WW1 British Webley Mk. VI Service Revolver Belonging to Capt. F.A.B. Doggett "Duke of Wellington’s" West Riding Regiment

Description:
Serial #227537, .45 ACP/.45 Auto Rim, 6" barrel with an excellent, bright bore. This converted revolver has matching numbers on the frame, barrel, and shaved cylinder, with a mixture of wartime military proofs, double arrow commercial sale mark, and post-war Birmingham proofs. Metal retains about 25-30% of the original blue finish with a smooth plum-brown patina on the balance and silvering at the muzzle and along the high and exposed edges. There is some flaking to the applied black finish on the hammer, which also has a broken firing pin, but the revolver is otherwise mechanically excellent. The right side of the frame is neatly engraved with the previous owner’s name: "LT. F.A.B. DOGGETT / WEST RIDING REGT." The checkered hard rubber grips are in very good shape, with or handling marks and flattening of the points on either panel, as well as a chip at the butt on the left panel, and the start of a second chip on the right. Frank Augustus Bradbury Doggett was born on February 14, 1885, in Chesterton, Cambridgeshire, England, the eldest of three boys born to George Henry and Mary Ann Doggett of Abbey Lodge, Beche Road, Cambridge. He was educated at the Cambridge School of Art, and by 1911 was employed in some capacity by the National Telephone Company. While still a student, Doggett had entered territorial reserve service, first with the 3rd Suffolks (1906 & 1909), then with the 1st Cambridgeshire (1911 & 1914). In September of 1914, he was one of 600 officers and men of the Cambridgeshire Territorials to volunteer for active service in France as the Cambridgeshire Infantry Regiment, British Army Territorial Force. They are known to have served in combat on the Western Front near St. Eloi, Belgium, near Ypres, as well as near Neuve Chapelle, France. Doggett was promoted to Sergeant about eight months after arriving on the continent, and was again promoted to 2nd Lieutenant on January 27, 1916, with a transfer to the West Riding Regiment as a Battalion Musketry Officer. Doggett served in France and Belgium until he was invalided back to England (for the second time) on April 16, 1917. In England, he attended the funeral of his younger brother, 2nd Lt. George Patrick Doggett, B Co., West Riding Regiment, who had died on July 4, 1917, of wounds received at Hill 60 the previous month. The middle brother, John Horace Doggett, would himself be medically discharged from service in 1919. F.A.B. Doggett was officially promoted to 1st Lieutenant on October 17, 1917 (effective back to July 27, 1917) and continued his Army service in the Mediterranean: Macedonia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Turkey, and Aegean Islands. After the 1918 Armistice he remained in the Army of Occupation at Salonika until he was demobilized in June of 1920. Doggett was entitled to wear the 1914 & 1915 Star, British War Medal, and Victory Medal. Following his final return to England, Doggett was transferred back to the Territorial Reserve with a promotion to Captain, and eventually entered the T.A. Officer Reserve in 1924. He aged out in February of 1935, and relinquished his commission with the permanent rank of Captain. He was married in 1925, lived in Chesterton, Cambridgeshire, and worked as an accountant at the Draper’s Company. Capt. Frank Augustus Bradbury Doggett passed away at the age of 77 in 1962. This is a good looking Mk. VI Webley conversion, belonging to a WW1 British combat veteran, that could be reactivated very easily. FFL or C&R;


Price: $1,295.00