“JAMES PARIS LEE 1831 -1904” - Wallaceburg
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Hard Oiler
N 42° 35.554 W 082° 23.245
17T E 386168 N 4716504
Inventor of the Lee-Enfield rifle - the first prototype was made and tested here.
Waymark Code: WM1GKT
Location: Ontario, Canada
Date Posted: 05/05/2007
Views: 146
Wallaceburg is the home of the first Lee-Enfield Rifle ever made.
James Paris Lee was born on August 28, 1831, the son of a watchmaker. When the family first emmigrated to Canada, they lived in Galt, but later moved to Chatham, where Lee's father opened a jeweller's shop. At age 7, James got a job in his father's shop and first started to experiment with firearms. In 1850 James opened his own shop and by 1862 had patented his first rifle -- a single shot, breech loading rifle.
In 1878 James made his greatest contribution inventing a rifle with a box magazine capable of firing 30 shots per minute. The rifle was perfected in Wallaceburg on a site opposite the Municipal Building. The gun was tested with bullets being fired from his brother’s foundry across the Sydenham River into an oak tree several hundred yards away.
Ten thousand of these rifles were sold to the U.S. Navy and they also became the standard issue for the British Army for over 60 years. The Patent rights were purchased by England for £50,000 (about M$10 in 2007 $'s) plus a 50 cent ($10 in 2007 equivalent) royalty for each magazine. So James Lee did very well from the invention. The rifle was produced in Enfield, England in 1888, thus the "Lee Enfield" name.
The local museum has a collection of “Lee-Enfields” including the first prototype.
