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Enfields in Queue: Thailand

Siam (Thailand) ordered 10,000 SMLE rifles, complete with bayonets, from the Birmingham Small Arms Company in 1920. The rifles were destined for the Wild Tiger Corps which had been founded by the King, Rama VI, in 1911, as a volunteer force largely composed of public servants and the royal bodyguard. Rifles and bayonets are marked in Thai script. Original BSA leather bayonet scabbards were later replaced with scabbards made of sheet metal, ostensibly because of the climate.

 

Lee-Enfield rifle unit markings - Thailand

Bayonet 077
Pattern of 1907 bayonet; BSA contract bayonet; WILD TIGER CORPS. Smiling tiger is VERY HAPPY because he’s in a gen-u-wine THAI METAL SCABBARD. Some brazing repairs to scabbard; chape affixed reversed. Marked 23 on grip reverse.

Lee-Enfield rifle unit markings - Thailand

Rifle 121
SMLE Rifle No.1 Mk III*. BSA 1920. WILD TIGER CORPS Matched serial numbers (in Thai) on bolt, receiver and barrel. Perhaps not surprisingly, the buttstock is marked “S” (Short). Not import marked – indicating that it arrived in the US sometime before 1968 (after which import markings were required).