This gun was cast by John and Henry King at Woolwich in
England in 1810. It was known as a three pounder as it fired a cast iron
ball weighing about three pounds or 1.4 kilograms. Small brass cannon of
this type were designed for use in the colonies or in mountainous areas, and
this particular cannon may have seen service in India between 1811 and 1840.
It was almost certainly brought to British North America
with a detachment of the 6th Regiment of Foot (The Royal First Warwickshire
Regiment), which garrisoned the Red River settlement in 1846 under Major John
Folliot Crofton's command. When the regiment returned to Britain in 1848,
this cannon was either left at Red River or York Factory and was taken over by
the Hudson's Bay Company. The Company then shipped two or three of these
cannon to Fort Edmonton.
When the fort was dismantled to make way for the
Legislature Building, two cannon were mounted on reproductions of naval
carriages and displayed outside the Legislature Library. In 1967 the
cannon were given to the Provincial Museum of Alberta. The third Fort
Edmonton gun may have been sent to the Victoria Armoury before being melted down
for scrap metal during the Second World War.
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