P.E.I. volunteer's rifle from 1860s returns home

An Island man has spent $3,700 to buy a rare rifleat an Ontario auctionin order to bring it home to P.E.I.

It's an Enfieldpercussion short rifle, which was originally issued in the 1860sto the P.E.I. Volunteer Brigade and Militia.

About 1,000 were made and marked V-PEI on the bottom, and only a handful are known to still be around.

John Andrew said he bought the rifle because his family has a long history with the PEI regiment.

"My family have been involved, back when it was called the P.E.I. Light Horse, and there were 3 brothers, all eventually getting fairly high rank in the army: two colonels and a major," said Andrew.

"I thought this rifle should be brought back to P.E.I, it's part of our early history as a colony before confederation," he explained."It was great, I opened up the shipping box and it was back home on P.E.I. after 150 years of absence."

Andrew first found out about the rifle after hearing an interview with Steve Knechtelon CBC Radio's Island Morningin January.

Knetchel is president of the Dominion Ordnance Museum in Belle River, P.E.I., a charitable group with a goal to preserve and protect any historical gun of national importance.

Steve Knechtel put the call out to any localcollectorto buy the rifle from theOntario auction.

He was surprised when John Andrew phoned just 20 minutes after theradio interview, asking howto buy it.

The riflewas expected to go for about $1,500 at auction, but ended up being more than double that price.

"It was wonderful, we were very fortunate to get it," said Knechtel. "The condition of the thing is quite incredible, it doesn't look like it's seen much use at all, it's quite unusual to see one in that kind of condition, it's basically mint. I was rather dumbstruck when I opened the box. It was really nice to see it put where it belongs."

New home in museum

The rifle was donated to the Prince Edward IslandRegiment Museum, where it is now mounted in a display case.

The curator, Capt.Greg Gallant, plans to create a display of early militia weapons.

"It fits really nicely from the other (pieces) we have,becausewe have a pistol from that era, but we alsohave another musket that's even older thanit...so it's one more step on that road," said Gallant.

The museum currently has 5000 artifacts, and is located in the Armoury in Charlottetown, which isopen weekdays year-round.

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