emden gun

Everyday, to and from work, I pass the Emden Gun in Hyde Park;

"The four inch gun from the German ship Emden is mounted in the South East corner of Hyde Park, Sydney. The Emden was destroyed by the HMAS Sydney off the Cocos Islands in 1914."

"The German cruiser Emden, having escaped from Kiao-Chau before the Japanese and British war vessels had completed their investment, conducted a raiding cruise and destroyed many British trading vessels, and actually bombarded Madras. As is shown in the message of the Secretary of the Admiralty, however, the Emden was hunted down on November 9, at Keeling Cocos Island, and destroyed.

The Secretary of the Admiralty made the following announcement on November 11, 1914:-
The captain of the Emden (Captain von Muller) and Prince Franz Joseph of Hohenzollern are both prisoners and unwounded. The losses of the Emden in killed are reported unofficially as 200, with 30 wounded; no further details have been received." link

This ghostly image of the gun, looking straight up Oxford St around 1920, took a bit of enhancing just to get it to this degree of sorta clarity.

Today, that same figtree just a little broader in girth from age (but aren't we all).