Historical Question on Service Use of Lever Action Rifles

The late Tony Edwards published a couple of booklets on British secondary small arms. Part 2 deals with some of the lever action rifles. https://sites.google.com/site/britmilammo/publications-2 The site is also a fantastic source for information about British and Commonwealth small arms ammunition. Tony was a very serious collector/researcher of small arms and small arms ammunition and a regular contributor to some WWI and Lee-Enfield sites.

RFC used Winchester 1886 rifles in 45.90 as anti-balloon rifles after having poor results using Martini-Henrys.
 
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After Dunkirk, didn't the brits appeal to private citizens in the colonies to donate ANY firearms to arm the Home Guard? These would have been mostly common sporting arms, so it seems likely that a lot of them were lever action.
 
Turkish and French use of the 1866 Winchester

Winchester rifle 1866

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winchester_rifle

“ France purchased 6,000 Model 1866 rifles along with 4.5 million .44 Henry cartridges during the Franco-Prussian War. The Ottoman Empire purchased 45,000 Model 1866 rifles and 5,000 carbines in 1870 and 1871. These rifles were used in the 1877 Russo-Turkish War, causing much surprise when outnumbered Turks at the Siege of Plevna inflicted many times more casualties than their opponents armed with single-shot Krnka and Berdan rifles.[5] The Model 1866 compelled Russians to develop a new rifle, the Mosin–Nagant, after the war. “

Siege of Plevna

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_Plevna
 
Lever guns in the military?

Scads of Spencers in the US Civil War, also Henrys.

After that, check the Winchesters used by the Kingdom of Hawai'i.
 
Don't forget the Savage 99. It had full wood. I think it was initially made for an American state militia and got sent to the Montreal Home Guard instead. i recall seeing one in a Montreal pawn shop in about 1958.

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I recall reading that in the 1950's four thousand Winchester 1873 muskets were imported back to the USA from South America, half were new condition, half used.
 
My father-in-law passed down his 1930's era Winchester 94 in .30WCF (.30/30) that was shipped during WW2 from Canada to Britain, proofed and marked with British proof stamps by the Brits, and then issued for Home Guard use. It was returned to Canada after the War. That's when he picked it up.
 
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