Harrington & Richardson Bobby

murphydog

murphydog

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This is one I recently picked up. By report, between 21 and 25,000 were produced for the Metropolitan (London area) police in the dark early days of the Second World War. Aside from a brief mention in Pate's "U.S. Handguns of World War II" and three brief references in posts using Google online, I have been unable to find information regarding its history, usage and eventual fate.

I gather very few survived being melted into scrap by the British at some point after WW II, but any and all insights into the model would be most appreciated (and you will be enshrined as post #4 about it on Google for all eternity :)). Thanks in advance.
 

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The late Bill Goforth did a book on H&R revolvers. I don't have a copy, unfortunatly, but perhaps someone who does will look up this revolver there.
 
That's a cool little piece.

It looks similar to my H&R Defender 38 from the same period, but has distinct differences.

P1041776.jpg
 
Alan, Per your PM to me, here's what I know about the Bobby model. It was listed for one year( 1940) in the H&R catalog, an they named it their Bobby Model as some were sent to the London Metro. Police, known as "Bobbys" Ser. #s ran from 1 to 23782. It was made mostly in .32 cal (H&R Model 15) and a few in .38 S&W cal. ( H&R Model 25 ) , aka MKII by the Brits. Your gun is serial number 16,000. All had 4 inch barrels and were finished in Blue. Weight 23 oz. with checkered walnut stocks. From known examples it appears that the actions are the same as the Auto-Ejector models, although some guns have free wheeling cylinders and some have automatic cylinder stops. The guns were made on the "Rice" frame as used on the Sportsman models. Your gun does not have the required English proofs as would have been added to guns received by the Metro Police, however it does have the MKII stamp as added by the Brits, I believe. We know that Pre-Victory models received by the Brits in this time period were not given the required proof make either, so that requirement may have also been shelved for the Bobby Models due to the war going on. The P.M.P. stamp on the grip stamp is believed to stand for "Property of Metropolitan Police" The fate of those guns sent to arm the London Bobbys is unknown to collectors, however since very few have appeared I would assume the majority were destroyed. Ed.
 
Thanks for the feedback. From the other information available online it is my understanding the chambering is .32 S & W Long, but I have not yet tried putting any rounds in the cylinder yet.

It is stamped .32 (edit to add, S & W) CTGE, so I think the extra letter makes it 25% more powerful than the CTG ;). I think the Brits named this round the +E ;) ;)
 
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I buy and sell a lot of H&Rs. I can't recommend this book highly enough. Its available through gun show books.

 
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