RE 121 — The 1st Screw-Gun Mountain Battery, 4

The 4th of a series of 7 photographs intended to demonstrate the loading of a complete ‘Screw-Gun’ on six mules, showing an Anglo-Indian soldier (Havildar Major Roor Singh) guiding the mule. This one is loaded with the breech, the shorter back part of the barrel of the 7 Pounder RML (Rifled Muzzle Loading) gun, fastened on a special pack-saddle with additional saddle-straps.The RAM copy of this photograph shows at the left edge Lieut. H.A. Inglis.

The 4th of a series of 7 photographs intended to demonstrate the loading of a complete ‘Screw-Gun’ on six mules, showing an Anglo-Indian soldier (Havildar Major Roor Singh) guiding the mule. This one is loaded with the breech, the shorter back part of the barrel of the 7 Pounder RML (Rifled Muzzle Loading) gun, fastened on a special pack-saddle with additional saddle-straps. The RAM copy of this photograph shows at the left edge Lieut. H.A. Inglis.

[Album:] The 1st Screw gun Mountain battery. [Letter to Colonel H.A. Inglis:] In the picture of the Breech load you are caught doing up your puttee but this has not come out as clearly in the copy as in the original. The driver with the mule is Roor Singh, the Havildar Major. [S&M List:] 2-65 One Gun and Equipment 6/8 R.A. on Mules.

Original:
Maggs: Private collection of Bryan Maggs, Collection BS&M, Fol. 36, top;
RAM: Royal Artillery Museum: one of seven loose photographs, attached to a letter, addressed to Colonel H.A. Inglis, dated 26th Nov 1912, Acc. No. 1604
Not in the albums of the RE Collections at Chatham.
Royal Artillery Museum, Woolwich, Acc. No. 1604: Letter addressed to Colonel H.A. Inglis, dated 26th Nov 1912, together with a set of later copies of these photographs.
The Second Afghan War 1878-80: Abridged Official Account (1908), p. 714: Royal Artillery, 8th Brigade, No. 6 Mountain Battery (7-pr. jointed screw guns), Major T. Graham.
Hensman, H. (1882): The Afghan War of 1879-80, the Mountain Battery is several times mentioned as being especially useful on the rough Afghan terrain.
Adamec, L.W. (1985): Kabul and southeast Afghanistan, p. 727: Sherpur, "The cantonment built by Amir Sher Ali, 1 mile to the north of Kabul city, and in which the British army, under Sir Frederick Roberts, was beleaguered in December 1879. [...]"
Trevelyan, Ch.: Indian Army Mountain Artillery (www.king-emperor.com): “Although light in calibre, the guns of Mountain Batteries were designed to be disassembled and transported by pack mule in up to eight loads for use in terrain that would otherwise be impossible to traverse with larger and more conventional artillery. The earliest guns were the tiny 3 Pounder SBML (Smooth Bore Muzzle Loading) and 4 2/5 Inch SBML howitzer of c.1850. These were replaced in 1865 by the 7 Pounder RML (Rifled Muzzle Loading) and this in turn was replaced in 1879 by the significantly improved and significantly heavier 2.5 inch RML, also known as Kipling's Screw Gun (all mountain gun types from this 2.5 inch RML on had barrels that split in two for transport).“
Detailed description of the ‘Screw-Gun’: (www.kipling.org.uk/rg_screwguns1.htm)

Image No.

RE 121

Collection

Royal Engineers Museum, Library and Archive 1878-1880 1878-1880

Series

RE 116-140, Bryan Maggs Collection

Format

Maggs: Albumen paper with gold toning, 112/154 mm, mounted on loose sheets of strong undulated chamois paper; RAM: Copy made in 1912 of a BS&M photograph, 130/190 mm

Quality

Maggs: severely faded, damaged on the upper margin; RAM: centre: good, edges: almost completely faded

Place, date

Kabul, early May 1880

Descriptors

0101. Kabul City

1.55 Pictures of Objects

2.126 Kabul and SE-Afghanistan

4.364 Second A.-A. War (1878-1880)

4.84 Military Equipment, Armaments

Latitude / Longitude34.536703 / 69.175716

Google Earth34°32'17" N / 69°11'20" E / 1800 m