Deane Adams .50 inch percussion revolver, 1852 (c)

This revolver was manufactured by Deane Adams and Deane of 30 King William Street, London Bridge, London in 1852 (c). It is inscribed on the barrel to L A Richardson who joined the 5th (Princess Charlotte of Wales's) Regiment of Dragoon Guards as a cornet in February 1850.

After the Great Exhibition of 1851, a wider selection of revolvers became available and many officers purchased their own to take with them to the Crimea. The British Adams and the American Colt revolvers were the most popular. The five chamber Adams revolver was produced in a range of calibres and as it was self-cocking it could fire five shots rapidly. The Colt revolver had to be manually cocked.

Captain Joshua Crosse of the 88th Regiment of Foot (Connaught Rangers) who used the largest calibre (.50.in) Adams revolver during the Crimean War (1854-56) wrote favourably about it to its inventor, Robert Adams, following the Battle of Inkerman (1854), in which he was wounded after being surrounded by Russians:

'I then found the advantages of your pistol over that of Colonel Colt's, for had I to cock before each shot I should have lost my life; but with yours, having only to pull the trigger, I was able to shoot four Russians, and therefore save my life. I should not have had time to cock, for they were too close to me, being only a few yards from me, so close that I was bayoneted through he thigh immediately after shooting the fourth man'.