Showing Defences June to August 1900

Plan Of British Legation Peking 1900

The British Legation was the safest compound during the siege. Located centrally in the besieged area and a fair distance from the city wall it was difficult for enemy fire to reach the premises. That was why a good part of the diplomatic society chose to settle here in the summer of 1900. In this map it can be seen where nuns, children and citizens of countries that had lost their legations like the Austrians made their temporary homes inside the legation. The map is typical of the kind of souvenir paraphernalia that was produced after the siege. Legendary nicknames of positions and items like ”Fort Oliphant” and “The International Gun” are all shown in the map.

British historian Diana Preston outlines the origins of the International Gun in her book The Boxer Rebellion:
“The besieged were in danger of being overrun or blown up without the guns or the ammunition to hold back the tide. However, on 7 July they had a stroke of luck. Chinese converts discovered the rusty old muzzle of a gun lying neglected in a foundry. Some people believed that it dated from the Anglo-French expedition of 1860, but it was probably just a common Chinese iron cannon. Far more interesting to the besieged than its origins was the fact that it was still serviceable. A resourceful American gunner, Sergeant Mitchell, scraped off the rust and mounted the muzzle on a spare set of wheels belonging to the Italian gun. The shells brought by the Russians for the gun they had abandoned on the railway platform at Tientsin, and which they had flung down a well, were retrieved and found to be quite a good fit.
The new gun had no sights and was too inaccurate for long range shots. It also had terrific recoil and produced clouds of sooty black smoke so that its whereabouts were hard to keep secret. Nevertheless, it dealt very efficiently with nearby barricades and it certainly surprised the Chinese. As [American diplomat] William Bainbridge wrote: “This unexpected addition to our equipment must have led to much speculation among the ignorant Chinese soldiery as to the warlike resources of the foreign devil who could thus apparently construct a cannon out of his inner consciousness.” [British Sinologist] Edmund Backhouse later claimed that the Empress dowager told him it had made an exasperating noise and kept her awake during her siesta time. The besieged regarded their new weapon with pride and affection, lavishing a range of nicknames on her from ”The International” because of her multinational provenance to “Old Betsey”, “Puffing Betsey”, “Boxer Bill”, and even “The Empress Dowager””.