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FlightRN, if you have a UIN that's perfect, that is actually what I was referring to (bottle of red involved) as the NSN is the same for every L42 that exists. Unfortunately its down to luck as to whether the UIN was hand written on or in a chest. Try the Royal Armouries as they have an extensive list of UIN's and may be able to shed some light.
Michael,
Look carefully around the chest as there will probably be a poorly over painted Unit Call sign Indicator somewhere especially on the ends, may even be a rubber stamp on the inside of the pamphlets shown in your image. There should be something to assist you, if its gobbledegook to you ask on here one of us will be able to help I'm sure.......good luck[COLOR="black"]
---------- Post added at 09:55 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:46 AM ----------
Michael,
1 Bn Royal Irish are now part of 16 Air Assault Brigade at Colchester, if my Regimental history is correct the Gurkhas on amalgamation, would have sent the rifles back to Donnington and from there, they would be reissued to Royal Irish, and it fits in with the date you have roughly anyway.
I can also confirm British Forces Post Office 803 was Armagh, Northern Ireland.........................sends shivers down my spine just remembering that.
So just from the basic info you have found around the rifle, the Gurkhas were issued it in 1990, amalgamated in 1994 and the Royal Irish were then the new owners thereafter.
6th (County Armagh) Battalion, Royal Irish Regiment (formerly the 2nd/11th Battalion of the Ulster Defence Regiment) were housed in Armagh Camp for the duration during the troubles after amalgamation, so it does fit with what you have already
Michael, Colchester was 19 Infantry Brigade back in the late eighties - early nineties, I was 3 Royal Green Jackets in that brigade and all our L42's went back to Donnington in 88 in exchange for the L96. I think all outfits had the L96 by 1992 and in fact I think 92is the official year the L42 was decommissioned.
Thats probably right actually, but at least its a head start. It could be the Royal Irish were users before the Gurkhas of course, which appears more likely now
Thanks everyone. Great intel.
There were still a few L42's floating around in the system until much later. I picked up 4 from the TA down in the South plus one that came back from the Falklands that'd been there for ages. I asked the sniper div if they wanted one (or two) on long loan from the SASC HQ (which meant as 'service' weapons, they could use them!) for historic purposes but they weren't really interested. Then in 2001 or so the last two trickled back to Donnington from ? and we took them just for a bit of history. The VERY last one is now at Warminster with a couple of others and the second to last we gave to the NZ Army at Waiouru and gave one to Singleton too.
The CES's were all (?) stripped of certrain parts that were to be transferred over to the L96 CES such as the cleaning stick, cleaning tin and the slings. The disposal instructions issued from Abbey Wood via EM Andover was that the IWS/IIW bracket and stuff associated with the IWS (I suppose they are referring to the IIW user handbooks and docs as there was nothing else in tyhe rifle chest) should be separated and side loaded to be retained with the IIW/night vision. THat's why there was never one in the L42 chest after disposal. Like I always say. If there WAS, it was added later!
Incidentally, when we talk about the UIN, it's the Unit Identity or identification Number or code. It's a letter A plus 3 or 4 numbers together with another A or occasionally a letter B. So the strange number you need to find would be A-1234-A. The rub is that the identification of the unit that these relate to is restricted info!
Added a bit........... We did originally display the last L42 as 'the last true Lee Enfield' in the UK MIlitary but some Cadet forces were still using the old DP L59's............ thousands of 'em! So when we looked into changing the wording to 'the last service use of the Lee Enfield' thatwas wrong because there were still loads of little No8's still in service. We then decided to call it 'the last full-bore Lee Enfield in service' That was OK for a year - until we found that the Technical Quartermaster still had on charge and on the WOCS books what was REALLY the last full-bore Lee Enfield in UK Miltary service. It'd been on the books since 1955. A No1 Mk3. And that is the last full bore Lee Enfield in UK Military service. STILL on the WOCS/SSR books.
So the next time you read some olf flannell about XY or Z having just acquired this that or the other......... Buy the rifle and not HIS story!