Yes, that is well documented - 5,000 pistols, all coming from Colt's 1914 production. In fact, the purchase took well over half of their commercial production (i.e. pistols produced outside the U.S. Government contract) for that year.
As I understand it, the majority of these pistols
don't have a C-broadarrow stamp or any other markings indicating Canadian Government ownership. The reason for that is that most of them were actually resold to commissioned officers (who at that time were required to provide all of their own kit, including weapons, at personal expense.) Accordingly, it would not have made much sense to give them a Government ownership mark which would then immediately have to be canceled on sale ....
Quite a number of examples exist with the name of the individual owner engraved on them. My pistol is unmarked, but it came to me from a gentleman who was only the second private owner who, as a young Canadian Army Lieutenant during WWII, had purchased it directly from the WWI Major who originally acquired it from the Canadian Government. The original owner was Major William Arthur Mitrchell, whose entire Canadian Expeditionary Force file I have obtained copies of -
