Mysteries of the 'A' Suffix

[Peter Laidler]

I’d like to take a sub-thread of x-westies thread (?) a bit further where comments about the A serial number suffix arise. We all know by now that the A suffix indicates a ‘weapon of any description which bear the suffix letter A to the serial number…… blah blah and so on…………..’ indicates that component parts are not interchangeable. We know that this first arose with the trials and pre-production rifles that entered service and later, according to Small Arms Instructions (called, SAI’s for short….) that this also applied across the board, to ALL rifles so marked. It was an important feature in the Armourers world because it applied to Brens and Stens too. Very few Brens but certainly Stens and No4’s and another that we had to look out for was the 3.5” rocket launcher. But I digress.

I had an opportunity to speak to one of the now very old ex Carlisle Armourer instructors for an hour on the phone the other day and I mentioned this subject. And he made a couple of valid points. Incidentally, he was one of those who wrote/drafted the first original EMER’s relating to the No4, taking it away from the older Instructions for Armourers. He said that these A marked rifles were inevitably marked at the factory (but not necessarily so…) where they could not be assembled by the unskilled labourrers for a couple of reasons. The first was within the time frame allowed as they were all on ‘piece’ work (as opposed to ‘peace’ work!) and the second, they couldn’t be assembled using the parts that were supplied. That makes perfect sense so far.

As a result of this, such rifles were diverted to a rectification bay where more experienced, but not necessarily ‘skilled’ workers would attempt to assemble them using whatever means they had at their disposal. This included ring punching oversize holes, clearing out threads etc etc. As a result, THESE rifles were marked with the A suffix on instruction of the Supt of Design and the MoS PLUS the IA (the Inspector or Armourers) because these rifles would inevitable pass through their hands. It was for this reason that the message went out in the speedy Small Arms Instructions.

Another very interesting point is this, that hadn’t crossed my mind was that you will never (? – although I have never looked or noticed) see an A suffix on a BSA or Savage rifle. That’s because they were private companies, making and selling their wares to the Ministry of Supply/Government and if the quality wasn’t good enough or there were faults, then they wouldn’t buy and certainly wouldn’t pay for shoddy goods! I know that later the Savage contracts were taken out of the MoS frame as lend-lease, but…………

There, there’s another little bit of useless Lee Enfield bumph that neither you nor I really knew about.

Not strictly related to this thread is an end-on picture of an instructional barrel section from the Shrivenham technical collection. I can’t tell you any more but the label reads ‘.303” No4, 7”+’. The thickness would indicate a 4” section of barrel from 7 to 11”

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