James Purdey & Sons, or simply Purdey, is a British gunmaker based in London, England specialising in high-end bespoke sporting shotguns and rifles.[1][2] Purdey holds Royal Warrants of appointment as gun and rifle makers to the British and other European royal families.
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 Rev. Alexander Forsyth, before establishing his own company in London, England, in 1814, locating his business on Princes Street, now Wardour Street, near Leicester Square.[citation needed]
In 1826, the company moved from Princes Street to Manton's former premises at 314-315 Oxford Street. Due to a conflict of numbering, the business used the address ‘314½ Oxford Street’ from 1827.[citation needed]
The founder's son, James Purdey the Younger, took over the company's running 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 loadingflintlocks in the 1820s to breech loading hammerless ejectors by the 1890s. James the Younger was always at the forefront of advances in designing and building his guns and rifles and took out several patents for technical innovations over the years. These included the famous ‘Purdey Bolts’ locking system, and his concealed third bite. Both remain in production today, and may other gunmakers also adopted these designs as well.[citation needed]
The historic Long Room, located at James Purdey and Sons' Audley House.
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 accommodate his showroom and the factory, and later, the building 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.[citation needed]
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 through the incorporation of 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.[citation needed]
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.[citation needed]
On 2 October 1925 James Purdey & Sons became a limited company, taking on investment from Jim Purdey’s in-laws, the Oliver family. Athol Purdey continued to run the business until 1929, when he was succeeded by Tom. In 1935, the Oliver family sold their shares to Sir Wyndham Portal and Major Godfrey Miller-Mundy, who in turn sold them to John Cobbold in November 1943. Sadly he was killed when the Guard’s Chapel was hit by a V1 bomb on 18 June 1944. In 1946, Tom Purdey convinced Hugh Seely, 1st Baron Sherwood, to purchase the shares, eventually passing them to his nephew, the Hon. Richard Beaumont.[1] Tom Purdey remained the Chairman of the company until his retirement in 1955 due to ill health, with day-to-day management of the company being handled by the Managing Director, Harry Lawrence. Richard Beaumont became Chairman of the company in 1970, and in 1994, upon deciding to retire, sold James Purdey & Sons Ltd to Compagnie Financière Richemont SA.
Richard Purdey, the sixth generation of the founder's family, was brought into the company as Chairman in 1997, retiring in February 2007. Nigel Beaumont, the cousin of Richard Beaumont, took over as chairman until his retirement in 2014. He was followed by James Horne, who was succeeded in December 2019 by the current Chairman, Dan Jago. Richard Purdey’s daughter, Annika, the seventh generation of the founder’s family, currently sits on the company’s board as a non-executive director.
Royal clientele
As early as 1838, Queen Victoria is recorded as having bought a pair of Purdey pistols, followed by her husband, Prince Albert, in 1840. The company also supplied guns and rifles to the majority of the European royal houses, as well as various Indian rulers.
Purdey have built two pairs of miniature guns for the British Royal Family. The first were commissioned for Queen Mary’s Dolls House in 1923, and were non-working 1:12-scale replicas of the company’s side-by-side shotguns. These were displayed in the library of the Dolls House on the instructions of King George V. To mark his Silver Jubilee in 1935, Purdey built a pair of fully-working miniature hammer guns, based on the King’s favourite pair. These were 1:6-scale, and were presented in a silver-gilt case made by the King’s jewellers, Garrard.
The first James Purdey was renowned as a maker of not only fine shotguns, but also rifles and pistols as well. He and his son worked together to develop the first ‘Express’ rifle, introduced in 1851. The name remains in use today for high-velocity dangerous game cartridges, and the company continues to build double rifles using a reinforced side-by-side action. Since 1931, Purdey have also offered bolt-action rifles using Mauser actions. In 2018 it launched an updated model, utilising a titanium chassis to allow the barrel to be free-floated, for greater accuracy.
Due primarily to both King George V and Earl de Grey, Purdey have a long association with building back-action hammer ejector guns, most of which were built between 1895 and 1931. In 2004, the company reintroduced the Hammer Ejector to its range, using a sidelock action styled after its 1870s bar-in-wood guns.
During the inter-war period, Purdey responded to demands from its American clients by introducing a single-barrelled trap gun (1923) and an over & under model (1925). The latter was based on a design by Edwinson Green, and despite significant refinement in the early 1930s only 27 were ever completed. In 1949, Purdey purchased another gunmaker, James Woodward & Sons, primarily for its ‘Under & Over’ design, which they had patented in 1913. A slightly-modified design remains in production today, alongside their ‘Sporter’ and ‘Trigger-Plate’ models, introduced in 2007 and 2018 respectively.
All of these models are built in the company’s Hammersmith factory, which has been there since the late 1970s. The factory was fully rebuilt in 2014 to mark the company’s bicentenary, and was opened by the Duke of Edinburgh in 2015.
Clothing & Accessories
While Purdey had always supplied shooting accessories, it did not offer a full range of clothing and accessories until 1974, when it was started by Richard Beaumont’s wife, Lavinia. This was originally run from 84 Mount Street, which was accessed by its own door, and originally focussed on high-quality shooting clothing, gifts and accessories. The range has since expanded, and now includes luxury lifestyle pieces and luggage as well. In June 2024, Giles Deacon was announced as Purdey’s new Creative Director.
Purdey Shooting Schools
Purdey have owned several shooting schools, including:
After the sale of the Eastcote ground, the company came to an arrangement to lease space at the West London Shooting Ground. Purdey had its own instructor, William Morgan, until his retirement in 1952, and thereafter they relied upon the Shooting Ground’s instructors. This arrangement continued until 2018, when Purdey purchased The Royal County of Berkshire Shooting Group. This was rebranded as Purdey at the Royal Berkshire in April 2022.
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