HMS Lancaster and the Canopus Hill Guns

By John Allan
September 2003

In late 1916 the Admiralty decided to install guns in order to prevent the high power wireless station at Port Stanley (situated near the modern Public Works Vehicles and Materials Yard at Megabid on Airport Road) being bombarded by an enemy raider, and to obviate the necessity of keeping a cruiser at Port Stanley to protect the station when she could be employed elsewhere to better advantage.

Directions were given for the cruiser HMS Lancaster to land two six inch, mark VII guns for installation.  Under the command of Captain J.R. Segrave R.N. HMS Lancaster arrived in Port Stanley on December 24, 1916.  Extracts from a despatch from Government House read:  
"The landing of one gun commenced 19 January 1917.  The distance from the landing to the Sapper Hill site is about a mile and a half and to Mount Lowe about two miles.  Each gun weighs seven and a half ton."

Further extracts from a despatch from Government House dated March 19, 1917 read:
"HMS Lancaster landed and mounted two guns, one on Sapper Hill, the other on Mount Lowe then returned to the Pacific Coast February 9, 1917.  At her time of departure the work of constructing magazines and shell rooms at the sites of the guns was in hand.  This work has since been completed as well as the erection of a telephone line connecting Mount Lowe with Headquarters in Port Stanley.  Sapper Hill was already connected.  On leaving, HMS Lancaster landed two officers and five men for each gun.  To complete the gun crews Captain Segrave requested twenty five men and two signallers from the Falkland Islands Volunteer Force and this strength has been furnished."

The ammunition put ashore was 500 full charges of cordite and 900 armour piercing shells plus 200 other rounds.  The officer commanding FIVF was Captain Newnham.  Mount Lowe had a permanent crew of eleven while Sapper Hill had five or six permanent with six or seven as required.  The following were the Falkland Islands Volunteers:- Corporals Newing, Etheridge, Brechin, and Rumbold.  Privates T. Hardy, R. Clifton, Goss, Polien, Lanning, J. Lehen, F. Allan (my father), Newman, S. Summers, J. Scott, W. Scott, J. Hollen, Stephen, Rieve, W. Goodwin, C.F. King, Alf Summers, R. Hutchinson, and Harries.

My father was stationed permanently on Mount Lowe until the outposts were withdrawn Christmas 1918 and was one who received gunnery instruction on board HMS Lancaster.  The personnel from HMS Lancaster left the Falklands on HMS Bristol on January 10, 1919.

I do not know exactly when the Mount Lowe gun was moved but it was certainly at Canopus in the early 1930s.  the Sapper Hill gun was moved there in 1943 by 200 men of the West Yorkshire Regiment.  Both guns are situated in six metres depth of pure peat.

Our thanks to the author, John Allan of Stanley, for kindly allowing us to republish this article which first appeared in Penguin News

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