Just before I went out of town for the week, I started a rather long post originally trying to get information on a scale model
British 6 pder I picked up on Ebay.
The thread if you missed it.
http://www.gboreloaded.com/forums/index.php/topic,180234.0.htmlBoth Dan310624 and BoomJ responded with pictures they had saved, which gave me the next step in researching the origins of the model.
One of the documents was authenticated by a BP Hughes with the address "Headquarters, Royal Artillery, Woolwich, London.
Woolwich is a suburb in the southeast of London and at one time it was the location of the Royal armouries, which supplied
and manufactured most munitions. The production facilities are no longer there, but it is still the site of the Royal Artillery
museum.
I sent an Email to their contact link with a picture of the model and pictures of two of the documents that BoomJ provided.
One of the librarians was kind enough to reply with the following:
Ref. Aug.287
28th August 2009
Dear Mr White
Thank you for your recent communication.
I’m afraid we do not hold any paperwork relating to the production of these models, but I can provide some background for you.
The signature on the certificate is BP Hughes, or more precisely Major General Basil Perronet Hughes CB CBE. In 1971 he was the President of the Royal Artillery Historical Society, Comptroller of the Royal Artillery, and a Member of the Board of Management of the Royal Artillery Institution (RAI).
He was one of the regiments’ most prolific historians having just published his key note text: Hughes, Maj.-Gen. B. P., British Smooth-Bore Artillery. The Muzzle Loading Artillery of the 18th & 19th Centuries (London: Arms and Armour Press, 1969) [ISBN 85368 023 X] and 1970 was the 150th Anniversary of the Museum of Artillery, the Rotunda, whose collection was owned by the RAI.
He had “fingers in many pies” and was considered the artillery authority in the UK I think the production of your model was more an arrangement between him and the maker than between the maker and regiment.
I think this is borne out by the wording of the certificate: Headquarters Royal Artillery? Our full title is the Royal Regiment of Artillery, and it should have been HQ DRA, RA Barracks, Woolwich not Headquarters - Royal Artillery.
BP lent his name to many things.
Hope this all helps.
Yours sincerely
Paul Evans
Librarian[/i]
While the information is useful, it also is sort of a dead end. It appears that being a noted authority on artillery at the time (circa 1970), the late General Hughes (1903 to 1989) lent his name to the certification of the models, but this evidently had no connection to the museum or the Royal Artillery as a military organization.
Still, I have more information than I started with and who knows what I may turn up it I keep at it.
Thanks, again for the help.
Cheers
P.S.
I still have some more pictures of cannons and cannon models to post as soon as I can figure out which disks they are on and get a bit more organized.