From Enfield to Ishapore
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Printed Date: March 26 2026 at 4:31pm
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Topic: From Enfield to Ishapore
Posted By: HarryPack
Subject: From Enfield to Ishapore
Date Posted: January 29 2026 at 8:31am
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he!!o, new member here. My husband's grandad worked at the Royal Small Arms Factory in Enfield as a component hardener. Many generations of his family worked there as gunmakers. He contributed to a method for steel hardening and as a result was given a Management job at the factory in Ishapore. He and his family moved there c1919. His name was Henry (Harry) Packer. I haven't been able to find him being credited for this anywhere. Does anyone have any information? Thanks ------------- S.Packer |
Replies:
Posted By: britrifles
Date Posted: January 29 2026 at 2:53pm
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Interesting. By “component hardener” I’m guessing that means heat treatment to increase the strength of steel parts, likely the forged action body, bolt body, bolt head, etc. I’ve not come across that name before, but based on the dates, he would have worked at the RSAF Enfield during development of the SMLE and possibly earlier. Do you know the date he started working at Enfield? |
Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: January 29 2026 at 3:43pm
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Heat treatment or, case hardening? ------------- Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force) |
Posted By: britrifles
Date Posted: January 29 2026 at 4:39pm
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They are in some respects complimentary, both are heat treatment processes. Case hardening is done after bulk heat treating to increase wear resistance of the surfaces. Case hardening is done at elevated temperatures, usually by introducing carbon into a relatively thin outer layer of the steel, so seen as a “heat treating” process too. The development of such processes is done by Material and Process Engineers. The factory workers would be trained to do both bulk heat treating and case hardening, along with many other metal processing steps. Could be that this person worked on the development side, probably in a lab, optimizing the process for heat treating (in the general sense of the term). |
Posted By: britrifles
Date Posted: January 29 2026 at 4:50pm
I’m not a M&P Engineer by training, but one of the teams I am responsible for is 30 M&P engineers at a well known aerospace company in the US south east….very close to Atlanta, GA  . Think C-130, F-22, F-35….Well, until today anyway. I just had my last full day at work. Will be on vacation for the next two months, got a few loose ends to tie up, then officially retire in March. Enjoying a glass of Bourbon at the moment, so apologize if this makes no sense at all…. |
Posted By: A square 10
Date Posted: January 29 2026 at 5:08pm
| welcome hope someone can help you out , only parker i can think of is the par=ker in parker hale |
Posted By: A square 10
Date Posted: January 29 2026 at 5:28pm
makes perfect sense to me , congrats Geoff , im sipping a bourbon myself right now and i think you will enjoy retirement , i have for the past five years + , it does have its up and downs from time to time but overall its been good - its the advancing age that hurts - literally - these days
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britrifles wrote:Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: January 29 2026 at 6:38pm
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Welcome to the wonderful world of being retired! ------------- Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force) |
Posted By: britrifles
Date Posted: January 29 2026 at 7:36pm
| Thanks Mike and Chaz! You are good friends, hope at some point we can meet in person. |
Posted By: A square 10
Date Posted: January 29 2026 at 9:41pm
| i would like that , it seems , based on long/lat that ill have to make the trip your way , ill look into that , my wife and i have discussed seeing the eastern sights in this 250th year of our republic , i shall think on it a bit and let yall know |
Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: January 30 2026 at 10:03am
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If we ever get to visit my family in Loganville, Georgia I'll let you know. ------------- Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force) |
Posted By: paddyofurniture
Date Posted: January 30 2026 at 11:37am
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You got kin is Georgia ? That explains a lot. Them Georgia people are crazy. |
Posted By: Shamu
Date Posted: January 30 2026 at 4:30pm
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Most of the U.S Side of the family is in Gawhga, Y'awll. They live there though they're originally from Ohio! ------------- Don't shoot till you see the whites of their thighs. (Unofficial motto of the Royal Air Force) |
Posted By: HarryPack
Date Posted: February 01 2026 at 9:53am
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Harry worked at RSAF from about 1900. His father, grandfather and other family members all worked there too. He was sent to Ishapore in 1919 to run the Lee Enfield Factory there. I'm curious as to why he is not recorded anywhere with a credit for his work in relation to the steel hardening process. Does anyone know if records have been kept? ------------- S.Packer |
Posted By: HarryPack
Date Posted: February 01 2026 at 9:54am
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Thank you, I hope so. His name was Packer, not Parker. Henry Packer but known as Harry. ------------- S.Packer |
Posted By: britrifles
Date Posted: February 02 2026 at 1:09pm
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The only book I know of that details the development and production history of the Lee actioned rifles in British service (Lee Metford and Lee Enfield) is Major E.G.B Reynolds book, the Lee Enfield Rifle. I searched thru an online version of the book and no mention of a Mr. Packer. Although there is some information regarding the heat treatment processes for hardening. Based on the dates you gave, he was likely involved in the development of the Short Magazine Lee Enfield (SMLE) the version that was used in WWI and also built at the Ishapore factory in India.
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Posted By: paddyofurniture
Date Posted: February 02 2026 at 1:12pm
| I have the book" India's Enfields". I will have to check and see what I can find. |
Posted By: Sapper740
Date Posted: February 03 2026 at 5:36am
| According to Stratton's book Ishapore stopped making MkIII rifles in 1916 but started up again in 1920, all dates admittedly approximate but perhaps Henry Packer was a member of the team restarting production there? |
Posted By: Zed
Date Posted: February 04 2026 at 4:07am
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I believe that when working for gouvernment run contracts and companies, it is highly likely that the processes and new technologies would be credited to the company or service, not the individual! Think of Frank Whittle's Jet engine, he designed it while working for the RAF. So he didn't have the patent! ------------- It's nice to be important, but it's more important to be nice! |
Posted By: britrifles
Date Posted: February 04 2026 at 4:24am
| There are many patented heat treating processes for metallic materials. I don’t know what the UK laws are in this regard when working for a government organization like the MOD. But I suspect Zed is right, the MOD would hold those patents if they existed in this particular case, but it’s possible the name of individual engineer or scientist might be identified on the patent. |