|
| Calibre: .303 British |
| Barrel: 25.2in |
| Length: 44.5in |
| Weight: N/A |
| Magazine: 10 rounds |
| Country: Australia |
| Years: 1944 |
On the 24th of March 1944, Sgt. William Denis Ekins of the Australian Army designed a gas-operated automatic conversion for the Lee-Enfield No.1 Mk.III rifle. It was designed at the No.2 AEME workshop in South Australia but there is no evidence to suggest it was ever actually made. The design was more or less identical to the Rieder automatic rifle, and also very similar to the Charlton and Howell.
Ekins was born into a family of gunsmiths so it
is no surprise that he took up small arms design. He was the son of a South
Australian gunsmith by the name of Archibald Ekins, who was in turn the son
of gunsmith William Emery Ekins. William Emery died in 1937 so Archie and
Denis took over his business.