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[jefrs]

The Lee-Enfield rifle was made by Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield, London.

The Enfield Cycle Company (Redditch, Worcestershire) did as an engineering firm make some 'defence' components (possibly for RSAF), hence earning the 'Royal' prefix but did not make guns themselves.

Wikipedia is wrong on this point as RSA and RE, and indeed BSA (Birmingham Small Arms, who did make guns, 20,000 Turkish infantry rifles post-Crimea, but nearly put out of business by RSA mass production), are quite different separate companies and not to be confused. The wiki for RE says they made the rifle but the wiki for the Lee-Enfield rifle says otherwise. RSA did not/could not make all their own parts, they would have relied on the likes of the Birmingham Small Arms Trade Association (nascent BSA) and the Enfield Cycle Company for engineering.

The ownership and 'Royal' epithet for the various arsenals is complicated and goes back to control-freak Henry VIII issuing (and withdrawing, with head on spike) monopolies to political friends and allies.

[Mark M]

In Ann Bradford's history of Royal Enfield she says that the company made some small sub-contracted parts for the Royal Small Arms Company of Enfield Lock, Middlesex and rather cheekily adapted these names for the new motorcycle venture. Britain was involved in quite a few wars at the time and the rifle was the new vital weapon, the publicity implying precision and patriotism can't have done any harm! I was talking to a friend at our Rally this weekend and he worked until very recently at the Royal Ordnance at Enfield and said that the parts involved were made of spring steel, this was the speciality of the metal workers of Redditch and of course the RE concern originated making needles and then later, also the machines for making them. Remember also that "Royal Enfield" was only ever a brand name, the parent company was called The Enfield Cycle Company Ltd, sometimes abbreviated to ECC, I've seen this on stationary engines for instance.

REgards, Mark

[Gwilly]

Every days a school day, thanks chaps..

[Scalyback]

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Oh good. Chuck in an 'oddball' time.



The Enfield Cycle Company had a sports club with pavilion and listed many different types of sport, one of which was the rifle club.








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So here are two examples of the 'Gun club' badge. The point that has me wondering is wether they used Enfield riles or not. Would it have been frowned on to have walked into the Royal Enfield rifle club carrying a BSA 'Bangstick'?



But yes, to be correct, RE never made rifles, but did make parts for Royal arms at Enfield.


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REOC 15084

Tabellarius de verbis. Ostensor gaudium[/center]

[Presto]

After getting into some financial trouble, financiers appointed R.W. Smith & Albert Eadie to take control in November 1891. The following year the company was rechristened as "The Eadie Manufacturing Company Ltd". Soon after this, the company got a large contract to supply precision rifle parts to the Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield, Middlesex. In celebration of this, they called their new bicycle the "Enfield". In October 1892 a new company, called "The Enfield Manufacturing Co. Ltd", was created to market the new design of bicycles The next year, the word "Royal" (after the Royal Small Arms Factory) was added to company products and thus the “Royal Enfield” moniker was born. The trademark "Made Like A Gun" appeared in 1893.