HMS COLLINGWOOD is the keeper of a very Special Gun Carriage. Compared with the State Gun Carriage, which is kept in HMS EXCELLENT, it is small and ordinary, and the combined gun and limber are pulled along with the use of very few men. Today it is painted black, except for the woodwork on the wheels which is plain and heavily varnished. The limber has highly polished brass plates on the outside of the box lids. On the towing bar of the gun, just behind the eye, and facing upwards therefore hidden by the coffin platform, are several brass plates each telling of the history of the gun, who owned it, and who was conveyed to their funeral ceremony on it. The first attached brass plate mentions that this gun belongs to HMS PEMBROKE and that it was used for the funeral of non other than Admiral of the Fleet Sir Charles Madden at Westminster Abbey 7th June 1935. Subsequent plates show that it was also used for the funerals of:
Admiral of the Fleet Earl Jellicoe | November 26th 1935 at St Pauls Cathedral |
Admiral of the Fleet Earl Beatty | March 16th 1936 at St Pauls Cathedral |
Admiral of the Fleet Sir John Kelly | November 6th 1936 at St Martin in the Fields |
Admiral of the Fleet Sir Dudley Pound | October 25th 1943 Westminster Abbey |
Admiral of the Fleet Lord Keyes | January 4th 1946 Westminster Abbey |
Vice Admiral Sir St John Tyrwhit | October 19th 1961 at sea |
Admiral of the Fleet Viscount Cunningham | June 18th 1963 at sea |
Admiral of the Fleet Lord Chatfield | March 22nd 1967 at sea |