RARE HIGH POWER MADE IN CANADA

During World War II, the Canadian firm John Inglis & Co. manufactured approximately 150,000+ samples of the iconic FN Browning Hi-Power pistol. When the last batch in active service was declared to be surplus by the British military in the early 1990s, many of these fine pistols made their way to American shores. While most now reside in the safes of Hi-Power collectors, these excellent pistols do occasionally come up for sale and still represent a good value for the collector of WWII firearms.

A Brief History

The John Inglis Company was a former metal fabrication factory that had gone into receivership in 1936: a victim of both the Great Depression and the death of the two Inglis brothers who had run the company for many years. By 1938, the world was a powder keg, and the only thing missing was a spark. The allies were generally slow to acknowledge this reality, but they were begrudgingly making small some preparations.

One of Inglis’ abandoned factories was located on the western outskirts of Toronto. This factory drew the attention of an American-born businessman who had served in the Canadian military: Major James Hahn. He purchased the factory and the Inglis name, and quickly negotiated a contract to build 5,000 Mk 1 Stens for the British War office, as well as 7,000 for Canada.

With the contract came fresh capital for infrastructure. Inglis retooled the factory and started production of small arms in 1940. John Inglis & Co. became a major arms contractor, and included in its portfolio was the new state-of-the-art Browning Hi-Power. Even though Fabrique Nationale was in the hands of the Germans by 1940, FN’s chief designer, Dieudonné Saive, had managed to escape to England and was able to reproduce manufacturing drawings for the Hi-Power from a combination of his excellent memory and a few sample guns.

By 1943, Chiang Kai-Shek’s Nationalist Chinese Army was seeking to buy 180,000 Hi-Powers via the Mutual Aid Plan with Canada. The Chinese were familiar with the Mauser C96, and wanted their new Hi-Powers to be fitted with similar wooden stock/holsters and 500-meter Tangent sights. Inglis secured the contract, and production began in February of 1944. However, only 4,000 of these pistols were produced and delivered, and even that shipment initially only made it as far as India.

Apparently, most of these 4,000 pistols were eventually flown over the “hump” by American pilots and delivered to Chinese forces. Another 14,500 +/- Chinese contract pistols had been produced when the original contract was cancelled in September of 1944. All of these undelivered Chinese- contract pistols were accepted by the Canadian and British militaries, and were given a designation of “Pistol No 1 Mk 1” and “Pistol No 1 Mk 1*.”

The sample gun photographed for this article is from this batch of Chinese Contract pistols that was accepted into the Canadian military.

Once it was clear that World War II was ending, the Allies granted a new contract to China, and delivered roughly 40,000 +/-  Hi Powers to Chiang Kai-Shek’s Army. This contract was cancelled in the fall of 1945, once it became apparent that Mao’s Communist Forces were going to defeat the Nationalist Chinese Army.

All in all, Inglis produced a total of only 66,350 Chinese contract Hi Powers over an 18-month production span from February 1944 to October 1945. The most obvious way to identify these historically significant pistols is by the “CH” letters in the serial number.

This is a great example of this iconic piece of history it definitely shows signs of wear and use but it's still in amazing condition considering this gun has literally been all the way around the world and back It is all matching numbers The only thing on it that is not original is the grips this is a great opportunity to own a piece of history