Galle Face Hotel’s annual Cannonball Run on 5 April

The Cannonball Run is celebrated annually at the Galle Face Hotel to commemorate an historic event that had taken place in 1845.

This year the annual Cannonball Run will be held on Thursday 5 April at the Patio of the Galle Face Hotel, Colombo. British High Commissioner John Rankin and Canadian High Commissioner Bruce Levy will take part in this year’s annual run.

The Cannonball had misfired during a practice session of a British artillery regiment on the Galle Face Green, and shot almost a mile down the Green, scoring a direct hit on the roof of the drawing room from where it rolled and came to rest beneath a chair.

The Governor at that time Sir Collin Campbell on hearing of the incident arrived to view “the incredible cannonball” and the mischief done. Over the years the hotel has marked this event with the Cannonball Run.

The run starts from near the cannon on the Galle Face Green and ends at the cannonball placed on a pedestal at the hotel.