Is there any way to find out which soldier my SMLE was issued to?

[Surpmil]

There's a question we've heard before, and we all know the answer! But occasionally something turns up and while doing some research on a Canadian battalion from WWI I found in the collection a notebook listing rifle numbers and the men to whom they were issued.

I'm not going to mention the unit or list the numbers for the obvious reasons, (fakery) but what I did notice was that they were generally serial numbers with two letters and three digits. I'm not an expert on SMLE serials; can anyone conclude from that information which factory these rifles might have been from?

The notebook dates from 1915/6 and from the similarities in the numbers, I'm guessing these were issued in one or more shipments to the battalion in question. I may be able to nail down the date more accurately when I check the records for some of the men listed.

The other question is, to what extent were serial numbers of that type duplicated, and if we can isolate these rifles to one factory's production, obviously in 1915/6 or before, will we be dealing with unique numbers or numbers duplicated several times before 1916/7?

I don't yet have a complete spreadsheet, but when I do, I'll post some of the letter groups from the serials and anyone with a SMLE, presumably bearing a "C Broad Arrow" mark, is welcome to send me their number and I will check for a match.

Information

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[harry mac]

That kind of info is reported up the chain every week, when out in the field or on ops. We were still doing it every week when I was in Bosnia in 1999.
Ammo, weapons and WOC's (War Office Controlled Stores) accounted for and list of serial numbers checked to confirm. The completed return is then sent to the SQMS, who then reports to the Sergeant Major.
That notebook is a proper little snap-shot of sub unit history.
How many names are listed?

[Sentryduty]

Mine is a 1918 C Broad Arrow marked SMLE, too bad, no luck there. I know my rifle is a simple 5 digit serial without letter prefix, as is my 1908 No1 Mk1*** which does not have a C-BA mark.

Perhaps the markings are from rack numbers or stock disk numbers?

[browningautorifle]

Is there any way to find out which soldier my SMLE was issued to?

No. This is something we've been through a bucket full of times on here already, it's not like it is now. Those lists now are only a battalion thing. Strictly internal. No records exist in perpetuity...

[harry mac]

No. This is something we've been through a bucket full of times on here already, it's not like it is now. Those lists now are only a battalion thing. Strictly internal. No records exist in perpetuity...

I think he knows that. He's just illustrating that sometimes there are exceptions.

[browningautorifle]

My answer was to the OP.

[jrhead75]

Always nice to run across rarities like this! My grandfather was a sergeant with the 5th US Marines on the western front, and I have a section's worth of names along with the serial numbers of the kit those Marines were issued, in a notebook that he kept. I've since learned that his rifle still exists in a private collection somewhere (sadly that's about all I've learned about it).

RSAF Enfield certainly went through the entire alphabet at least 3 times, if I remember correctly, since they used a 4 digit format. BSA likely did at least twice or close to it (no books handy at the moment). I'm hard pressed though to think of any SMLE producers that used a 2 letter prefix.

[Surpmil]

Stupid of me! I just realized that with three digits and two letters those are Ross MkIII numbers; sorry!

[martins8589]

Ross Rifle Forum would probably like that information!