Westley Richards decades - the 1950s

For Westley Richards it was a challenge but also a decade which proved the firm’s mettle, especially in the realm of the modern big game hunter. The first half of the twentieth century shows how well Westley Richards was patronised by the Royal families of the Empire and beyond. Indian princes, oriental emirs, shahs, ambassadors and various shades of European nobility were enthusiastic about hunting and shooting around the globe and had the good taste and the means to buy the very best.

In the post-war world much was changing but there was some residual patronage by these traditional customers. For example, we can see names in the order book like; Pahlavi (Shah of Iran), the Pasha of Bahrain, Baroda (Maharajah) and Gaekwar (Indian prince), as well as several ambassadors and high commissioners.

However, we can also see that order numbers were severely depleted. The entirety of orders for the decade spans just 237 pages in a large format book with a worn and split synthetic cover, which has clearly been re-bound in the past. The ruled and lined pages, however, remain in good order and entries are clearly legible.

The first order of the new decade is taken in London, where Westley Richards then had a shop at 23, Conduit Street, W1. The ‘Rifle Order Form’ still proudly announces ‘Gun Maker to His Majesty the King’.

The form records an order for a 7.9mm magazine rifle for Mohammed Taghi Assad, represented by his son S. Assad Baktiari of the Anglo Persian Oil Co. It was to be a ‘special non-engraved action’ with full pistol hand and folding nightsight, folding leaves to 300 yards and ‘to be as light as possible’. The cost was #90, including a wood air-freight box and 1,000 rounds of soft-nose ammunition.

Perusing the index of customers, perhaps the most obvious person of interest is R.C Ruark, on page 41. Robert C. Ruark is listed here as residing at 1016, 5^th Avenue, New York City N.Y, USA. Given his fame as a sporting writer and, what today might be termed ‘influencer’, his order is worthy of closer examination.

The order was completed on 16^th November 1951 and consisted of a new .318 Westley Richards magazine rifle, No.42784, with a 24” barrel, stock with cheek-piece and anti-recoil pad, a full set of cleaning equipment and instructions to put his initials ‘R.C.R’ on the ‘crest plate’, by which we assume is meant the oval. Ruark opted for a secondhand leather case, also to feature his name in black lettering ‘Robert C. Ruark’ and he ordered 580 rounds of ammunition with 250-grain bullets of varied type.

The rifle cost Ruark £124. 19s. 0d. He was at the time, a successful writer and, at thirty-six years old, had only a decade longer to live. Ahead of him lay his Tanganyikan safari adventures with Harry Selby, who became a legendary white hunter to a generation of sportsmen through Ruark’s stories, which hit the market as ‘Horn of the Hunter’.

Ruark’s Field & Stream articles, started a year after he purchased this Westley Richards .318, further cemented his legend among American hunters. Interestingly, the rifle is not mentioned in his literature as far as we know and Ruark remains much better known for his affinity with the .416 Rigby.

An order in May 1951 from Raja Mahboob Karan of Malwala Palace Hyderabad perhaps hints at the changing times. He ordered a very precisely specified .375 Flanged Magnum with hand-detachable locks and dummy side-plates, engraved with elephant and tiger. He asked for a ‘heavy grained well figured stock of very best walnut’ and a best oak & leather case with a full set of accessories.

The price was £150 and delivery time six months but the order (originally to be delivered by May 1952) was cancelled with no deposit paid. 1951 was the year of the first Indian General Election Post-colonial India was a very different place and the lives of the Maharajahs changed radically. Perhaps the Raja saw the political storm clouds gathering and felt the time for spending lavishly may be coming to an end.

Comparing the 1950s Order Book to previous decades, it is notable that the beautiful Victorian and Edwardian script used by earlier generations had met its demise. The handwriting here appears to be penned in a variety of fountain and biro writing implements and appears variously in green, blue and black ink.

While Indian orders were drying up, American ones appear steady. However, page 142 features an important name; that of the Shah of Iran, H.M. Reza Pahlavi, taken on 5^th February 1955. This order was for a .30-06 Westley Richards No.42886 with 24” barrel and ‘exhibition grade ‘ stock.

It appears to have been a gift for H.E. General F. Zahedi, as his name was to be embossed on the case. The rifle alone cost £210. At the time General Zahedi was serving as Prime Minister of Iran, having been appointed by the Shah following a coup in 1953. He was replaced by Hossein Ala in April 1955.

