No.1 Mark III* 1918 Enfield

[Sarge39]

Found this one locally for cheap, and it obviously sat in somebody's closet for the last few decades. Its currently disassembled soaking in oil, and I've applied RLO to the stock. Its nice to find a good example like this that bubba has not messed with.

Its cleaning up real nice, and I was able to get the rear sight to move again. I'll post more pics when its re-assembled, but I have to wait on a replacement band, because unfortunately, the original is just too far gone to re-use.











The stock disc is original to the rifle, and reads February 1920, 1st BN Leicestershire Regiment, rifle 74 as far as I can tell. The "PW" on the top is confusing, but a guy in the UK seems to think its a poorly struck "R" indicating a repair after WWI in Weedon. I can't wait to get this back together.

Information

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[browningautorifle]

Nice rifle, good find for you.

[Sarge39]

Thanks. If anyone knows where I can score a band marked EFD 52 with the broad arrow mark, please let me know. I do have an original band on the way, but would like to find one that's marked proper.
As I said before, this rifle is cleaning up really well...far better than I would have thought.

[RCS]

Call Springfield Sporters in PA and tell him about the band and marking

[Homer]

Nice one.

[jrhead75]

It's almost certainly a "PW"...it's shown up on other rifles over the years (see attached picture for an example from the same timeframe).

Another possibility would be PeshaWar...the administrative center/capital of the old Northwest Frontier District, and now a major Pakistani Miltary/Airbase. The Northwest frontier was very active between the wars, from 1919 until the end of the '30s, and a lot of military operations were run by the British from there during that time. Both active battalions of the Leicestershire Regiment were in India at various times during this period. I realize that it would appear to be two words on the disk, but the Indian marking conventions could be a bit different...Rawalpindi shows up as both RP & R.P, Kirkee Arsenal often shows up as K.K.A, for example.

As a little side note, the Leicestershires were stationed at Peshawar for a while during the 19th century.

[Amatikulu]

Could the PW be for the Public Works battalions raised during WW1 for the Middlesex Regiment. Might be worth researching them as I know PW was used to identify their unit on their medals

[RobD]

re: the stock disc, let's try to work this out...
it is dated 2.20 (Feb 1920). As far as I know, unit markings ceased on English rifles after about 1916, but certainly in the Empire, the habit of marking discs went on far later.
ILEIC. - probably a lazy 1 LEIC.
LEIC. is the marking of The Leicestershire Regiment so this is probably 1st Batallion Leicesters.

Q:where were the 1st Leicesters in Feb 1920?
A: in Ireland 1919 till 1922, then England till 1925. Thus (if it is 1 LEIC. and not another outfit ILEIC.) then PW can't = Peshawar.

From A Short History of the Royal Leicestershire Regiment | Royal Leicestershire Regiment Online Archive | RLR I read that:
"In August 1919 the 1st Battalion was re-formed at Liverpool and in January of the next year was hurriedly sent over to Ireland and was stationed at Athlone. When the army was withdrawn from the newly formed Irish Free State in 1922, the 1st Battalion’s next station was Aldershot where it remained until January 1925. From here it went to Moascar, Egypt, then to Alexandria. In 1927 it went to India."

Any suggestions?

[jrhead75]

I suppose that's my fault for not including some of the conversation from the other site in my remarks...

The question isn't where the 1st Leic were in 1920...a quick look at the regimental history got that sorted out right off the bat. The question (on the other site) got to be more along the lines of when 1st Leic was applied to the disk, since there are two distinct fonts...and since other examples show up with nothing but the PW and a date, similar to the example above.

So far...
Theory one: Skennerton's TLE, The Broad Arrow, etc. mentions 'PW" as a Weedon mark meaning "Parts Worn", applied to various parts on re-issued arms. But in at least one subsequent conversation (circa mid 2010), he's stated that he doesn't believe that's what it means in this context, but doesn't know what it does mean.

Theory two: It's a Weedon repair/inspection mark.

Theory three: The P.W date and the unit info were applied at different times, and since the PW and date do follow known Indian marking regs, and both active battalions of the Leicestershire Regiment were in India during the '20s...Peshawar does still stand among the possibilities.

Any and all other theories, WAGs, and solid information would be welcome at this point...before PW turns into the next FR.