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Mills No.36 Mk1. M & Co

dodgydave

Well-Known Member
I actually bought a new Mills bomb today; it's been awhile since I've seen one worth buying. I notice that the price of Mills Bombs has gone up somewhat!....
This is a nice dusty (real dust, not fake) WW1 No.36 Mk1. It has a 7/18 dated gas check attached to a cast iron base plug, which is in soak at the moment, to attempt separation of the two; I will post some photos when (?) apart.
Some of the original paint remains and the 'B ltd' lever looks original to the bomb.
The front is nicely marked 'M & Co' and /L (for London?).
In the lever recess are the numbers 11 and 7.
In the close up of the top, you can see a little WD broad arrow stamp; is this common??
The vendor also had an all red painted Mills, which looked original; what would that be all about then?
 

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Well done Dave. My favourite maker. Yes, London but they were based in Lewisham so that's possible. I went to school in Lewisham and used to pass the clock tower most days. M&Co - Clock Tower Works.

I've seen the small broad arrow a few times. Not that common at all. The lever may not be original. I do have a couple of M&Co marked levers (on grenades).

John
 
Hi John; there's a bit of green paint on the lever that lines up with the paint on the body and is the same shade. Any ideas on the all red Mills the seller had?
 
Some Home Guard throwing practice Mills were painted red. The lever could be original but Morum certainly made their own or had them made for them.

John
 
Thanks for your replies John; The base plug separated from the gas check quite easily after an all night soak. JCCo 10 17 on the base, which, according to Davids excellent site is the James Cycle Company.
The gas check has markings; Certainly 7/18, but not to sure on the others; looks like O M & Co?
I would say that the slight corrosion on the base plug/gas check, implies it was not original to the M & Co body.
A couple more photos for your viewing pleasure!
 

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Nice plug Dave.

It looks like someone painted it up as a WW2 grenade at some stage, not realising that M&Co/L went into liquidation in 1919. Yes, the Gas Check maker in OM & Co. Morum certainly made their own base plugs, in fact they are quite common, so your grenade is a bitsa. Still nice.
 
Dave & John . OM is actually the stamp for Oritur Manufacturing who were one of the main providers of gas checks in WW1 & it's more than likely Morum would have used their product . Mike.
 
Dave, I think the colours are too close to the WW2 version to be original. Also in WW1 the red crosses were only for tropicalised grenades, where were a rarer beast than the standard.


John
 
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Dave & John . OM is actually the stamp for Oritur Manufacturing who were one of the main providers of gas checks in WW1 & it's more than likely Morum would have used their product . Mike.



I agree Mike. I've never found a M&Co gas check but have seen lots of OM. John
 
The paint job has been on there a long time, John, it doesn't look like anything recent. Maybe the 'someone' was the War Department! I have 2 other WW1 36 Mills with identical colour green bands, one of which also has remains of red Xs. Could these have been old stock repainted for WW2 use; I know they re-issued WW1 Mills at the start of WW2 (my '39 REVO) Incidentally, my WW2 Mills green bands are a different shade to my WW1 Mills?
 
Dave

Green bands were used on the No 5, 23 and 36 in WW1 but seemingly very little of it ever survived. On some grenades you see the remains of the red filled band, and more rarely remains of a pink band that has faded to an off white or grey, sometimes yellowish colour. I don't think the green had any staying power and flaked off over time. WW2 paint was better and has in many cases lasted 70 years.

The green paint was made up in the factories thus:

Celestial blue, dry 1 oz
Yellow ochre 8 oz
Terebene 12 oz

It was only designed to last a few months, not 100 years. So I'd say most WW1 paint on grenades, especially in complete bands is a repaint. As I said, M&Co went into liquidation in 1919 and although there were large stocks of WW1 grenades between the wars, I doubt if repainting for WW2 was done. If anything WW1 stocks would have been used for training but not operations.
 
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