James Purdey & Sons

James Purdey was born in Whitechapel in 1784 and apprenticed to his brother-in-law, Thomas Keck Hutchinson. After completing his training, he worked for both Joseph Manton and the Rev. Alexander Forsyth before establishing his own company in London in 1814. He located his business on Princes Street, now Wardour Street, near Leicester Square.

In 1826, the company moved from Princes Street to Manton's former premises at 314-315 Oxford Street. Due to a numbering conflict, the business used the address '314½ Oxford Street' from 1827.

The founder's son, James Purdey the Younger, took over the running of the company from his father in 1858. James the Younger saw rapid change in the development and design of guns and rifles during his lifetime, essentially moving from muzzle loading flintlocks in the 1820s to breech loading hammerless ejectors by the 1890s. James the Younger was always at the forefront of advances in the design and manufacture of his guns and rifles, and he secured several patents for technical innovations over the years. These included the famous 'Purdey Bolts' locking system, and his concealed third "bite" (square notch that holds the side-by-side barrels closed). Both remain in production today, and other gunmakers have adopted these features.

In 1878, James the Younger took two of his sons into the business, renaming it James Purdey & Sons. In 1882, the company moved from Oxford Street to new premises at 57-58 South Audley Street, on the corner with Mount Street, where the company remains today. James the Younger designed this building to house his showroom and factory, and later it provided living quarters for James' family. The City of Westminster unveiled a memorial plaque on the shop at 57-60 South Audley Street on 30 April 1992.

Purdey introduced their self-opening hammerless gun in 1880. Designed by Frederick Beesley, a former Purdey craftsman, his hammerless self-opening mechanism uses one limb of a V-spring to operate the internal hammers and the other to operate the self-opening feature. This action was modified in 1888 by incorporating William Wem's ejector design. Apart from occasional refinement and the optional single trigger mechanism, very little change has subsequently been made to the design of the side-by-side gun.

In 1900, Athol Purdey took over from his father and ran the business through the prosperous Edwardian years, as well as supervising Purdey's manufacturing of sniper rifles and aerial gunnery sights for the War Office during World War I. Athol's sons, James and Tom, both of whom had served in France, joined the firm in the 1920s.