A firing point at Wimbledon, 1870
Long range rifle fire. Long range target rifles. British military longarms. Small arms trials. Ammunition. Accessories. Gunmakers.
Military marksmanship. The art of shooting. Long range muzzle loading. National Rifle Association. Creedmoor and the international matches.
Those who pioneered the sport of target rifle shooting from the muzzle loading and into the black powder breech loading era. Biography.
The Volunteer Force was established in 1859. From 1881 territorial regiments included regular, militia and volunteer battalions.
The hey-day of the muzzle loading era for rifle marksmen in Great Britain was the first two decades of the National Rifle Association's (NRA) existence; broadly 1860-1880. Target rifle competition was held at distances out to 1,000 yards (sometimes further) in local, national and international events.
This Memoir was privately printed in May, 1900. It was written by W.E. Metford's friend and contemporary Henry Brunel, C.E. and Major the Hon. T.F. Fremantle (later Lord Cottesloe). Metford's work, whether in India or at home, was worthy of wider appreciation than it received, and he left in the world of those interested in rifle-work a gap which there is none to fill.
In 1893 the influential London magazine 'The Strand' published an illustrated interview with Sir Henry Halford. "The Grand Old Man of Shooting," Sir Henry Halford revelled in records almost from the very first meeting at Wimbledon in 1860, and it is a remarkable fact that amongst his prizes are those of the Albert at Wimbledon in 1862 and the same trophy at Bisley in 1893, a record lapse of thirty-one years!
Mention Wimbledon today and tennis will be the sport that springs to mind; in the latter part of the 19th Century however, the foremost sport would have been rifle shooting. From 1860 until 1889 the National Rifle Association (NRA) held their annual rifle meeting on Wimbledon Common, with attendance in the thousands… and that was just the riflemen! So who were these riflemen and what were they doing at Wimbledon?
In the mid to late 19th Century target rifle shooting was a popular sport, and via the Volunteer movement Great Britain had thousands of trained riflemen. Naturally, businessmen sought to sell their wares to these riflemen enticing them with a variety of goods to assist the aspiring marksman. With ammunition, field glasses, vernier sight adjusters, tools and other associated accoutrements the rifleman acquired, a means of carrying it all was needed. One suitable case appeared in 1886, the 'Wimbledon Shooting Case'
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