Incidents from an elephant hunter’s diary by W.D.M Bell

Where this comes from

The part other shops don't tell you. Three separate questions, kept separate on purpose, each with its source.

• UK company

  Registered at Companies House as JOHN RIGBY & CO. (GUNMAKERS) LTD, number 08493364. Checked 2026-08-29.

  Means the business is a British legal entity, not a British-sounding name owned elsewhere. It says nothing about where anything is made.

• UK operations

  Not yet checked.

  Means people employed here, or premises they actually work from. We keep this separate from the company badge because a registered office can be an accountant's spare room, and a company can be registered in Britain while everything it does happens somewhere else. Where we have not looked, we say so rather than assuming.

• British-owned

  Not established. Many companies file a statement rather than naming a controlling shareholder.

  Read from the register of people with significant control, following the chain of holding companies. It does not gate anything: a firm can be made here and owned elsewhere, and that is worth telling you rather than hiding.

• Where it is made

  The maker doesn't say, so neither do we.

  This is about the individual product, not the company. A British firm can sell things made abroad, which is normal and not a criticism. We would rather tell you which is which than average them into a score.