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Benjamin Wild & Son Gunmakers
est.1940
Benjamin Wild had worked in the gun trade in the years prior to World War 11,first at BSA and then at the Midland Gun Company`s
Demon Gun Works in Bath Street.
Astute businessman
He was a skilled craftsman but also an astute businessman and, during the war years, while still continuing in full-time
employment, he started up his own gun business on the Pershore Road, Stirchley, Birmingham. This comprised a retail shop at the front of his house, known as The Sports Shop and a workshop at the rear.
Others had already recognized the quality of his work in the trade, and before long he was carrying out work for other gunmakers,
and making guns for Gamages, the well-known London store. In addition to this he continued with his job at the Midland.
In due course Benjamin’s son, also named Benjamin, joined his father at the Demon Gun Works. Benjamin, junior, was, like many
others, called up for active service in the armed forces in the 1940`s, leaving his father to carry on working in the gun trade.
After the cessation of hostilities in 1945,the father and son partnership was reunited at the Midland Gun Company. So it might have
continued up until the closure of his firm in the mid-sixties, but one day young Benjamin was instructed to work in the model room.
He used to do this, possibly because he preferred working with his father and thought that Benjamin senior should have gone to work
in the model room with him. The result was that both men left and transferred their own business from the Pershore Road premises to 55 Price Street in the heart of the city’s gunmaking area in 1960.
Benjamin Wild senior died in 1961 and his son continued the business.
In 1964 Benjamin’s son Colin, joined the firm and five years later was made a partner.
Their venture was certainly a success. Elizabeth Southall, Colin’s sister, joined the firm on leaving school, and is still
employed there today, running the office.
In 1975 Benjamin Wild’s showroom was officially opened by Gough Thomas, and shortly afterwards a second shop was opened at
Northfield, a few miles away on the south side of the city.
Benjamin Wild handed over the business to Colin in 1986and went into semi retirement. The winds of change were blowing again, but
Colin was astute enough to diversify and thus kept the business running.
Gunmaking was in decline but there was plenty of work available for repairs and maintenance. This, backed up by a sound retail trade
in shooting accessories, was sufficient enough to keep the business afloat. The last Benjamin Wild guns were made about 1976 and the Northfield shop was closed.
Colin was appointed a Guardian of the Birmingham Gun Barrel Proof House in 1986, a position he still holds today. Benjamin Wild died
on September 25 1996, at the age of 74, but the family tradition in the gun trade still continues.
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