{"title":"James Edmiston","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"sterling-redemption-book-james-edmiston-9781781590270","title":"The Sterling Redemption","description":"Story of the company notable for manufacturing one of the most famous sub-machine guns ever produced. The Sterling had seen limited use in the Second World War and by 1953 had been formally adopted by the British Army. Follows a period of more than 25 years starting with the sudden and unimaginable accusation of illegal arms dealing.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49549755678993,"sku":"GOR006219122","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ WELL_READ \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49660546941201,"sku":"GOR013749128","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":53624573264145,"sku":"GOR007976753","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1781590273.jpg?v=1751420026"},{"product_id":"sterling-years-book-james-edmiston-9780850523430","title":"The Sterling Years","description":"Almost by accident, James Edmiston became involved in owning and running the Sterling Armament Company for 12 years. The company's products sold in around 100 countries, and the \"battleship\" engineering of the Mark 4 sub-machine gun won that product the reputation of being probably the world's most reliable automatic weapon. Sterling was engaged almost entirely in export, and there is probably no other (British) defence company that can boast a similar record of success. The product, designed and developed for ruthless efficiency in the support of the armies of friendly governments and their forces of law and order, was primarily a killing machine, and secondarily, a deterrent. Its manufacture (carried out entirely in-house) was under private control, but its sales and their ultimate moral responsibility were the domain of the British Government. But even the foreign policy experts advising a government cannot accurately predict the future. But as time progressed, the very success and efficiency of a small private concern generated hostility and near impossible trading conditions, not from foreign competition, but from elements of that nebulous concern the British Government itself. In spite of strong encouragement and support from various quarters, the exposure of some civil service inefficiency led to governmental deceit and perfidy. It is a disturbing relation of conduct by authority that most Britons would not deem possible in a Western democracy.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49553954373905,"sku":"GOR013734047","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49913752092945,"sku":"GOR009008691","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49923431891217,"sku":"GOR001984478","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/0850523435.jpg?v=1751265322"},{"product_id":"sterling-years-small-arms-and-the-men-book-james-edmiston-9781848844377","title":"Sterling Years: Small Arms and the Men","description":"This is the story of the manufacture, development and usage of one of the most famous submachine Guns ever produced by a British Firm Designed at the end of WW2 it saw limited use on a trial basis, carried by paratroopers during the battle of Arnhem, but since the British Forces had plenty of Sten guns at the time, and tests between the two types of weapon were inconclusive, it was not until 1953, that with a few adjustments, the Weapon was formally adopted by the British Army Whilst not the most accurate of weapons, it was extremely useful in urban warfare and regarded as one of the most reliable submachine Guns throughout the world until it was withdrawn in 1988. A total of over 400,000 were manufactured. Sterling built them for the British armed forces and for overseas sales. The Sterling Guns was used as the basis for the weapons used by Storm Troopers in the Star Wars films.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ LIKE_NEW \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":49575765901585,"sku":"GOR010673253","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false},{"title":"GB \/ VERY_GOOD \/ INTERNAL","offer_id":50822212616465,"sku":"GOR004879871","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"US \/ WELL_READ \/ SBYB","offer_id":51612555084049,"sku":"CIN1848844379A","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1848844379.jpg?v=1751450267"},{"product_id":"history-of-the-small-arms-made-by-the-sterling-armament-company-book-james-edmiston-9781526773302","title":"A History of the Small Arms made by the Sterling Armament Company","description":"An in-depth history of the small arms made by the Sterling Company of Dagenham, Essex, England, from 1940 until Sterling was purchase by British Aerospace in 1989 and closed.  The Lanchester and the Patchett Machine Carbines were both developed at Sterling Engineering Co Ltd during World War II.  