Visakhapatnam: British-era cannons found at Queen Mary School

Visakhapatnam: Four cannons from the British era were discovered by workers while they were digging for erecting pillars for the renovation of Queen Mary’s Girls High School, a heritage building in Old Town area of the city on Thursday morning. Archaeology experts said that the cannons were small compared to the conventional cannons and they could belong to the 18th century when the East India Company established an arms dump for their army’s north division headquarters.

The north division was administered by the Madras division. Around the 20th century, the army dump was shifted from there and the collector’s office was established. During transportation, the army men might have left behind some ammunition including these cannons, said a city-based historian and Intach member Edward Paul. He said that after the collector’s office was shifted to its present premises in 1913, a medical school was set up for training pharmacists and nurses.

Queen Mary School which was established elsewhere in 1913 and was shifted here to its present premises. The government school was exclusively for the young widows of coastal Andhra. Since the cannons were found at the depth of five feet, the archaeology department should stop construction for a while and begin excavation as something else of historical importance could be found, he suggested.

Mr Paul further said that the cannons were damaged and if cleaned scientifically, there were chances of finding some markings on the cannons which might throw some light on the history of the cannon. He also advised the government to shift the cannons to Visakha Museum and to keep one at the school for the students to understand the local history.