“The Lebeau-courally and Woodwards were the only sporting guns he used”
in 1938, it was originally owned by one of the finest Dutch sporting shots, Baron Van der Heyden. This shotgun, along with the Woodwards, were the only sporting guns Churchill used. The Lebeau-courally was sold at auction in 1998.
Churchill was issued a Firearms Certificate, one of the first (no 694), by the Metropolitan Police on 9 December 1920. The certificate permitted Winston Spencer Churchill (WSC) to possess, ‘a .256 bore Mannlicher Sporting Rifle, a .45 Colt automatic pistol, a 9mm Webley automatic pistol, a .32 Webley automatic pistol and a .450 Wilkinson revolver’. His shotguns never appeared on his licences as they were not required to be listed until after 1968.
In 1929, Churchill gave up his Metropolitan Police certificate and was issued a new Firearms Certificate by Kent Constabulary (his country seat was at Chartwell in Kent), upon which were recorded these same weapons. This certificate was maintained until his death on 24 January 1965. The Woodward records also show that on 11 August 1940 the firm arranged payment for Churchill’s Firearms Certificate renewal (2s 6d). In those days your gunmaker was accommodating in all things sporting.
SUB-MACHINE GUNS
In terms of the firearms owned or presented to Churchill, the sub-machine guns are of particular interest as they represent some of the main models used by British forces from the early 1940s until the 1990s. There are a number of famous images of Churchill using or holding them during the war. They include one of him with a Thompson Model 1928 with the Home Guard near Hartlepool in 1940; one using a Thompson Model 1928A1 and an M1 carbine on Salisbury Plain alongside Eisenhower in 1944; and another of him shooting a Mk II Sten gun at Shoeburyness, Essex, in June 1941.
The Thompson was never part of Churchill’s armoury and unfortunately the two Stens owned by Churchill were in fact Mk IIIS, not the Mk II version he is photographed with. The Mk III variant was the simplest and cheapest model Sten and was made by Lines Bros, the famous toy manufacturer marketing toys under the brand name of ‘Tri-ang Toys’.
How he came into possession of the Stens is not known but as one was cased we might assume it was a presentation example. Sterling Armaments also presented him in March 1941 with one of the first Lanchester sub-machine guns (a copy of the German MP28/II); in fact, the gun was a tool room example. In 1953, Sterling Armaments again presented him with a sub-machine gun, this time a Sterling-patchett model. An early iteration of the famous L2A3 Sterling, it was used in British service from 1952 until the early 1990s. It has a silver plaque attached that is engraved with a quote from his famous ‘We shall fight on the beaches’ speech of 4 June 1940. These weapons were to remain on his certificate until his death in 1965. This gun is now in the collection of the Royal Armouries.
Further presentations were made to Churchill after World War II. In 1952, the Colt Firearms Company shipped directly to Churchill a Colt .45in Model 1911 Commander pistol with ivory grips. The slide is engraved: ‘Presented to Rt Hon Winston Churchill’. There was a gift in 1955 of an FN FAL rifle, along with a Browning Hi-power pistol, presented by the workers of FN. The rifle is inscribed in gold on the receiver: ‘This rifle was made by the workers of Fabrique Nationale d’armes de Guerre and presented to the Rt Hon Sir Winston Churchill, KG, OM, CH, PC, MP, Prime Minister of Great Britain, as a token of respect and admiration. Liege, Belgium, 25th March 1955.’
He is also known to have possessed an American M1 .30in carbine and a Browning .22in sporting rifle, but the exact circumstances of their acquisition remain a mystery. The Woodward day book records for November 1922 a mention of a .500in Express rifle but, again, nothing is known of this rifle and what has become of it. It may well have been the one used during his safari in East Africa in 1907.
For six years after his death the automatic weapons remained at Chartwell, but now under the authority of the National Trust. In 1974, due to the new Firearms Act of 1968, which prohibited automatic weapons, the new owner, Churchill’s grandson Winston Churchill, ordered them to be deposited into the care of a well-known gun dealer, Cogswell & Harrison of Piccadilly. They remained there until sold at auction, along with the Ross rifle and the M1 carbine, at Sotheby’s on 15 July 1975.