Gun Collectors Dream Auction 63 Day One
Lot 336:
Up Next We Have Scotlands Only WW2 Military Firearm, The Albion Motors No 2 MK I* Revolver Chambered in .38, The serial number is marked on the front face of the barrel assembly, the bottom front of the frame in front of the trigger guard and on the outside of the cylinder. The crown BNP proof is found in several places throughout the gun. The top of the barrel is marked CAL 38, 41, the broad arrow government stamp, and the government proof mark. There are several scattered broad arrow and proof marks throughout as well. The right side of the frame is marked Albion No2 MkI ** 1941 next to a British government acceptance stamp. The right side of the barrel assembly is marked .38 .767 3 1/2 TONS and crown BNP proof. One of the lessons the British military took from the Great War was that without extensive training and practice, most people were not very effective with a large bore revolver. So in 1922, they undertook a program via Webley to develop a smaller sidearm that could be used with much less training. The result was the Revolver, No2 MkI, which went into production in 1931. When World War Two began in 1939, the British government put out the call to civilian industry to take up war production. The Albion Motors company of Scotstoun near Glasgow was interested, and took a contract to make No2 revolvers. After a year of overcoming obstacles in tooling and skilled labor, the first Albion Motors revolver came off the production line in July, 1941. This was the first of 21,422 made by the company, and after the contract passed to the Coventry Tool & Die company in early 1943, another 21,094 would follow with the same Albion markings but assembled by Coventry. Albion guns account for roughly 20 Percent of total No2 revolver production, and they are the only example I can think of of modern Scottish military small arms production.
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