The old girl is one of ours: an 18-pdr from the Great War. The casing was made in 1916, likely in the early part of the year (it has a November, 1915 primer). The 18-pound gun was our standard light field artillery piece for the entire period of the First War, saw service again during the Second. There is an 18-pounder piece in the Artillery Museum at CFB Shilo, in perfect operating condition. Kind of place a real History teacher should visit.... and it's free, too!
The battles engraved are mostly from the early part of War One. Big fight at Givenchy for the Canadians was about 3 weeks after Second Ypres; I had a friend who was blown up there, 2 nights before the big attack. When I knew him, 50-odd years later, he was still oozing chunks of iron out of his head from the 90-pounder that Fritz dropped into the bay. The BRITISH fought at Givenchy a year later, so little did the Front actually move despite the utterly horrific casualties; that is what THIS engraving commemorates.
Cheshire Regiment had several Battalions during the Great War. Fifteenth and Sixteenth are interesting, as they are known as Birkenhead 1 and Birkenhead 2. Both were formed by MP Alfred Bigland, the 15th on November 18, 1914, the 16th a fortnight later on December3, 1914. Both Battalions moved to France in January of 1916. Interestingly, 15th served out the whole course of the War, but 16th was disbanded in Belgium on February 6, 1918, likely for replacements for other formations short on manpower.
Another interesting point is that both Battalions, despite the "big" name of the man who instigated them, were populated entirely by very SHORT men. Yes, both were "Bantam" Battalions, the Celtic Welsh being on average considerably shorter than Anglo-Saxons or Anglo-Normans. Because of this shorter stature, the men often had trouble using the SMLE rifle, which came only with 3 lengths of Butt: Short, Normal and Long. The problem was solved by designing and making a FOURTH size of Butt for the rifles: the BANTAM BUTT. So think of the Cheshires the next time you see a Lee-Enfield Butt with that "B" stamping.
I would suspect rather strongly that the "M.G.S." stands for "Machine Gun Section".
The Cheshires have a good history available on the 'Net. You can find it at:
http://www.1914-1918.net/cheshire.htm
GREAT old souvenir. This type of bring-back is generally termed "Trench Art". Ignored for many years, it actually is becoming more desirable almost by the day. I suspect prices will skyrocket in about another 2 years..... when we mourn the Centennial of that awful struggle.
Hope this helps.
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