The quintessential hinged frame, centre-fire revolvers for which the Webley name is best known first began production/development in the early 1870s most notably with the Webley-Pryse (1877) and Webley-Kaufman (1881) models.

or Webley-Government models produced from 1885 through to the early 1900s, are the most popular of the commercial top break revolvers and many were the private purchase choice of British military officers and target shooters in the period, coming in a .476/.455 calibre.

Today, the best-known are the range of military revolvers, which were in service use in two World Wars and numerous colonial conflicts.

The Mk VI proved to be a very reliable and hardy weapon, well suited to the mud and adverse conditions of trench warfare, and several accessories were developed for the Mk VI, including a bayonet (made from a converted French Gras bayonet),[11] speedloader devices (the "Prideaux Device" and the Watson design),[12][13][14] and a stock allowing for the revolver to be converted into a carbine.

America provided the Smith & Wesson 2nd Model "Hand Ejector" and Colt New Service Revolvers.

An armourer stationed in West Germany joked by the time they were officially retired in 1963, the ammunition allowance was "two cartridges per man, per year.

Singaporean police (and some other "officials") Webleys were equipped with safety catches, a rather unusual feature in a revolver.

[22] There were six different marks of .455 calibre Webley British Government Model revolvers approved for British military service at various times between 1887 and the end of the First World War: At the end of the First World War, the British military decided that the .455 calibre gun and cartridge was too large for modern military use and concluded after numerous tests and extensive trials, that a pistol in .38 calibre firing a 200-grain (13 g) bullet would be just as effective as the .455 for stopping an enemy.

[33] Webley & Scott sued the British Government over the incident, claiming £2250 as "costs involved in the research and design" of the revolver.

2 revolvers to meet the military's wartime demands, and as a result Webley's Mk IV was also widely used within the British Army in World War Two.

[37][38][39] A small number of early examples were produced in the huge .500 Tranter calibre, and later models were available chambered for the .450 Adams and other cartridges.

[citation needed] The British Bull Dog model was an enormously successful solid-frame design introduced by Webley in 1872.

(Webley later added smaller scaled five chambered versions in .320 and .380 calibres, but did not mark them British Bull Dog.)

A .44 calibre Belgian-made British Bulldog revolver was used to assassinate US President James Garfield on 2 July 1881 by Charles Guiteau.

It was designed to be carried in a coat pocket or kept on a bedside table, and many have survived to the present day in good condition, having seen little actual use.

[40] Numerous copies of this design were made during the late 19th century in Belgium, with smaller numbers also produced in Spain, France and the US.

[41] They remained reasonably popular until the Second World War, but are now generally sought after only as collectors' pieces, since ammunition for them is for the most part no longer commercially manufactured.