Did Evans apprentice for Purdey? If so, perhaps what he was saying was he was a graduate of their program. Sorta like being a Harvard Lawyer is different than being a University of Iowa lawyer.
It has always been my assumption that he learned his trade at Purdeys, wherever he went from there.
According to Richard Beaumont’s book “Purdey’s The Guns and the Family” William Evans was not apprenticed at Purdey or employed by Purdey as a gunmaker ,it appears that he was only employed in the shop for a short time. This was restated in the Donald Dallas’ book “Purdey The Definitive History”
