Military firearms in colonial Western Australia 
Sniders, the Guildford corps completed their 
arming with more Enfields which then became 
available. 94 Some of these Enfields were surplus 
E.P.F. arms. The Returns of 1875 show that it was 
armed with 49 Enfields rising to 53 in 1878. 95 A 
letter from Lt. Col. Harvest to Governor Ord dated 
3rd May 1878 discusses the issue of Snider rifles 
surplus to the reduced Pensioner Force. Harvest 
wrote seeking the Governors signature to allow 
him to: 
"...immediately arm the Geraldton and Guildford 
Volunteers with Snider Rifles and thus the entire Rifle 
Volunteer Force in the Colony will be completely 
armed with breechloaders".'"' 
The strength of the corps in 1878 was 53 and the 
number of Sniders would have matched this figure. 
Six years later a Minute of 1st January 1884 
confirms this fact as it shows the corps had the 
following arms in store. "19 Rifles, Snider, Long, 
one Short. 31 Rifles, Snider, Converted, Long, Two 
Short. 11 Rifles, Enfield, Pattern 1853 (used for 
recruit drill)". 97 These documents confirm that Lt. 
Col. Harvest was successful in transferring the 
E.P.F. Snider-Enfields to the volunteer corps, they 
being first recorded in the Returns of 1880. The 
Minute of 1884 also illustrates the care taken in the 
records to separate the colonial purchased Sniders 
from the Snider-Enfield conversions on loan from 
the E.P.F. (ie. the Imperial government). Between 
1878 - 1886 the number of Sniders on issue to 
Guildford fluctuated, but reached its highest 
number in 1882 when 76 were on issue. 98 
This corps is recorded in the Commandants 
Report of 1886-87 as being issued with 60 Martini- 
87 
Henry rifles, with another 20 being supplied in 
1887-88." This gave a total of 80 Martini-Henrys 
on issue, but as the corps strength continued to rise 
to 133 (as at 31st December 1887), 100 the 53 Sniders 
listed in the Minute of 1884 were again pressed 
into service and remained on issue until eventually 
replaced by Martini-Metford rifles in 1895. The 
corps declined in numbers from about 1890 and in 
1893 became E and F companies of the 1st Infantry 
Volunteer Regiment. In 1895, the Returns show 104 
Martini-Metfords on issue. By 1898 the numbers 
had fallen to 45. In 1900 this corps was absorbed 
by the Western Australian Infantry Brigade when 
it became A company of the 3rd Battalion. At this 
time it was issued with 59 Lee-Speed Rifles. 101 
The Geraldton Rifle Volunteers officially began 
in 1877 102 with 53 men. Wieck states that "they 
were armed with very obsolete rifles which were 
not replaced until years later". 103 The records show 
that initially they were armed with Enfields issued 
from the Metropolitan Rifle Volunteers in 1877, as 
in that year a charge of two pounds five shillings 
was debited to the M. R. V. for "Cleaning Enfields, 
Geraldton". It appears that the Geraldton corps did 
not retain their Enfields long as soon after the 
Harvest letter of 3rd May 1878, in which this corps 
was earmarked as one of two designated to receive 
surplus E.P.F. Sniders, a cost of two pounds ten 
shillings was debited to the Geraldton corps on 
30th August 1878, for "Marking Arms". 104 It is 
uncertain which arms the debit refers to but taken 
together with the Harvest letter, the two references 
indicate that in 1878-79 this corps may have been 
issued some of the 33 new Sniders which arrived 
Figure 15 The ownership marks of the W.A. Defence Force, 1898 - 1903. This mark, "W A/1043/D", is on the right 
side of the butt of a Martini-Enfield Mark I, W.A. Pattern rifle. These arms were issued almost exclusively 
to the W.A. Mounted Infantry between 1899 - 1901. (Photo D. Elford). 
