Langton
28-12-2005, 02:45 PM
Hi,
I have been researching my Great Grandfather Lt Col John Henry Langton DSO and with kind help gathered a wealth of information. I am now starting to look through the 'artefacts' which have remained in the family including his medals (full size, miniture and material), telegram, shoe polish kit and a field gun shell which he crudely engraved. I plan to take clearer photographs in the near future but attach the below in the hope somebody can tell me more about the gun from which it was fired. I don't even know if the top and bottom half belong to each other or if it was fired AT the British or By the British!!!
I know that John Langton served for 7 years in SA during the Boer Wars as an NCO (the Lt Col DSO etc coming during his service in WW1 Western Front), the shell is engraved with Boer War 1900 JHL on the front and 4th Field Troop RE on the back. I assume he was serving at the time though have also read that shortages in ammunition led the army to request all shells be returned for reuse so perhaps he should not have kept this!
I am not sure which era this shell is from .... whilst it is engraved 1900 I have no way of telling if this is a reflection of the date it was in use. To my knowledge 1900 was not a specifically important date in the Boer War (correct me if I'm wrong ... more than possible!) so I suppose it could simply be a New Year \ Century memento! That said I do recall reading somewhere that the war was expected to finish in 1900 so maybe it was in preperation for that.
I have seen other discussions about Field Gun shells and they seem to have a lot of markings on them which help identify where it was manufactured etc ... unfortunately this only has letters on the top section (the business end) with "p a" on the top and "v" on the underside ... no idea what that means (though think V is a marking to show an item is military?).
Anyway, any info on the shell type would be gratefully received.
I have been researching my Great Grandfather Lt Col John Henry Langton DSO and with kind help gathered a wealth of information. I am now starting to look through the 'artefacts' which have remained in the family including his medals (full size, miniture and material), telegram, shoe polish kit and a field gun shell which he crudely engraved. I plan to take clearer photographs in the near future but attach the below in the hope somebody can tell me more about the gun from which it was fired. I don't even know if the top and bottom half belong to each other or if it was fired AT the British or By the British!!!
I know that John Langton served for 7 years in SA during the Boer Wars as an NCO (the Lt Col DSO etc coming during his service in WW1 Western Front), the shell is engraved with Boer War 1900 JHL on the front and 4th Field Troop RE on the back. I assume he was serving at the time though have also read that shortages in ammunition led the army to request all shells be returned for reuse so perhaps he should not have kept this!
I am not sure which era this shell is from .... whilst it is engraved 1900 I have no way of telling if this is a reflection of the date it was in use. To my knowledge 1900 was not a specifically important date in the Boer War (correct me if I'm wrong ... more than possible!) so I suppose it could simply be a New Year \ Century memento! That said I do recall reading somewhere that the war was expected to finish in 1900 so maybe it was in preperation for that.
I have seen other discussions about Field Gun shells and they seem to have a lot of markings on them which help identify where it was manufactured etc ... unfortunately this only has letters on the top section (the business end) with "p a" on the top and "v" on the underside ... no idea what that means (though think V is a marking to show an item is military?).
Anyway, any info on the shell type would be gratefully received.