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A cased Galand & Sommerville revolver certainly formed part of Tom Custerâs estate. Of course, it is possible that Lord Berkeley Paget may have given Custer two revolvers, both a Galand & Sommerville and a Webley RIC or even given the Custer brothers, in some combination, a pair of Webley RICs and a pair of Galand & Sommervilles. Other sources indicate that Lord Berkeley Paget presented Custer with a Galand & Sommerville 44 calibre revolver (manufactured in England by the firm of Braendlin & Sommerville) and gave another to Tom Custer. There is some question whether the gun or guns presented to George Armstrong Custer were Webley RICâs. There is a well-known story that a pair of Webley RIC Model revolvers were presented to BrevetMajor GeneralGeorge Armstrong Custer by Lord Berkeley in 1869, and it is believed that General Custer was using them at the time of his death in the Battle of the Little Bighorn. Webley's first popular success came with its first double-action revolver, adopted by the Royal Irish Constabulary in 1867. However the hand-made Longspur could not compete in price with mass-produced revolvers such as the Colt, and production never equalled that of Webley's competitors Adams (Deane, Adams & Deane) or Tranter. Some consider it to be the finest revolver of its day as it could shoot as fast as the contemporary Colt revolvers and was faster to load. Known as the Longspur it was a muzzle-loaded percussion cap and ball pistol. The first Webley production revolver appeared in 1853. Webley's production originally consisted of hand-crafted firearms, although mass-production was later introduced to supply police and military buyers. This came to include both revolvers and self-loading (semi-automatic) pistols. Until 1979 Webley & Scott manufactured shotguns and revolvers for private use, as well as producing sidearms for military and police use. John Bright is also co-owner of Highland Outdoors Limited who are the UK distributors for Webley, Webley & Scott and AGS. Webley & Scott Ltd is owned by both the Fuller Group and John Bright. At this time Airgunsport relocated the manufacture of all Webley guns to Turkey. It was then bought by Wolverhampton-based company Airgunsport. Webley's dependent company - Venom Custom Shop - ceased trading as well. Declining sales led to the decision to give up firearms manufacture completely in 1979, however air gun production at the Birmingham factory continued until 22 December 2005, when the company closed down. As a result, the company began producing pneumatic guns, their first being the Mark I air pistol.ĭemand for air guns increased rapidly in the 1920s and Webley's business began to grow again, with an inevitable peak related to weapons supply for British military use during the Second World War. In 1920 the passing of the Firearms Act in the UK, which limited the availability of handguns to civilians, caused their sales to plummet. 38 Mk.IV remained in service as a substitute standard weapon into the early 1960s. 455 Mk.VI was declared obsolete in 1945 but the. 38/200, remained in use through World War Two.
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However, wartime shortages ensured that all marks of the Webley, including models in. 38 inch calibre revolver, became the standard British service revolver. After 1921, however, Webley service revolvers were manufactured by the government-owned Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield. Webley's revolvers became the official British sidearm in 1887, remaining in British service until 1964. In 1897 Webley amalgamated with W & C Scott and Sons to become The Webley & Scott Revolver and Arms Company Ltd of Birmingham. The manufacture of revolvers, for which the firm became famous, began twenty years later. It was taken over in 1834 by his son-in-law, Philip Webley, who began producing percussion sporting guns. The Webley company was founded in the late 18th century by William Davies, who made bullet moulds. Webley is famous for the revolvers and automatic pistols it supplied to the British Empire's military, particularly the British Army, from 1887 through both World War I and World War II. The famous Webley Mk VI, standard sidearm of the British Army 1915â∱932