{"id":2238561,"date":"2026-01-17T07:35:07","date_gmt":"2026-01-17T07:35:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/?p=2238561"},"modified":"2026-01-17T07:35:07","modified_gmt":"2026-01-17T07:35:07","slug":"the-first-ever-british-slr-serial-number-one-l1a1-explained-with-firearms-expert-jonathan-ferguson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/the-first-ever-british-slr-serial-number-one-l1a1-explained-with-firearms-expert-jonathan-ferguson\/","title":{"rendered":"The First Ever British SLR: Serial Number One L1A1 Explained with firearms expert Jonathan Ferguson"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\"  width=\"580\" height=\"385\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/t8ULe8rLyRU?autoplay=1&#038;modestbranding=1\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n<br \/>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:<br \/>\nhttps:\/\/royalarmouries.org\/collection\/object\/object-275474<\/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: https:\/\/royalarmouries.org\/support-us\/donations\/<\/p>\n<p>Sign up to our museum membership scheme here: https:\/\/royalarmouries.org\/support-us\/membership\/ <\/p>\n<p>\u2694Website: https:\/\/royalarmouries.org\/home<br \/>\n\u2694Blog: https:\/\/royalarmouries.org\/stories\/<br \/>\n\u2694Facebook: https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/RoyalArmouriesMuseum\/<br \/>\n\u2694Twitter: https:\/\/twitter.com\/Royal_Armouries<br \/>\n\u2694 Instagram: http:\/\/instagram.com\/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.<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=t8ULe8rLyRU\">Video Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<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. Next week: an original Royal Small Arms Factory archive film found by our archive team showing how the L1A1 was made. 0:00 Intro 0:46 Serial Number [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2238562,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25180],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2238561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-videos"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768635305_maxresdefault.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2238561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2238561"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2238561\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2238563,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2238561\/revisions\/2238563"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2238562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2238561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2238561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2238561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}