That's an interesting one Harry, my gut feeling (or assumption) would be that the hand of Parker Hale or AJ Parker lies somewhere in the supply chain.

An old customer of mine regaled me once with stories of an SMLE at AJ Parkers whose furniture was made of lignum vitae, (it wasn't a success!) but went on to say that the RAF's shooting team always went to AJ Parker's for their rifles. I'm guessing this would have been mid or late 1950's.