===== *89 1899: Death of Mary Ann Reilly; Bert takes over: TEXT =====

*89 1899: Death of Mary Ann Reilly; Bert takes over:

In January 1899 Mary Ann Reilly died - she was only 54.*89a No details of her death are known; no will has been uncovered. She died as she lived with much unknown about her except for her apparent formidable will.

It looks as if her two oldest surviving sons, Charles A. and Herber (Bert) assumed some sort of control over the firm after her death. The 1901 census lists them both at 277 Oxford Street and both said they were gunmakers.*89b However, it is pretty evident that the younger brother Bert was in charge.

For whatever reason, there was a noticable change in newspaper advertisements very soon after Mary’s death.
. . . . .-- Reilly went back from having tiny ads in the late 1890’s to large format ads in “The Field” and “The Sporting Gazette.”*89c
. . . . .-- Reilly began re-using “Gun & Rifle Makers” vice “Gun Manufacturers” in his advertisements.*89d
. . . . .-- Reilly began for the first time to advertise Eley cartridges in 1899 perhaps giving up his cartridge making revenue stream.*89e (Reilly cartridges may have been made by Eley anyway for some time). Note: Reilly since the early-mid 1990's had been advertising several different types of smokeless power one could have loaded in his shells including “E.C., Schultz or Walsrode” and included instructions attached to his gun cases on loads for these powders. However, for Reilly to finally actually advertise Eley was quite a step indicating that as production and revenue fell, reality had to be faced by selling others' ammunition; And this reality probably intruded to include outsourcing gun components).
. . . . .-- And Reilly for the first time advertised using a '"try-gun" to fit customers to their bespoke guns.*89f

And yet the bleeding continued. Serial numbered gun production numbers declined steadily:
-- 250 in 1897,
-- 160 in 1898,
-- 100 in 1899,
--. 75 in 1900,
--. 70 in 1901.
Clearly management could not keep a full complement of skilled workers in-house building such a small number of guns.

=== *89 1899: Death of Mary Ann Reilly; Bert takes over: END TEXT ===

Last edited by Argo44; 06/05/22 11:07 AM.
Baluch are not Brahui, Brahui are Baluch