Rare Boer War Gold mounted pendant made from a piece of artillery shell fired into Kimberley by “Long Tom” during the siege:
Inscribed: ‘PART OF FIRST 100 POUND BOER SHELL FIRED INTO KIMBERLEY’
on one side and ‘KIMBERLEY BESIEGED 4TH NOVEMBER 1899 RELIEVED BY GEN. FRENCH 15 FEBRUARY 1900’
Note: See page 184-185 of The Boer War by Thomas Pakenham 1979 for an account of these bombardments.
Dimensions: 1.5 cm tall by 1.2 cm wide by 0.4cm thick.
Weight: 5 grams gross.
The Siege of Kimberley lasted 124 days and was finally relieved on 15 February 1900 by a cavalry division under Lieutenant-General John French, part of a larger force under Lord Roberts. From the 7th of February the Boers used the much heavier 100-pounder “Long Tom” to counter “Long Cecil”
Photo sourced on SOUTH AFRICAN CANNON ASSOCIATION- http://www.sa-cannon.com/long_tom.html#.XWXxs-gzaUk
Long Tom being loaded during the siege of Mafeking- Photo sourced from Wikipedia- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/155_mm_Creusot_Long_Tom