Bringing Home weapons

[blaksaussa]

Hi there
just a small question to confirm...

What is possible for Canadian WW1 soldiers to keep and bring home their very own rifle after the Service / war ?

Thank you

[asterperious]

Basically, no. It varied from country to country about what kit was permitted to be kept on demob, technically in the UK one had to buy out what they wanted. In Canada it appears that basic uniform stuff went home with everyone - the gov't had no need for the mass of clothing around. however, armaments and related were strictly controlled. In many cases I don't think they'd have left France with arms, certainly no further than demob centers. Americans seem to have retained everything they ever touched in service, but not arms. the exception to this is officers private purchase sidearms, thy were personal property. Most arms were retained, refurbed, scrapped or sold to other nations, placed in reserve storage and ultimately surplussed in quantity when better weapons superceded older designs. Many lee enfields from the great war began appearing in large scale in the 50's.

[blaksaussa]

Thank you very much for this long and clear reply !! i was pretty much sure but i wanted a confirmation, because i was tired to hear that Grand father personnal rifle for sale...and i can't imagine that gov't will let tons of weapons free in the hands of veterans...
once again thank you and have a great week end !!!

[lithgow]

Not sure whether this applies to Canada but in Australia the govt supported range shooting clubs by providing surplus rifles so that members of the militia reserve as well as other potential recruits and instructors could keep skills up with service type weapons-were also sold off to farmers/hunters etc-this was the main way various ex service rifles ended up in civilian hands-a former soldier would well have bought one as his own 'personal' weapon. Family stories tend to get fuzzy and muddled as the generations pass as well as outright fabrications by sellers!

PS South African troops did take home some weapons used during WW1 in the campaign against the Germans in S/W Africa (now Namibia)-the rifles were non Commonwealth standard ex Portuguese Mauser Verguero 6.5mm rifles that had been an ermergency issue to SA troops so were surplus as post war weapons-the Boer war had meant many rifles had been confiscated from them so there was also a need for them amongst the Boers.