall of Sebastapol hundreds of such muzzle loaders were brought back to France, Sardinia and Britain (there are a number scattered throughout Ireland too) as trophies. Fate, however, held a special place for these guns.

The Crimean War was one of the most dismal, utterly futile conflicts which took place in 19th century Europe. It also led to the creation of the British Victoria Cross, awarded "For Valour." For metal to make the medals it was decided, by whom no one really knows, to use the bronze from one of the many Russian guns scattered around the grounds of Woolwich.

So it was that these two lost their cascabels, and somewhere in the Royal Mint sits a lump of metal from which on a rare occasion the greatest award for bravery in battle is cast. Since these two pieces of ordnance arrived at Woolwich, only 1,354 awards of the Victorian Cross have been made.

As with the Bhurtpore Gun at Woolwich featured in the Winter 1999 issue, these guns are some 500 yards from the Rotunda Artillery Museum, but are further from the road outside the Royal Artillery Barracks, thus less visible.