SMLE: identifying maker stamps etc

[Friedland]

Hello,

This was an impulse buy from earlier today. A friend of mine sold me his SMLE with bayonet. A quick sale at only £100, as his wife no longer wanted it hanging around the house.

If anyone could point me in the direction of a decent, reliable online resource for makers stamps etc. that would be great. In the meantime feel free to test your knowledge on identifying any of them.

As you can see from the main pic, the bayonet is quite grubby and some of the stamps/details are covered in dirt. I'll perhaps give it a clean and post up clearer photos of the blade at a later date.

[lithgow]

Hello-it's a 'peddled scheme' example-assembled at the Enfield factory from components from other minor private makers-the lack of a maker on the side of the action body where it would usually be and the 'SSA' stamp on the rear of it indicate that. SSA Ltd in Birmingham was set up in late 1914 to make rifles to try to fill the vast new requirements for SMLEs from the British armed forces but due to various reasons was incapable of producing complete rifles so the parts they could make including receivers and barrels were sent to the Govt factory at Enfield to be assembled into complete weapons using various parts from other makers as well-SSA evolved into NRF (National Rifle Factory) when it was taken over by the UK govt in June 1918 so yours was made in the first half of that year (the receiver that is).

PS-The bolt is a replacement mismatch (different serial no.) made by Birmingham Small Arms Ltd 'BSA'

[Friedland]

That's brilliant Lithgow.

A glance at it earlier made me think that it was from differently sourced parts, as someone in an earlier thread had mentioned the single assembly ones had matching numbers/stamps on their component parts.

I wasn't really expecting such a detailed reply, so your info is greatly appreciated!

[Martin Bull]

A decent source ( if you can find a copy ) is Ian Skennerton's 'Lee Enfield Story' published by the Author in 1993 and distributed in the UK by Greenhill Books. It is truly encyclopaedic. The same author also published a number of small pamphlets called 'Small Arms Identification Series' of which #s 1 & 2 cover the Enfield No.1 and No. 4.