Long Cecil, noun phrase

Origin:
British EnglishShow more Named for Cecil John Rhodes, by analogy with British English Long Tom a large gun with a long range.
A 28-pounder long-range gun improvised during the siege of Kimberley in response to the ‘Long Tom’ guns of the Boers.
1900 H.C. Notcutt How Kimberley Was Held 27The workshops of De Beers were..put on their mettle, and on January 19th the new gun, which had been christened ‘Long Cecil’, was tried for the first time.
1930 H.A. Chilvers Seven Lost Trails of Afr. 232 (Swart)On the stylobate stands Labram’s gun, ‘Long Cecil’.
1972 L. Herrman in Std Encycl. of Sn Afr. VI. 514During the siege of Kimberley he (sc. George Labram) was one of the defenders and made a famous gun, popularly known as ‘Long Cecil’, in De Beers’ workshops. He constructed it from steel shafting and within 24 days it was shelling the Boer lines. Named after Cecil Rhodes, it is still preserved in Kimberley.
1979 T. Pakenham Boer War (1982) 323George Labram, De Beers’ enthusiastic American engineer, had succeded in improvising a 4-inch gun...On 19 January, ‘Long Cecil’, as the gun was christened, first opened his mouth, and out came a 28-pound shell that flew, accurately enough, five miles through the air, smack into a Boer laager.
A 28-pounder long-range gun improvised during the siege of Kimberley in response to the ‘Long Tom’ guns of the Boers.
Entry Navigation

Visualise Quotations

Quotation summary

Senses

19001979

Browse Related Words

By Category

Weapons and Armaments
South African War
long-arm, adjectiveadj.long drop, noun phrasen. phr.
Copyright © 2025 Dictionary Unit for South African English