British WW1 1888 Pattern Bayonet, 2/6th Battalion The Royal Scots

Unfullered spear pointed blade, wood scale grips with two brass rivets. Steel pommel and hilt with short quillon and muzzle ring. Black leather Land Mk I pattern scabbard with steel throat and chape.

The blade is stamped on one side of the ricasso with the production date of ’11 .95’, meaning November 1895, and the maker’s mark ‘SANDERSON SHEFFIELD’. On the other side it is stamped with a broad arrow and ‘WD’ meaning War Department property, a crown inspection mark with ‘S’ and an ‘X’ which indicates that the blade passed a manufacturer’s bending test. The spine of the blade is stamped with two further crown inspection marks with ‘B’ for Birmingham.

The pommel is stamped with the unit mark ‘2/6 RS’, indicating the 2/6th Battalion of the Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment) and the serial number ‘434’. There is also a serial number ‘406’ which has been cancelled with a strikethrough. The exposed tang is stamped with ‘2’.

The throat of the scabbard is stamped on one side of the mouth with the serial number ‘298’. The scabbard leather is stamped next to the seam on one side with two broad arrows, the maker’s mark ‘EFD’ for the Royal Small Arms Factory at Enfield, a crown inspection stamp with ‘E’, another partly rubbed crown inspection stamp, and a Birmingham repair stamp of a crown over ‘BR’. The throat piece is stamped next to the staple with ‘63’. The chape piece is stamped on one side next to the staple with a double-stamped crown inspection mark with ‘B’.

The 3^rd City of Edinburgh Rifle Volunteer Corps was formed in 1867, as an enlargement of a corps formed in 1860 as part of the national Volunteer movement. Uniquely it was formed entirely from members of the British Temperance League, men who had pledged to abstain totally from alcohol, and led by local temperance activist John Hope, which earned them the nickname ‘John Hope’s Water Rats’. In 1881 as part of the Childers Reforms it was attached to the Royal Scots (Lothian Regiment) as their 2nd Volunteer Battalion, then in a reorganisation of 1888 became the 4^th Volunteer Battalion. Volunteers from the regiment served overseas for the first time during the Boer War attached to the Royal Scots and the Scottish Volunteer Cyclist Company, earning the battalion its first battle honour South Africa 1900-02. In the Haldane Reforms of 1908 it became a Territorial Force battalion and was now the 6^th Battalion, Royal Scots.

During the First World War the men of the Territorial Force could not legally be deployed overseas unless they volunteered to do so. Each battalion was therefore split into two: those men who volunteered to serve overseas would form a battalion, while the remainder would form ‘second line’ battalions which would be assigned to home service duties. Organisationally, these new battalions were numbered as the 1/X and 2/X, with X being the number of the original Territorial battalion within its regiment. A few third battalions were also raised, these generally being training units.

The 2/6^th Battalion Royal Scots was thereby formed in the city of Edinburgh in March 1915. With the 1/6^th Battalion preparing to deploy overseas the 2/6^th rotated to take over its coastal defence role in Peebles in May 1915. In November 1915 it was attached to 195^th Brigade within the 65^th Division, made up of more home defence TF units. In November it was amalgamated with the 2/4^th and 2/5^th battalions into a new 19th Bn – this was unwound in January 1916 but the 2/6^th and 2/4^th remained amalgamated. It moved to Essex in March, headquartered at Chelmsford, and was then sent to Ireland for local security duties in January 1917 in order to free up the 59^th Division to serve in France. It was disbanded around January 1918.

Second line battalions were consistently short of equipment. This made sense since they could not be sent overseas: what new equipment was available would naturally be prioritised for fighting units. The Lee Metford rifle and its associated 1888 Pattern bayonet was not entirely obsolete by the time of WW1, as it used the same cartridge as the contemporary SMLE rifle. Some Territorial units are known to have deployed to France in the early days of the war still carrying it, although it was quickly replaced when supplies of the modern rifles became available.

It would make perfect sense therefore for the 2/6^th Royal Scots to have used the Lee Metford during the war for their home defence role. Since the 2/6^th did not exist before the war and ceased to exist afterwards, this bayonet must have been issued to them during the conflict itself, perhaps drawn from storage.

Between the wars the 6^th Battalion reunified and was converted to artillery. It entered WW2 as the 51^st Heavy Regiment, Royal Artillery, seeing particularly heavy combat in the Battle of France that sometimes required them to fight as infantry. After several postwar amalgamations the regiment became 278^th Lowland Field Regiment (The City of Edinburgh Artillery), which was disbanded in 1975. However, as part of the Army 2020 program 278 (Lowland) Battery was reformed in 2014, an artillery reserve 105mm howitzer unit which maintains the lineage of its predecessor units and has a detachment in Edinburgh.

The blade is bright with only a few very small spots of light patination, no damage to its edge or tip. The hilt, exposed tang and pommel are likewise polished bright with a few spots of light patination or cleaned light pitting. The wood grips have some light dents. The scabbard fittings are bright with some spots of light patination in recesses e.g. around the staples and some light scratches. The leather of the scabbard is strong and glossy with only very light surface rubbing and a few light dents.