Turkish Cannons/Field guns

[Mick McT]

Upon their return to Britain following their two periods in Crete in 1897 and 1898, 2/RWF apparently brought with them 2 Ottoman (Turkish) field guns, sometimes described as 'cannons'. (I'm not sure exactly when the guns arrived back in Britain, it was probably late 1898.) The guns are currently mounted as guard-guns outside the Manchester Regiment Museum in Ashton-under-Lyne.

Anybody point me in the direction of finding out how/why they were brought from Crete in the first place and why they are now part of the Manchester Regiment Museum?

Many thanks

Mick McT.

[ap1]

Hi Mick,

The handover occurred in 2003 according to this piece: http://www.tameside.gov.uk/museumsga...ocus/creteguns

[Mick McT]

Many thanks. I had seen that. What I'm particularly interested in is how the guns got out of Crete in the first place; when the RWF finally left Crete in 1898, there were major diplomatic rows about the whereabouts, and ownership of all the artillery on the island, and it seems odd that two Ottoman guns were 'liberated' without apparently appearing on the records. The next question of course is why ended up with the Manchesters?

[welchboy]

Hi Mick, Interesting mystery. Have just e mailed The Manchester Regimental Museum asking if they can fill in some of the blanks on the history of these guns and how they came into their possession.

[Baconwallah]

I have just started a new thread on the Manchester Regt Forum. Perhaps the experts there can shed some light on this mystery.

John

[Baconwallah]

Unfortunately the members of the Manchester Regt Forum know no more than we do. The only information they could give was taken from the link already mentioned by Al in post #2.

John

[welchboy]

Still waiting a reply to my e mail from The Manchester Regimental Museum

[welchboy]

Just come across an interesting article on the web entitled " The British in Crete 1896 - 1913 ". In this it mentions that as part of the multinational force, the British via the Royal Navy removed a number of artillery pieces including 6 field guns and 233 cases of ammunition.
However, the 2nd Battalion is not mentioned in the article as being among the occupying British troops but clearly they were from September 1897 till August 1898, when the battalion was sent to Egypt( This may have been because there was an outbreak of fever in Canea and a number of British troops left the area for safer areas. ) returning in September till December of 1898, when they left for Hong Kong.
Now this is a leap in the dark. Is it possible that the guns were brought out at the same time as the battalion and landed in either Egypt or Hong Kong and then taken into care by the battalion, then to the UK.

[Baconwallah]

I have asked LtGen Riley and LtCol Crocker for further information. LtCol Crocker was curator of the RWF Museum in 2003, so he might know more.

John

[Baconwallah]

The Mystery remains. Neither LtGen Riley nor LtCol Crocker had ever heard of the Crete guns. They will search the minutes of the Trustees for clues.

John