With the appearance of the earliest Patchett prototypes the military began testing them in ever more rigorous trials, wherein the Patchett kept proving its merits. This led to limited UK adoption of the MkII Patchett as the L2A1 in 1953, and the  first Sterling', the MkII, as the L2A2 in 1955.  Then came Sterling's  Crown Jewel', the superb Mk4, adopted as the general-issue UK  Gun, Sub-Machine, L2A3' in September, 1955\\. Manufactured briefly but intensively by ROF Fazakerley (1955-1959) and by Sterling for over 30 years, nearly 4000,000 were made.  Unlike wraparound bolt designs like the UZI, the Sterling was capable of being truly silenced with standard 9mm ball ammunition (as opposed to being merely  supressed). The excellent silenced Sterling-Patchett Mk5, adopted as the UK L34A1 in 1967, is the only Sterling remaining in British Service.  All prototypes, military Marks, commercial and licensed production models of the Sterling are described, including the Canadian C1 SMG and the Indian 1A Carbine. Contains notes on manufacturing methods and procedures as used at Sterling, ROF Fazakerley, Canadian Arsenals Limited and the Indian Small Arms Factory, Kanpur (Cawnpore), plus extensive notes on inter-model interchangeability, serial number ranges, quantities produced, client-country purchases of the various Sterling Marks, and accessories.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":49736480948497,"sku":"NGR9781526773302","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1526773309.jpg?v=1751340474"},{"product_id":"sterling-redemption-book-james-edmiston-9781399077903","title":"The Sterling Redemption","description":"Engineering entrepreneur James Edmiston acquired the Sterling Armament Company in 1971 while still in his twenties. The company was notable for manufacturing one of the most famous sub-machine guns ever produced. The Sterling had seen limited use in the Second World War and by 1953 had been formally adopted by the British Army. Sterling guns were even the basis for the weapons used by the Storm Troopers in the Star Wars films.  By the beginning of the 1970s the Sterling Armament Company had been in operational difficulties. James set about putting its troubles to rights and building on its reputation for manufacturing the best quality, high-performance machine guns that could be obtained. By the age of 40 he had turned the business around and was successfully selling Sterling guns to legitimate purchasers all around the world adhering strictly to the rigorous British licensing and export regulations.  But all this suddenly changed when James, along with arms dealer Reginald Dunk, was wrongly charged with illegal arms exports through Jordan to Iraq at a time when British policies were reacting to rapidly fluctuating foreign regime changes and allegiances.  Their defence resulted in a merry-go-round of legal wrangles involving the British Foreign Office, Ministry of Defence and Customs \u0026amp; Excise.  In 1985 Reginald Dunk was persuaded to plead guilty to the charges after an important witness reneged on assurances to come to court to prove his innocence. James was acquitted and it later transpired that the authorities had only been after Dunk anyway perhaps to settle another, unrelated, score. So James had all along been a pawn in a wider game that seemed incomprehensible to him at the time.  The case was to have serious repercussions in Whitehall when the Scott Report (commissioned in 1992 to inspect cases of reported arms sales in the 1980s to Iraq by British companies) discovered a cover-up in the Sterling case and that senior officials had blocked Dunks witnesses. The Report condemned the misconduct as disgraceful.  Though his conviction was quashed and Dunk received more than 2m for wrongful conviction in 1999, compensation for James seemed impossible because of a curious anomaly in the legal system.  It was only through the efforts of Lawrence Kormornick, the lawyer who had helped Dunk receive eventual acquittal and compensation, that James could have any hope of recompense. Another fifteen years of legal battles would ensue before the matter was brought to some sort of conclusion in 2008.  The book follows a period of more than twenty-five years from the sudden and unimaginable accusation of illegal arms dealing, through the ensuing legal and personal struggles that James Edmiston experienced.  Packed with ironies, twists of fate and many unanswered questions it is a compelling read for anyone interested in political intrigue and abuse of power, miscarriage of justice and learning about how an individual took on the state.","brand":"WoB","offers":[{"title":"- \/ - \/ -","offer_id":51692830851345,"sku":"","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true},{"title":"GB \/ NEW \/ GARDNERS","offer_id":51692831047953,"sku":"NGR9781399077903","price":0.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0784\/4072\/6801\/files\/1399077902.jpg?v=1751114214"}],"url":"https:\/\/www.worldofbooks.com\/collections\/author-books-by-james-edmiston.oembed","provider":"World of Books ","version":"1.0","type":"link"}