Selection of shells produced in East Anglia

The Great War of 1914 to 1918 Picture Gallery of Bury St Edmunds and surrounds The East Anglian Munitions Committee   Picture Page 3 - Pictures of the main Committee Members

Sir Wifrid Stokes, KBE. Committee Chairman and author of the Report. Also inventor of the Stokes Gun at Ransomes and Rapier of Ipswich. The firm of Ransomes and Rapier was originally set up in 1869 to manufacture railway machinery. It was a spin-off from the old established firm of Ransomes, which itself dated back to 1789 at Ipswich. The Stokes Gun was a 3 inch portable trench mortar, which Stokes had designed. He had built, and demonstrated, a working prototype by January, 1915. At first rejected by the High Command, and then delayed by other munitions priorities, it first saw front line service in September 1915, at Loos. It was immediately popular with troops and with a range of 800 yards, it remained in service until World War II. Stokes received his knighthood for this invention.	Mr F H Crittall of the Crittall Manufacturing Co. of Braintree. He worked almost full time on the business of the committee.	Mr Mawdsley Brooke of J W Brooke & Co. at Lowestoft. Along with Mr Jefferies, he represented Suffolk on the Executive.
Mr Harold S Jefferies represented Suffolk on the Executive Committee. He represented Ransomes, Sims and Jefferies, and devoted much of his time to assisting Mr Crittal on Committee business until his death in June, 1917. The firm of Ransomes, Sims and Head became Ransomes, Sims and Jefferies, in 1881, when J R Jefferies took a share of the business. (Ransomes and Rapier continued as a separate, but linked, enterprise.)	Mr P A Sanders, OBE, of the Colchester firm of Davey, Paxman & Co had called the original first meeting in London of all the East Anglian manufacturers. He represented Essex on the Executive Committee.	Mr W H Scott of Laurence Scott and Co of Norwich, represented Norfolk on the Executive Committee.

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