Kimberley Siege: RML 2.5 inch shell

[Marcus H]

I thought this might be of some interest to some. I must have owned this for twenty or more years, and I bought it from an antiques shop in Northamptonshire; not too far away from where I live.

This is a rather unusual and perhaps indeed even a scarce acquisition: in that, it is one of the locally produced ordnance by De Beers Consolidated Mines, Ltd. This was in fact the company that owned all of the Kimberley diamond mines, so hence, they were then to facilitate the use of their workshops to make shells, fuzes, charges, etc, in the dire need to supply the garrisons token guns.

Most of the few artillery pieces were the RML (''Screw-Gun'') 2.5 inch, MK 11, guns and this example is a 7lb segment shell with the Labram fuze; this fuze type was later incorporated in the shells for ''Long Cecil,'' a gun designed and built from scratch in the De Beers' workshops at Kimberley. And, not forgetting the inscription, ''COMP CJ RHODES'' akin to the chalk ''messages'' and marking of bombs to even in this day and age, too.

There was once actually a partial and albeit illegible white hand-painted inscription on the rim on the plinth, but my wife and Mr Sheen deprived me of deciphering that. That is, the shell would at a time reside on my desk at home in the UK, until number four daughter came along and I was relegated to a laptop and the dining room. Incidentally, it is inert, and for peace of mind I had a couple of the EOD sorts look at it at work a number of years ago, now.

I'm sure I haven't got all the facts and details correct, so bear with me on that and I stand to be corrected.

Kind regards,

Marcus

[Marcus H]

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