Webley Self-Loading Pistol

The Webley Self-Loading Pistol was an early magazine-fed semi-automatic pistol designed in 1910 by the British firm Webley and Scott. The first model entered police service in 1911 in a .32 ACP version for the London Metropolitan Police, and the .455 version was adopted by the Royal Navy in 1912 as the first automatic pistol in British service. It was also taken up by the Royal Horse Artillery and the Royal Flying Corps, and pilots of the Royal Naval Air Service were issued it, partly with the idea that it might be fired at other aircraft. Its predecessor was the unsuccessful Mars Automatic Pistol. The original cordite cartridge left heavy residue in the barrel and caused frequent jamming, a fault eased in 1914 when nitrocellulose replaced cordite in the .455 round, known as the Mark Iz. Early pistols carried the safety on the hammer; it was later moved to the frame, where it could lock the slide, and service pistols gained a grip safety.