The Victoria Cross Guns
The Cold War Gallery also houses the two most famous guns in the collection, if not the world!
The Victoria Cross Guns have supplied the bronze gunmetal from which over 800 of the Victoria Cross medals have been made. The first VCs are said to have been made from Russian guns captured at Sebastopol during the Crimean War. These guns, however, are Chinese, and were almost certainly captured during the Second Anglo-Chinese War of 1860 and were used to supply the metal to Hancock's Jewellers, manufacturers of the VC medal since c.1914. Both guns are approximately 18-pounders of mid 19th century manufacture and are 9ft 4ins and 10ft long respectively. The missing ‘buttons' or cacables at the rear of each gun indicate the region from which the VC metal was taken.