Jim,
I’ve now seen about 8 cases made by this manufacturer, mostly 18 pr and a few 4.5”. On each case there is a different three letter string (one case with just 2 letters) under the trade mark , the signifcance of which I have been unable to ascertain. The manufacturer is Canadian, whilst I can’t see it on your case, on the others that I have seen there is a ‘pheon’ (broad arrow) within a C.
All these cases and I think majority, if not all Canadian cases of this period differed from British and American (contract) cases in that they had the full date of manufacture stamped on them, as opposed to a MMYY and a Lot number. I suspect that this letter string might be some form of Lot/Batch identifyer.
I think that manufacturer might be “Canadian Cartridge Company” of Hamilton, Canada. The trademark I have listed for them is a pair of concentric ‘C’s. If it is them, I don’t know the significance of the ‘S’ however, see below.
The company was founded in 1914 by Sir Frank Wilton BAILLIE. The company was closed in 1919. The hereinafter is a direct lift off the web
“World War I gave new scope for his entrepreneurial energy. Late in 1914 he collaborated with the owners of the Chadwick Brass Company in Hamilton to set up the large Canadian Cartridge Company Limited, of which he became president and Frank Wood vice-president. Baillie began with about 200 workers but he would eventually employ 900 to manufacture brass cartridge cases for the British government. In August 1915 he won a lucrative contract to produce two million 18-pounder cases by promising to return any profits on the second million. By reorganizing production to cut costs drastically, he was able to turn over $758,248 in a well-publicized gesture in July 1916. Other manufacturers were “very disturbed” by this move, according to Joseph Wesley Flavelle, chairman of the Imperial Munitions Board, the agency in Canada that contracted with the British government, and none took up his example. That year Baillie also made sure that the growing discontent among Hamilton’s munitions workers did not disrupt production at either Canadian Cartridge or Burlington Steel by conceding the nine-hour day just before the outbreak of a bitter strike in most other metalworking plants in Hamilton.”
Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online
It might just be, that to signify the production of the ‘Second’ million they marked the cases by changing their trademark by the addition of a 'S'. Then, having completed the contract they retained the modified mark as a reminder of their altruism.
Regards
TimG
