Wellington College Field Gun

The staff and pupils of Wellington College in Berkshire keep the traditions of the Field Gun Competition alive in a very special way.

Students, with an average age of about 16, train for just the summer term with a gun and limber with a combined weight of just over 700lbs.  The Field Gun Run is one of the highlights of Speech Day. This year, the B Crew conducted a demonstration run in slow time and the A Crew ran against the clock.

Click here to view the 2007 Run on YouTube.

The Field Gun run at Wellington was started in 1984 by CPO Edwin Harris, SSI and Lieutenant Commander S.R. Braidwood R.N. (Ret'd), the C.O. of the Royal Navy Section of the CCF at the time. The gun and limber used at Wellington are scaled down versions of the real thing, but the rigging, walls and chasm are full sized.

Training for the 2008 crew was hampered by bad weather however; they managed a running time of 4:35 on speech day. First time runners were presented with a Wellington College Field Gun Tie and those running for the last time were presented with commemorative plaques. Presentations were made by London Wasps and England Flanker James Haskell, a former Wellington College Field Gunner.