Nanaimo Bastion

This week’s photograph shows one of the two guns standing on the Nanaimo Bastion.

The guns are fired at noon every day during the summer to welcome visitors to the City of Nanaimo, British Columbia, Canada.

The historic cannon cast by Bailey Pegg & Co. Brierly Hill, Staffordshire, England in 1823 were possibly ordered by the Hudson’s Bay Company. Although the guns were never fired in anger as the bastion was never attacked, in addition to being fired for ceremonies and celebrations, the smoothbores were used to impress the local tribesmen.

Bill Poppy wearing a Cameron tartan kilt and regimental badge on his bonnet has played the pipes at the noon day salutes for over twenty years.

When broadcaster Melvin Bragg visited Edinburgh Castle recently, he was given a run down on the time ball and the One o’ Clock Gun by Sergeant Shannon the District Gunner.

Photograph courtesy of Nanaimo Museum