One of the burning questions of our time laid to rest...

Well it's not quite as dramatic as that, but I did manage to stumble across some source material on a question that was discussed here some time back.

Purely by luck, I happened upon a blurb towards the end of John Walter's excellent "Guns of the Gurkhas" that mentioned the Indian practice of stamping the initials of the issuing arsenal along with the other data on the stock disks, and cited "Instructions for Armourers, Government of India Army Department, 1911", so I dug up a copy and (as seen in the below scans), found this...

Attachment 31040 Attachment 31041

The one difference I've noted between instruction and practice seems to be the addition of the 'A' for 'Arsenal' for those locations with only one initial. In other words, Fort William Arsenal and Rawal Pindi Arsenal are usually denoted simply 'F.W.' & 'R.P.' while facilities like Quetta and Allahabad Arsenals would be denoted 'Q.A.' & 'A.A'. I don't recall ever seeing one stamped with only the single initial as illustrated in table VII above.

Great piece of detective work JR. Just watch the questions come in now..............

Just a further observation to the info by JR. The info certainly adds considerable credence to the info given to me by the Indian Army Liaison Officer here at Warminster some years ago. When he said that the AA, AL, RP etc etc were indicative of the State Forces markings. The markings are not often seen now he told me, due to the fact that some of the States are now on the '...other side of the border'. But they still exist on old kit like the Para military kit, equine saddlery and ceremonial lances and ceremonial field guns..... you know the sort of stuff I mean!

Great work JR