{"id":100345,"date":"2026-06-05T02:00:04","date_gmt":"2026-06-05T06:00:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/?p=100345"},"modified":"2026-01-14T17:33:59","modified_gmt":"2026-01-14T22:33:59","slug":"the-first-ever-british-slr-serial-number-one-l1a1-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/2026\/06\/05\/the-first-ever-british-slr-serial-number-one-l1a1-explained\/","title":{"rendered":"The First Ever British SLR: Serial Number One L1A1 Explained"},"content":{"rendered":"<p align=\"center\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"854\" height=\"480\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/t8ULe8rLyRU?si=DktDyvJA1jiHO4Vz\" title=\"YouTube video player\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Royal Armouries<\/strong><br \/>\nPublished Jan 14, 2026<\/p>\n<p>The L1A1 Self-Loading Rifle is one of the most iconic service rifles in British military history and on this week&#8217;s episode we have the very first one ever produced.<\/p>\n<p>Next week: an original Royal Small Arms Factory archive film found by our archive team showing how the L1A1 was made.<\/p>\n<p>0:00 Intro<br \/>\n0:46 Serial Number One Explained (UE57 Alpha 1)<br \/>\n1:40 Factory Plaque, Proof Marks &#038; Enfield Details<br \/>\n4:26 Condition, Finish &#038; Standard Configuration<br \/>\n5:17 Distinctive British L1A1 Features<br \/>\n7:08 Controls, Ergonomics &#038; Fire Selector Choices<br \/>\n10:35 Why the L1A1 Won &#038; Closing Thoughts<\/p>\n<p>This week&#8217;s object&#8217;s collections online page: <a href=\"https:\/\/royalarmouries.org\/collection\/object\/object-275474\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/royalarmouries.org\/collection&#8230;<\/a><br \/>\n<!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Subscribe to our channel for more videos about arms and armour  <\/p>\n<p>Help us bring history to life by supporting us here: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/redirect?event=video_description&#038;redir_token=QUFFLUhqa1haLXFqS1hjM0hlSU92cFg4VF82ZDFBNDNEQXxBQ3Jtc0ttZHVkUjluN21Qa2VRNktUMm9NWVBHUE9RNEtQLWpLT0JmaGFhYkhhYlhNRDdZUS05cTRDckFXZnZDRFl0Um5hVkZRd25rY2ZGR1NUNFlocHdFNzd6U1poUzcwZm1DUE1OTV9xZzJuekhsX3Flck5haw&#038;q=https%3A%2F%2Froyalarmouries.org%2Fsupport-us%2Fdonations%2F&#038;v=t8ULe8rLyRU\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/royalarmouries.org\/support-us&#8230;<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Sign up to our museum membership scheme here: <a href=\"https:\/\/royalarmouries.org\/collection\/object\/object-275474\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/royalarmouries.org\/support-us&#8230;<\/a> <\/p>\n<p>\u2694Website: <a href=\"https:\/\/royalarmouries.org\/home\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/royalarmouries.org\/home<\/a><br \/>\n\u2694Blog: <a href=\"https:\/\/royalarmouries.org\/stories\/\" target=\"_blank\">https:\/\/royalarmouries.org\/stories\/<\/a><br \/>\n\u2694Twitter:   \/ royal_armouries<br \/>\n\u2694 Instagram:   \/ royalarmouriesmuseum  <\/p>\n<p>We are the Royal Armouries, the United Kingdom&#8217;s national collection of arms and armour. Discover what goes on behind the scenes and watch our collection come to life. See combat demonstrations, experience jousting and meet our experts. <\/p>\n<p>Have a question about arms and armour? Feel free to leave us a comment and we&#8217;ll do our best to answer it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Royal Armouries Published Jan 14, 2026 The L1A1 Self-Loading Rifle is one of the most iconic service rifles in British military history and on this week&#8217;s episode we have the very first one ever produced. Next week: an original Royal Small Arms Factory archive film found by our archive team showing how the L1A1 was [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,7,5,663],"tags":[1063,108,1412,49,1298],"class_list":["post-100345","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-britain","category-history","category-military","category-weapons","tag-1950s","tag-coldwar","tag-fnfal","tag-guns","tag-museum"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2hpV6-q6t","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100345","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=100345"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100345\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":100346,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100345\/revisions\/100346"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=100345"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=100345"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/quotulatiousness.ca\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=100345"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}