Noon Day Gun

For at least 150 years, the arrival of noon in St. John’s has been announced by the firing of a gun on Signal Hill. It began as a military time signal, and the colonial government continued the practice after the British garrison departed in 1870. Several Noon Day Guns have been used over the years, each with its own story. The Noon Day Gun has been silenced three times since 1900. The most celebrated interruption came in 1906, when signalman Tom Rose was ordered not to fire the gun on Sundays because it disrupted church services. Public opinion soon overruled that decision, and the episode inspired Maurice A. Devine to write a poem that became part of St. John’s history.

Newfoundland and Labrador · Canada