39 Many attempts were also made to fit 4.7- inch guns on field carriages for use by the Army’s Siege Train. The gun was usually referred to as: •
Ordnance Quick Firing 4.7-inch Mark I to III 41 cwt (Mark IV 42 cwt) on central pivot pedestal mounting Mark I, I*, II, III and IV with cradle and hydro-spring recoil.
On l6 January 1900, while Gen. Buller’s forces were engaged at Spion Kop, Gen. Barton requested a naval “4.7”, mounted on a railway truck to shell a Boer position. The Natal Government Railways provided a truck and Capt. Scott had it strengthened with timber before mounting a gun on a beam platform similar to those provided for the Ladysmith guns. The platforms of the Ladysmith guns consisted of timber beams, 3.7 meters in length, in the shape of a cross to give it equal stability all round. On the rail mounted version, the cross members were cut shorter for movement through railway tunnels and was secured to the truck by chains. Lady Randolph Churchill fired the first round from this gun and it was subsequently named after her.
“Lady Randolph Churchill”, the first of four-rail mounted 4.7-inch QF gun used at Pieter’s Hill.
Because of the amount of energy absorbed by the gun’s hydraulic cylinders, very little recoil energy was transmitted to the truck. Consequently, the gun was stable enough to be fired at right angles to the railway line. Extra stability had to be given to the gun if it was used off the railway truck. This was done by supplying a movable beam which could be bolted on the mounting. Gen. Buller preferred the rail mounted gun to the wheeled version as the gun’s recoil system absorbed the firing stresses, and being rigidly mounted, the gun mounting did not move on firing, which allowed a rapid rate of fire. The wheeled gun was also more cumbersome to displace, on occasion as many as 32 oxen being required. By 10 April 1901 21 guns of this design had been landed by the Navy and had fired 11,299 shells. Two more guns were taken from Cape defences, while a further 24 were sent to South Africa between June 1899 and June 1902. Of these numbers only four 4.7-inch guns are said to have been mounted on rail trucks, the majority doing service on wheeled carriages as improvised field guns. With the arrival of the Army Corps, 19 guns were handed over to the Army while some were apparently returned to the Navy to see action in China. In 1900 a heavier 4.7-inch model “B” was introduced to replace the guns extemporised by the Navy during the Boer War. The Army also introduced a new coastal defence gun, the Mark V, during the same time. During the early part of World War I ten guns were removed from minelayers and were adapted for antiaircraft fire to be used during the London defences. Numerous guns of this calibre were also manufactured for export by Elswick and Vickers and these armed the ships of nations like Italy, Spain, Japan and the US; a few Italians guns still being employed on capital ships as late as World War II to fire starshells.