Evelyn Owen Evelyn Ernest Owen ( 15 May 1915 – 1 April 1949 ) was an Australian who developed the Owen Submachine Gun which was used by the Australian Army in World War II , the Korean War and the Vietnam War . Early life . Evelyn Owen was born on 15 May 1915 in Wollongong , New South Wales . He attended Wollongong High School but was not particularly inclined towards academic endeavours . Having an independent streak , he set up a ready - mixed mortar business with his brother although this venture would subsequently fail . Despite the lack of a technical background , Owen had a keen interest in firearms . This interest led him to develop a submachine gun , which he believed would be widely used in modern warfare . Development of the Owen gun . By 1938 , Owen had constructed a prototype which used . 22 inch ( 5 . 6 mm ) calibre ammunition . The following year , he took the gun to an ordnance officer at Victoria Barracks in Sydney . Despite advising that the gun could be upgraded to a larger calibre , Owen was told that the Australian Army would not be interested . Submachine guns , such as the Thompson Machine Gun , were regarded as being unimportant , and furthermore , there was a perception in the army that such weapons were for gangsters rather than soldiers . Owen , disappointed with the lack of interest in his firearm , enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force ( AIF ) in May 1940 . He was assigned to the 2nd / 17th Battalion , Royal New South Wales Regiment . However , just before embarking for the Middle East with his unit , he managed to interest the manager of the Port Kembla plant of Lysaght ' s Newcastle Works , Vincent Wardell , in the gun . Australia had no experience in the development of mass - produced firearms and relied entirely on designs sourced from the United Kingdom for the manufacture of its small arms . Wardell believed that the gun could be quickly manufactured in Australia in quantity and raised the matter with Lysaght ' s owner , Essington Lewis . Lewis arranged for Owen to meet with a representative of the army ' s Central Inventions Board , Captain C . M . Dyer . The German Army ' s use of submachine guns during the French Campaign of 1940 had demonstrated the potential of such weapons , and consequently some elements of the Australian Army were now more receptive to the value of Owen ' s gun . Dyer , despite a lack of enthusiasm from his superiors , arranged for Owen to obtain leave with a view to constructing more prototypes . Working with Lysaght , by March 1941 Owen produced versions utilising . 32 inch ( 8 . 1 mm ) and . 45 inch ( 11 . 4 mm ) rimless ammunition . Trials with these prototypes were such that a formal approach was made to the Master - General of the Ordnance , Major General Edward Milford . It transpired that a potential barrier to the adaption of the Owen gun by the army was the development of the Sten gun in the United Kingdom , which was expected to be available by the end of 1941 . Milford advised Owen that the army was prepared to wait for the Sten , unaware that significant compromises had been made to the design of the Sten to facilitate mass production . However , the government , in the form of the Minister for the Army , Percy Spender overruled the decision and placed an order for 100 guns . This allowed large scale testing to be completed . In late June 1941 Owen was discharged from the AIF and began work at Lysaght who manufactured his gun . In September 1941 his gun was ready for testing against similar weapons ; the American Thompson Machine Gun , the Sten and the German Bergmann . The Owen proved superior to the other weapons and having been variously immersed in water , mud and sand , it also proved itself almost impossible to jam while the other weapons faltered and eventually became unworkable . As a result of the success of the trials , the initial order of 100 firearms was increased to 2 , 000 . After further difficulties , the Owen gun entered mass production in Australia . The gun was eventually patented in 1943 , and Owen , the patentee , received royalties per gun built . He later sold the rights to the patent to the Commonwealth of Australia . By late 1942 the Owen was being used in jungle fighting against the Japanese in New Guinea . Despite the development of an Australian variant of the Sten , the Austen , the Owen was found to still be the weapon of choice amongst soldiers . More than 45 , 000 Owen guns were produced during the Second World War and they continued in use during the Korean War , the Malayan Emergency and in the early years of the Vietnam War . Later life . Owen received £10 , 000 in royalties and from the sale of patent rights , and used the money to establish a sawmill near Wollongong . His interest in firearms was undiminished and he continued to develop and experiment with guns , notably sports rifles . A bachelor , he was admitted to Wollongong hospital where he died from cardiac syncope on 1 April 1949 at the age of 33 .