When Britain entered the First World War, it had no formal sniper program. Germany was the first combatant to train and utilise snipers, and their effectiveness quickly convinced the British military that a similar program was necessary. Initially a wide variety of rifles were put into service, including many scoped hunting rifles send form the British Isles. These were of little use, as they were in non-standard calibers, and not generally rugged enough to survive the riggers of WW1. The first uniform equipment purchased and used were several versions of Galilean optical sights.
Introduced into competition shooting at Bisley before the war, this is a type of magnified sight which uses independent lenses mounted to the front and rear of a rifle (some fitted to the SMLE rear sight and some attached to the back of the receiver). This was low profile, relatively inexpensive, and quick to put into service, but the sights themselves were severely handicapped compared to modern telescopes. They offered about 2.5x magnification and a very large depth of field, but at the cost of a very narrow field of view and small eyebox. They were also easily dirtied, and the front aiming point was often difficult to discern against the background image.
The four main models purchased by the British were Lattey, Neill, Martin, and Gibbs. The model in this video is a Martin, patented by J.E. Martin of Glasgow. Once proper telescopes became available, they rendered the Galilean optics obsolete, and very few survived the war.
This Neill sight is in exceptional condition for its age. The sight itself is stamped PAT 1850/15 and is in as found condition. These sights are exceptionally rare and hardly ever come on the market. We have been lucky to purchase two sights with different patterns. This sight has the rarer cross hair glass offering the firer and very clear sight picture. The case for the sight is made of the 'American leather' with a textured pattern to it. The case is marked my the manufacturer inside and named inside to a Cpl Daley 4456 RFC. In our opinion, the sight has been used on a SMLE in the early years of the RFC when the aircraft were not fitted with machine guns. The Neill sight would have offered the firer a greater sight picture than the standard iron sights. This would also explain why the rear sight is missing from the set as incredibly accurate fire would e impossible during air to air combat.
Overall the sight is in amazing condition for its age. The case would benefit with a clean and would look amazing on a belt set as part of a sniper display.I highly doubt that we will see Neill sights for sale in the near future and this is your opportunity to secure a incredibly rare sight named to a member of the RFC.
