OILER MAKERS MARKS - CANADA
Photo notes: Unidentified munitions worker, Dominion Arsenal, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, December 1914. Photographer J.A. Millar, staff photographer, Montreal Daily Star. [01]
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Prior to 1900 Canada relied almost entirely on Great Britain as a supplier of rifles and military equipment. Canada's experiences during the Boer War (also called the South African War or Anglo-Boer War) (Oct 1899-May 1902) led the new Dominion to pursue development of their own home-grown arms manufacturer, the Ross Rifle Company (RRC).
Canada entered the Great War in August 1914 armed with the Ross rifle but by 1916 the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) had abandoned use of the Ross rifle for the duration of the war in favor of the British supplied Lee-Enfield. Problems with Ross rifle production and supply continued to mount, pushing the Ross Rifle Company near insolvency; the Canadian Government expropriated the Ross Rifle Company in March 1917.
The Canadian marked Lee-Enfield type oilers we have seen are date stamped 1914 and 1915. We had every reason to believe that these oilers were originally intended for the Ross rifle, but until recently, had no hard documentation.
None of the available sources (see list below) specifically mention oilers, although the Ross Rifle Story (page 435) does have a picture of an HB-15 marked oiler.
In the days before the Internet, my wife and I spent a snowy afternoon in the Quebec City Library, combing through archives of business directories (Les Annuaires de Quebec 1900-1920 ) looking for local manufacturers whose name/initials might match up the the marks on the Ross oilers. We did not find any likely matches within the boundries of the City of Quebec 1900-1920.
For many years the manufacturers of these Canadian Unknown Soldiers remained a mystery. Recently Michael Skriletz, ( YouTube @waroffice3791) pointed us to the Report of War Purchasing Commission, 1915-1916, [03] as well as the Sessional Papers of the Seventy Session of the Twelfth Parliament, Dominion of Canada, 1917, [04] both of which contained a trove of information on suppliers and purchases during the Great War, including “Brass Oil Bottles”.
Thank you, Mr. Skriletz. We are much in your debt for this information. Until now, the manufacturers of these Unknown Soldiers was a mystery.
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Empire Manufacturing Company, London, Ontario, Canada. C-Broad Arrow marked. Mk IV brass oiler. "14" presumed to be "1914". No other marks.
18,874 oil bottles at 9 cents each purchased 1917 by Canadian Government. [03] [04]
Founded 1906, renamed Empire Brass Manufacturing Company 1920, but retained EMCO as a brand name. The company is still in business today (2024). [05] |
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Hamilton Brass Manufacturing Company, Ltd. C-Broad Arrow marked. Mk IV brass oiler. "15" presumed to be "1915". No other marks.
14,468 oil bottles at 9 cents each purchased 1917 by Canadian Government. [06]
Founded 1885, and by 1900 was well-known as the manufacturer of the Hamilton Cash Register, employing 140 people in downtown Hamilton, Ontario. [07] |
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Unknown Soldier C-Broad Arrow marked. Mk IV brass oiler. "15" presumed to be "1915". No other marks. |
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Unknown Soldier C-Broad Arrow marked. Mk IV brass oiler. "15" presumed to be "1915". No other marks. |
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Unknown Soldier C-Broad Arrow marked. Mk IV brass oiler. No other marks.
The C-Broad arrow is small (about 4mm)(1/3 inch); overall good fit, finish and workmanship.
The fit, finish and mark lead us to surmise that these oilers may be Long Branch production (1940-1945). |
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Dominion Arsenal. DA over C-Broad Arrow over 17. Mark IV brass oiler. "17" presumed to be "1917".
Canada's first government shell and cartridge factory, the Dominion Arsenal, was established in 1882 in Quebec City. The DA and year combination is a well-known ammunition headstamp. A history self-published by the Arsenal lists "Oil bottles for .303 rifles" among the products manufactured. [02]
All of the oilers we have seen are marked "17" (1917). |
Page Notes & Sources
[01] J.A. Millar produced a photo album of Canada’s First Contingent, capturing scenes of the newly formed Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) at Valcartier Camp, Quebec and their departure at Gaspe Harbour, including eight photos taken at the Dominion Arsenal. (The town of Valcartier is about 30 km (18.6 miles) from Quebec City. The Dominion Arsenal is located in Quebec City itself, an easy walk from the downtown.) The photo album was published in 1915 and is among the collections at the University of Victoria Libraries, Victoria, British Columbia, Canada.
[02] The Dominion Arsenal at Quebec 1880-1945
Appendix III, page 122.
[03] The Report of War Purchasing Commission, Volumes 1 & 2, (1916) can be found on Google Books, https://books.google.com/ an invaluable resource of out-of-print materials in the public domain. IMAGE 03-01
Starting with the Report of War Purchasing Commission, Volumes 1 & 2, (1916), we searched for “brass oil bottles” and on Page 434, section 3510, found a list of suppliers approved to submit tenders for “Brass Goods (such as Bottles, Oil, Mark IV.; Weights for Pull-throughs, etc.). CLICK HERE FOR LINK There was only one supplier whose name began with an "E", Empire Manufacturing. With luck, we hoped that might match up with the "E14" that we have found on Canadian marked Mark IV oil bottles. IMAGE 03-02
[04] We then turned to the Sessional Papers of the Seventy Session of the Twelfth Parliament, Dominion of Canada, 1917, Volume 1 - Part 3; Volume 52. Again, this was found on Google Books IMAGE 04-01
We searched for “Empire Manufacturing”, CLICK HERE FOR LINK and on page ZZ-56, found “Empire Manufacturing Company, London (Ontario, Canada), 18,874 oil bottles at 9c. ….1,698 66.” IMAGE 04-02
We point out that although the report is dated 1917, there may have been purchases prior to that disbursement. Additionally, the document is silent as to when those 18,874 oil bottles were actually manufactured. The available record is simply a payment ledger for that fiscal year.
[05] From the VINTAGE MACHINERY website we learned that the Empire Manufacturing Company (EMCO)(founded 1906) became the Empire Brass Manufacturing Company in 1920. EMCO is still in business today. emco.ca
[06] We repeated the search pattern outlined above in Notes 03 (see images 03-01 and image 03-02 above) and Note 04 (see image 04-01 above). The search results for “Hahn Brass” and “Hamilton Brass” can be seen here: IMAGE 06-01
[07] https://www.workerscity.ca/am-forster-brass-foundry-the-freeman-block
The website states that the Company moved out of the building in 1914; the 1916-1917 government documents we have cited list the Company at this address, as does the 1915 City Directory. We did not find the company listed in the 1920 Edition of Vernon’s City of Hamilton (Forty-Seventh Annual Street, Alphabetical, Business and Miscellaneous) Directory. The Company may have relocated outside of Hamilton - or simply gone out of business.
Page Notes & Sources
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Defending the Dominion: Canadian Military Rifles 1855-1955 (2003) Edgecombe, David W. |
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The Ross Rifle Story (1984) |
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A Question of Confidence: The Ross Rifle in the Trenches (1999) Duguid, A.F.;
Clive M. Law, Editor |
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The Dominion Arsenal at Quebec 1881-1945 (1947) |
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.303 Inch: A History of the .303 Cartridge in the British Service (1988) |
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Without Warning: Canadian Sniper Equipment in the 20th Century (2004) |