The Shah’s son Prince Abdorezza Pahlavi also ordered a .30-06 magazine rifle, in April 1955. The engraving of ‘M.R.P’ on the oval suggests it was for his father. It was fitted with a four-power ‘scope and regulated for ‘American 180-grain ammunition’. With its rifle slip and sling, the package cost £193.13s. 4d.

The lower priced ‘Game Ranger’ magazine rifle was popular with colonists, as seen on pages 153 and 154. HRH Col. Abdul Wali of the Royal Afghan Embassy in London ordered one in .375 at a cost of £78. 15s. 0d and R. Riddlesbarger of Tanganyika ordered his in .425 for the same price, though he asked that the sights be upgraded to ‘back-sights as fitted to best magazine rifles’ at an additional cost of £5. 0. 0d. and ‘Westley Richards foresight combination’; at £14..0.0. Delivery time from order to arrival in Africa was ‘three months certain’.

Another order for Africa was that of P.D. Moorwood in Nairobi. He bought a best .425 magazine rifle on the P.17 action, No. 43129. With case, accessories and ammunition the order came to £186.17.6d. (about a third of the price of an Austin A30 motor car in 1955). An order in May 1956 for H.M. King Faisal, The Royal Palace, Baghdad, Iraq, was difficult to get right. It appears alterations were required as notes instruct ‘tighten safety, trim bolt more, chequer should be improved, engraving on receiver should match cover plate, , make new stock lighter and finer in forend, make stock 13 5/8”.

Just a year after the King’s order was taken, Westley Richards changed ownership. Walter Clode purchased a majority shareholding in the company for #2,000 in 1957 and invested a further £12,000 to help it stay afloat in the choppy waters of post-war austerity. As sales of new guns and rifles declined, Walter Clode made money by flying to India for a month each year to purchase those left behind in the wake of the Raj or being sold from the collections of maharajahs, whose fortunes began to decrease as successive Indian prime ministers curtailed their once lavish incomes.

Notable among the pages of the 1950s order book are those featuring double lines crossing the order and the word ‘CANCELLED’ written in bold between them. It appears that many once free-spending customers were experiencing buyer’s remorse after their guns or rifles were in production. One such is on page 198, which shows a cancelled order from the King of Nepal for a .22 Hornet double rifle, losing the company the significant sum of £1,442. 18s.  0d.

By this time, the beautiful Edwardian black ink script of the shop staff had totally given way to messy blue biro and the pride in their work once apparent had clearly waned as a new generation coped in a hostile economic climate.

Among the types of rifle in demand, we can see orders for .404 Jeffery magazine rifles from the Director of Game & Tsetse control in Lusaka, one for a best .270 Win. Magazine rifle from the General Manager of the Premier Sugar Mills in West Pakistan, another .404 Jeffery for the River Estate Ltd. in North Borneo and a .500 (3”) White Hunter model double rifle for MacDonald Electric Ltd. in Ontario. The Crown Agents in Dar-Es-Salaam ordered seven .404 magazine rifles in December 1959, showing the enduring appetite for rifles capable of clearing buffalo and elephant from land wanted for agriculture.

A note from Walter Clode in Bournbrook (on page 234) to the London agency provides insights into the building of a 12-bore over & under in April 1960 for Mr. Sam Linton of the Venus Pen & Pencil Corp in Tennessee. He has ordered a Westley Richards Ovundo to be made as close as possible to match his Browning superposed with 26 1/2” barrels.

Orders for British customers were very scarce and shotgun sales in general were lower than previous decades. One order for the Ruler of Qatar in January 1960, however, details a pair of best 12-bores with 28” barrels and hand-detachable locks at a basic cost of #495 each plus an additional #1,000 for inlaying elaborate gold scroll work in stocks and forends.

The last order in the book is dated August 1961 and features a best .375 rifle ordered by Sr. Diego de Arteaga of Montevideo, Uruguay. Unusually, the breakdown cost of the build is outlined, as follows: Rifle £155, action £35, wood £15, rib £10, leather covered pad £3, 3s, trigger £5, base mounts £2. 10s., ivory £3, for a total cost of £225.10.s 0D. By this time the pre-war world was fast fading from view. In 1961, the Jaguar E-type was launched, the Beatles performed their first gig at the Cavern Club. Kuwait became an Emirate, ending its British Protectorate status and police arrested 1,300 CND protestors at a rally in London.

Westley Richards had survived the austere 1950s and now looked ahead to the challenges of a new decade which offered much to a young generation keen to experiment with newfound freedoms but one which would see further decline in British overseas territories and many challenges to an establishment in which shooting sports had long been ingrained.