Cleaning up an old War Horse

[ickmann]

Time to update..

Well, my uncle said that he would not be able to give me any good answers, so I sent the sample of the sand to a Geological Forensics expert..more or less on a whim and not expecting to get much for my efforts as the sample was small and the gentleman said that he more than likely would not be able to tell much...Anyway, I received an e-mail tonight and here are some extracts from his report.

"Forensic geologists at Geoforensics Inc. reviewed the sand sample from your 1916 Lee-Enfield rifle. No particular grains of sand in the sample provide a basis to identify a specific location(s). Ideally, the process to identify source location(s) for your sand would involve comparing your sample with samples from anticipated specific/souce locations. Additionally, the experiences of the geologists involved in the analysis also can play a significant role in determining the provenance of a sample.

Although we are unable to identify specific locations your rifle encountered, the diversity of the sample particles provides some bases to suggest the rifle encountered the following types of environments:

* Desert
* Marine
* Volcanic Sand
* Sandy Clay

Extrapolating from this information, the rifle possibly could have been used in the following geographic locations (consistent with the sample and British Army activity over the period involved):

* World War I:

- Middle East (e.g., Saudi Arabia), most of the sample material can be found in this area where British Troops were deployed.

* World War II (assuming the rifle was still in service in WWII)

- Salerno, Italy and/or Sicily,
- Northern Africa (e.g., Libya, Egypt)

These speculations are based on very limited evidence and meant to provide you with information for further research. If you haven't done so, you may want to consider trying to trace the rifle's serial number. It's a long-shot, but the War Office in Britain may have kept records.

Finally, in the "for what it's worth" category, you may be interested to know that the sample contained a portion/"clipping" of a fingernail. The form of the clipping suggests it was cut with something other than scissors (e.g. a nail clipper)."

...For the record, I do not groom myself in my work shop/gun bench room

Cheers,
Ian

Information

Warning: This is a relatively older thread This discussion is older than 360 days. Some information contained in it may no longer be current.

[jrhead75]

Stratton's research indicates the same s/n prefixes carried across all 3 years of both SSA & NRF production. My 'G' prefixed 1916 SSA shows a pretty even mix of both EFD and BSA marks on the body and various parts (for example, the trigger's BSA, the T/G is EFD). I've seen a grand total of 4 1916 SSAs myself (counting the OP's in this thread), and 2 of those, including mine, have been Canadian marked.

Interesting geological research...wish I'd thought to have someone check the vegetable and mineral matter that I've pulled out of my rifles over the years.

[Gav]

Finally, in the "for what it's worth" category, you may be interested to know that the sample contained a portion/"clipping" of a fingernail. The form of the clipping suggests it was cut with something other than scissors (e.g. a nail clipper)."

Ok, so are you now going to try for DNA for a previous owner?

[ickmann]

Nah..poor old chap has probably passed on by now.