TOPIC:

A possibility is what it actually looks to be. During WW1, private firms in the US made very large quantities of ammunition for Britain. Artillery shells of several types and of course .303". And a lot of it was not very good. Many complaints were made about "dud" shells and I recall that McBride's "A Rifleman Went to War" mentions some US brands of small arms ammunition were very unsatisfactory.
The US census date 1920 is surely post-WW1. However, I did read that post-WW1, teams of British government inspectors and auditors went over the books of certain US small arm manufacturers and corrected many "irregularities"; which undetected would have profited the rifle makers handsomely. See Skennerton's "The American Enfield".
Not all that unreasonable to think that similar rigour may have been applied in the field of "ammunition" - which can encompass anything from small arms to artillery shells and cases.
IL.
BTW: my Bethune's M.I. Roll has "Lt. T.E.Mousley" as having previous service with "LY".

Gentlemen thanks for your thoughts. I think the two phrases are separate and Thomas's trade was "British ammunition" (or ammunition being made for Britain) and his job was "Inspector for England". His English origin is noted in another column. Thus, I especially like IL's contribution - there was an large ammunition factory in Hopewell, Virginia which provided work for most of the town's inhabitants, there was a massive explosion there in 1915 which flattened most of the houses as well, the main suspect was a German immigrant - only trouble is modern maps show Hopewell is about 60 miles from Beaver Dam. There was also something a bit strange about the family's 1911 voyage to Canada - they are listed at the bottom of the manifest page and all those above have their ages written in the English Column but Thomas and family have their ages written in the British Colonial Column and Thomas's occupation is given as "Tourist".

Here is the BMI KSA Medal Roll clearly showing Thomas's previous unit - 6th Coy, 4th Btn IY which is another way of saying Staffordshire Imperial Yeomanry:



His IY service record shows he was commissioned to the BMI on 11 December 1900 and he resigned his commission on 20 May 1902. On his BMI QSA Medal Roll they wanted to give him the OFS clasp and then realised they couldn't because his previous service had earned him the Wittebergen clasp.

Just dawned on me as an officer his return to the UK might get mentioned in the shipping records - indeed it does showing he returned on the Syria in June 1902 - I think she left SA on 4 June and arrived in Southampton Water on 26 June 1902.

Next I realised I had misnamed the ship they came to Canada on - it was in fact the Royal Edward which was used as a troop carrier in WW1 and on Friday the 13th 1915 was torpedoed with the loss of over 850 lives!!

Forgive me for torturing the meaning of handwriting...
This is on the butt of a ZAR-issued Boer Mauser rifle. I'm interested in the 3 initials below the burgher's name J.J. SCHEEPERS and above O.V.S
Can anyone suggest what the initals are? B.F.G.? F.B.G.? B.B.G.? F.F.G.?
If the inital stamping was in error, what is the second/correct stamping?
And what could they mean?
I've wondered about
Ficksburg (or Fouriesburg, Frankfort, or Fauresmith) Burgher Groep,
Brandfort Groep
Bloemfontein Gemagte
etc
Thanks!
Rob

Rob,

Isn’t that the bottom part of an ‘E’ showing under the’B’ making it ‘E’ then’B’ covered by ‘B’, ‘F’ and ’G’.