Scottish Sniper's Name & SN - Researchable?

[vonStubben]

I just sold an all matching British MkIV sniper rifle dated 1944 in it's original transit case with both it's canvas and metal scope cans, even the telescoping spotting scope and case was included.

Today the buyer called me and after his through cleaning of his new prize he looked under it's butt plate and found a folded piece of paper with the soldiers name and serial number written in his hand. His name was Franic McGlothlin, SN RA 25515192.

My question is, can he be researched? Franic is a very old Scottish surname and rarely used so he shouldn't be too hard to find.....if at all possible.

[Ian Jewison]

If that's a British Army Number then it is higher than mine and I joined up in 1982.


/Ian

[vonStubben]

If that's a British Army Number then it is higher than mine and I joined up in 1982.


/Ian

Ian,

Thank you for your response. Since I know absolutely nothing about the British Armed Forces I was just assuming it was his SN.


Any ideas what the number represents? It really was found in the manner described so it must mean something.

[Ian Jewison]

What calibre is the rifle .303 or 7.62?

Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

[sniper11]

As Ian stated that number service number is post war.I joined in the Army in 1983 and my first four service number begins 2468.The British Army used the L42 sniper rifle for many years until about in 1987/88 when the L96 sniper rifles were issued.They did not use .303 after the mid 1950's to my knowledge.
The rifle in question might have been a privately owned weapon belonging to a former serviceman ? "RA" may indicate Royal artillery ?

I'm not sure if the Royal British legion may be able to offer some assistance in tracking your man?

Troy

[Grimebox]

Whilst the first name looks like ‘Franic’ might I also suggest that you search for the name ‘Frank’ McGlothlin.

I have made a quick search of the ‘net and found somebody of that name making a comment about an historic firearm only last year (see below)
http://partisanrifles.weebly.com/his...ented-graffiti

There is also a Frank Emile McGothlin on Facebook from Louisiana who has links to ‘US Army marksmanship unit’ (sorry I’m not very good on Facebook to find out what group that is). It would appear that this Frank McGlothlin has an interest in the civil war

[Grimebox]

There is a Frank McGlothlin, aged 97 who lives in Bristol, Tennessee. I don’t know if this one or the one in Louisiana live anywhere near you or where you obtained the rifle from originally
https://www.beenverified.com/people/frank-mcglothlin/

[qed4]

The number looks like an American service number. It has the right number of digits and the RA prefix was added after WWII to indicate the service component, in this case Regular Army ( as opposed to National Guard, Air Force, etc)

[vonStubben]

I have no pictures of the rifle. It was chambered in standard. 303 British. In this photograph you can see the green transit case for the rifle. This photograph shows a view into his private gun vault he custom built into his 4000 ft under air home. If you did not know where it is located you'd have to burn the house down to find it. The vault is 12x12x12 ft and has 2.5ft thick poured & hardened concrete walls with 2.5 inch steel reinforcenent rods. The door is a professional 2.5ft thick steel bank vault door. 5 years ago he sold all his standard military long guns to Gander Mountain so the center stands of weapons are no longer there. Every wall is floor to ceiling rifles and handguns. We are concentrating on selling all his sniper varients at the moment. He used to deal as a hobby but left the business in 1993. All these weapons were purchased prior to his getting out. The MkIV was bought in the 1980's. He has commissioned me to sell it all.