No.4 rifle serial number query

[GeeRam]

Tomorrow is the 75th Anniversary of my late father joining the British Army, and I have just found his old Skill at Arms Record book among some old paperwork of his, and inside the front cover, its states his rifle number, which doesn't ring a bell with those I'd expect to see for a Lee-Enfield No.4 Mk1.
His rifle number is stated as being MC24730......?

Information

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[Roy W]

Could it be a Maltby serial number C24730 and they have added the M from above?

[krinko]

MC24730 is a 1944-45 Fazakerley made No4 Mk1.
At the time, FAZ was using three series of letter prefixes concurrently---marked A,B,C.
They had a trick to them. They ran like this: AA, BA, CA---AB, BB, CB---and AC, BC, CC etc.

So, "MC24730" breaks down like this: "M" is the 13th series of 9999 rifles in production line "C".
The first "2" is the factory number for FAZ and doesn't move, so when the counter gets to "MC 29999", the prefix switches to "NC" and so on. Muddy enough for you? Sorry for the quick and dirty answer, but I am needed elsewhere.

(Maltby numbers start with a "1", so no possibility this is a Maltby mistake.)

-----krinko

[GeeRam]

MC24730 is a 1944-45 Fazakerley made No4 Mk1.
At the time, FAZ was using three series of letter prefixes concurrently---marked A,B,C.
They had a trick to them. They ran like this: AA, BA, CA---AB, BB, CB---and AC, BC, CC etc.

So, "MC24730" breaks down like this: "M" is the 13th series of 9999 rifles in production line "C".
The first "2" is the factory number for FAZ and doesn't move, so when the counter gets to "MC 29999", the prefix switches to "NC" and so on. Muddy enough for you? Sorry for the quick and dirty answer, but I am needed elsewhere.

(Maltby numbers start with a "1", so no possibility this is a Maltby mistake.)

-----krinko

Brilliant!
Thank you very much.

Now all that's left to do is try and find out if it still exists