963023 |
DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNTS |
NOTE |
The building was part of the Royal Navy Dockyard (see NH76NW 64.00) and was the machine shop. [...] |
2 August 2013 |
963317 |
DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNTS |
SUMMARY RECORD |
In the initial armament of the island a battery of two 12-pdr guns (of a total of eight on the island) were emplaced on the west part of the island (see NT18SE 22.02). Their location is shown on a map of 1915 (The National Archives WO 78/4417), along with a shelter, ammunition store and ‘earth closet’. In 1916, when the defences of Inchcolm were strengthened, a battery of four 4.7-inch guns was established here. The emplacements survive. The guns were transferred from Dalmeny and Downing Point Batteries, to which they had been sent from Kinghorn in October 1914. The guns were ready for action between January and July 1917, but a lack of accommodation for their crews on the island meant that they were not immediately brought into service (The National Archives WO 192/108). In 1916 the guns were known as Group “H” (the same as their 12-pdr predecessors). [...] |
16 August 2013 |
963314 |
DESCRIPTIVE ACCOUNTS |
SUMMARY RECORD |
The island was first manned for defence on 16 March 1915, when 72 NCOs and men from the Royal Garrison Artillery in Leith crossed to Inchcolm and Inchmickery. On Inchcolm they were to man a battery of eight 12-pdr Quick Firing guns (see NT18SE 22.02) and two or three Defence Electric Lights (powerful searchlights to illuminate targets at night, see see NT18SE 22.08). These guns and lights were explicitly intended to ‘cover’ the anti-submarine boom that controlled access up the Forth from this point. A map of August 1915 (The National Archives WO 78/4417) shows the location of the eight guns, as well as the layout of the men’s accommodation. Two of the guns were placed in the western part of the island (“H” Group) and six in the eastern part, around the summit of that part of the island (“O” Group facing north; “M” Group facing NE and “L” Group facing SE). The Battery Command Post and the Electric Light Director were behind these six guns. The 1915 map shows three electric lights, all in the eastern part of the island, one at the northern corner, at two at the eastern tip. [...] |
16 August 2013 |