"First Round" picture

[bcerha]

I've just sent these to soren as he wants to do a sketch of a 13pdr in action , but these are from a picture done in 1993 by a lady called Dawn Waring and show E bty RHA firirng the first British artillery round of WW1 on the Western Front at approx 9.30 am on Sat 22 Aug 1914on the outskirts of a village called Bray near Peronne, just east of Mons. The Battery Commander Major A B Forman RHA is the central figure on the horse whilst to the rear of the gun is the section commander Lt C T Walwyn RHA.

Enjoy

[bcerha]

Ooops, sorry first attempt to upload picture has for some reason failed- will try again.

DWL

[bcerha]

here it is

[bcerha]

and here is the other one

[ypres1418]

This painting is fantastic thanks for sharing it with us, the detail, i can almost here the orders been given,

thanks again Mandy

[chrisnation]

Does anybody know where Dawn Waring got the info on gun personnel from? The notice by the first shot shell case in the RHA History Room, Tidworth, has it that Lt Maxwell was o/c the gun that fired it.

[Guest exuser1]

If I recall did not the IMW get the survivors of the crew together in 1964 with the gun , there was a article also in a early 1970s issue in After The Battle magazine ?

[Gallia Belgica]

There are several photographs I know of picturing Lt. Walwyn. One shows him with two other senior officers - Geoffrey Neville and someone called Carbery, whose name I may have misspelt. Another shows 7 members of E battery crew, R.H.A., a sergeant and a subaltern. This subaltern is pictured again in a third photograph with two junior officers. Another two are photographs of Neville on horseback in 1916 and Neville asleep in a caravan.

In addition to these, I have posted an image on this forum of the aforementioned sergeant standing beside No. 4 gun, E Battery, Royal Horse Artillery. Dated in pencil on the reverse of the photograph reads - [The gun that fired first round in the war Aug 21 1914].

According to a 1911 New Zealand newspaper (Grey River Argus) Lt. C. L. T. Walwyn, R.H.A. won the Canadian Challenge Cup with his horse The Nut:

http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&d=GRA19110125.2.35

If I recall did not the IMW get the survivors of the crew together in 1964 with the gun , there was a article also in a early 1970s issue in After The Battle magazine ?

There was a BBC television documentary series in 1964 [The Great War] made with help from the Imperial War Museum. I thought it would be in Episode 4 but I haven't found it.