Westmount Battery fires cannons in honour of Queen Elizabeth II

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Two refurbished British cannons had been fired Saturday by the Westmount Battery earlier than about 150 individuals on the Westmount Athletic Grounds in honour of Queen Elizabeth II, who died Sept. 8.

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The pair of cannons, made in 1810 when George III was king, had been final fired in Westmount in 1897 for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee. One was fired in June in a salute to Queen Elizabeth on the event of her Platinum Jubilee.

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The cannons had been dropped at Canada within the 1850s, stated Patrick Martin, president of the Westmount Battery and a historical past buff. The front-loading cannons, which weigh about two tonnes apiece, had been changed by sooner breech-loading weapons within the 1840s, so their position was purely ceremonial, Martin stated.

When the army needed to eliminate the cannons on the finish of the nineteenth century, the Sons of England, a fraternal order, acquired them and donated them to town of Westmount. They had been stored in Westmount Park for a few years however, because the carriages rotted, the cannons grew to become harmful and had been faraway from the park about 20 years in the past and saved.

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Martin, who was a Westmount metropolis councillor from 2006 to 2017, labored with a gaggle of volunteers hooked up to the 2nd Area Artillery Regiment, a reserve unit, to co-ordinate the restoration of the cannons’ bronze barrels and the traditionally correct rebuilding and reforging of the carriages based mostly on plans from the unique 1810 design.

Greater than 1,000 of the cannons had been made, he stated, and solely the 2 in Westmount — which have consecutive serial numbers — stay.

Martin launched the Saturday ceremony and described the historical past of the cannons. Charles de Kovachich, retired honorary colonel of the 2nd Area Artillery Regiment, Royal Canadian Artillery, and vice-president of the Westmount Battery, stated the cannons had been being fired in honour of Queen Elizabeth — who was the Canadian army’s longest-serving commander-in-chief and likewise captain-general of the Royal Regiment of Canadian Artillery — and described the process of loading the cannons with gunpowder and making ready them to be fired.

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Three dignitaries participated within the firing of the cannons: Jennifer Maccarone, MNA for the driving of Westmount—Saint-Louis, fired the primary of the clean rounds — there isn’t a cannonball within the barrel, solely gunpowder — and Westmount Mayor Christina Smith fired the second. Former Westmount councillor George Bowser, concerned throughout his time on council in having the cannons refurbished, fired the third.

sschwartz@postmedia.com