Victoria Battery (one of two identically-named batteries named after

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until Death and state funeral of Queen Victoria, her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 21 ...

) was an

artillery battery In military organizations, an artillery battery is a unit or multiple systems of artillery, mortar systems, rocket artillery, multiple rocket launchers, surface-to-surface missiles, ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, etc., so grouped to fac ...

in the

British Overseas Territory The British Overseas Territories (BOTs), also known as the United Kingdom Overseas Territories (UKOTs), are fourteen dependent territory, territories with a constitutional and historical link with the United Kingdom. They are the last remna ...

Gibraltar ) , anthem = " God Save the King" , song = " Gibraltar Anthem" , image_map = Gibraltar location in Europe.svg , map_alt = Location of Gibraltar in Europe , map_caption = United Kingdom shown in pale green , mapsize = , image_map2 = Gib ...

. It was built in the 1840s on top of the earlier Princess of Wales Batteries following a report by Major-General Sir

John Thomas Jones Major General Sir John Thomas Jones, 1st Baronet (25 March 1783 – 26 February 1843) was a British officer in the Royal Engineers who played a leading engineering role in a number of European campaigns of the early nineteenth century. Jones was ...

on Gibraltar's defences. The battery was located on the west side of Gibraltar and was one of a number of "retired" batteries in the territory, constructed to improve the coastal defences between

Europa Point Europa Point (Spanish language, Spanish and Llanito: Punta de Europa or Punta Europa), is the southernmost point of Gibraltar (the southernmost point of the Iberian Peninsula being Punta de Tarifa 25 km southwest of Gibraltar). At the end of ...

and the town. The battery was completed by 1843 and was nicknamed "Snake in the Grass Battery" due to its irregular undulating shape, measuring about long. It mounted fifteen 32-pdr. guns in 1850, seven of which were replaced in 1863 by 68-pdrs. In 1868 Colonel W.F.D. Jervois wrote a report into the defences of Gibraltar which recommended installing larger

rifled muzzle loader A rifled muzzle loader in the forecastle of HMS Gannet (1878) ">HMS_Gannet_(1878).html" ;"title="forecastle of HMS Gannet (1878)">forecastle of HMS Gannet (1878) A rifled muzzle loader (RML) is a type of large artillery piece invented in the mid ...

(RML) guns. Two 9-inch RMLs were installed in the south flank with iron casemates providing protection. This reduced the space available for the other guns to seven emplacements, of which three were occupied by 80-pdr. RMLs by 1888. The 9-inch RMLs were later replaced by 10-inch RMLs but all of the 80-pdrs. were removed in 1892, followed by the 10-inch guns in 1900. In 1878 a new battery, also called Victoria Battery, was constructed on the right flank of the earlier battery to house a 100 ton gun. It was completed in 1883 but fell into disuse within only five years, by which time the gun was already obsolete.

References

Batteries in Gibraltar {{Gibraltar-stub