The BL 6 inch gun Mk V [note 1] was an early Elswick Ordnance Company breech-loading naval gun originally designed to use the old gunpowder propellants.
This was an Elswick Ordnance export design, completely different from and longer (30-calibres, 183.5 inch bore) than the contemporary 26-calibres British naval service 6-inch Mk III, IV and VI guns designed by the Royal Gun Factory, although it fired the same 100-pound projectiles.
Several were acquired by the British government for coast defence in the UK and were given the designation 6-inch gun Mark V. The breech fittings and firing mechanism were modified in British service to standardize them with the British service guns, Mark IV and VI.
[10] During the 1890s, when the new "QF" technology of loading propellant charges in brass cases to increase the rate of fire was in favour, 4 guns were returned from New South Wales, Australia to the UK to be converted to QF.
2 of the resulting QFC guns are known to have been still in commission until 1945, in the Princess Royal Fortress defending the port of Albany, Western Australia.