TOPIC:

Thank you David.
Thought I'd use the magic of Photoshop to correct the shortening evident in the last image .....

The spherical hand grenades are particularly interesting as it is apparent from the photograph that there were three sizes. This is the first evidence I have seen of this. I have seen examples of the type shown on the left (medium size). The larger and smaller ones are new to me. See: An Interesting Anglo-Boer War Item

Note the lead-coated 66 mm Broadwell [Krupp Mountain Gun] RBL shrapnel projectile to the left of the Mauser clip. This type of shell is discussed here: Messrs Begbie & Co's ammunition factory . Drawing of the projectile included below.







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Pair of grenades brought home by Lieutenant Hugh Richard Arthur Grosvenor, 2nd Duke of Westminster, A.D.C. to Lord Roberts.
After the taking of Pretoria, when off duty, soldiers took in the sights, including the Staatsartillerie barracks, where souvenir-hunters could fill their haversacks with curios. I suspect the Duke of Westminster, the officer who hoisted the Union Jack over the Boer capital, visited the barracks where he helped himself to these grenades. The Earl of Kerry, another of Lord Roberts's A.D.C's, also brought a grenade home, similarly making it into a cigar lighter. The latter example was given to Mr Francis Gregson as a wedding gift (Aberdeen Journal, 22 June 1903).
These examples are 70 mm in diameter.





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Fascinating items, Neville.

I agree - fascinating stuff, Neville, and beautifully photographed!
Keep 'em coming, and do start new topics/threads so you can show us different objects from your collection!
Rob

This is the commonest shell from the War, the 15 pr shrapnel shell. Huge numbers of these were fired, and a battery may fire over 400 rounds a day. The nose cone and shell casing are very robust and were often re-assembled into souveniers, the clue to it being fired being the grooves on the copper driving band. Final picture shows a damaged 15 pr nose cone, picked up on the battlefield 120 yrs later.

Lovely clean example, Rob. The base markings are so crisp.

Carrying on with the 15-pdr theme, here are photos of an example fired at Modder River by the 75th Battery R.F.A., and a fragment picked up on Surprise Hill, Ladysmith. Both show the orange (faded from red) paint indicative of shrapnel shell.

Modder River example with fuze marked: "6/99 R /|\ L IV 422 P". Head stamped: "3".

The Surprise Hill fragment consists of gun-metal fuse socket retaining lower part of T & P Fuze body (stem sheared off) and upper section of central gas pipe. Fuze fragment is of type "Time and Percussion No 56, Mark IV" (Treatise on Ammunition,1902, p. 172). Flange of socket retains some of its original red-orange paint (a red tip signifies shrapnel shell - see ToA 1902, p. 297). Found on Surprise Hill, Ladysmith, on 20th August 1981.
MARKINGS: Fuze body stamped: "R /|\ L" [Royal Laboratory], "IV" [Mk IV], "178" [amongst 178th thousand manufactured] and "P". Gas pipe stamped: "R /|\ L" [Royal Laboratory], "R" and with a small unidentified square symbol (inspection mark?).
During the siege of Ladysmith, the garrison expended 784 12-pdr and 3,768 15-pdr shells (Official History 1907, Vol. II, p. 655).





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