5000 of these rifles were purchased for the Royal Navy in May 1915 by Sir Trevor Dawson of Vickers, along with 20,000 Model 1892 rifles in .44-40. Owing to a shortage of British inspectors in America, Canadian inspectors were sent to the Winchester factory to carry out the work on behalf of Britain. At the end of the war 3,700 were offered for sale by the Disposal Department.
I would be interested to know the serial number to add to my database of these weapons.
The full story of these is in Part 4 of my books on British secondary small arms in WWI.
Regards
TonyE