Wimbledon & The Volunteers

by David Minshall

INDEX

Volunteers & The NRA
National Rifle Meeting
Royal Patronage
Competitions
The Novelty Acts
Volunteer Camp
Camp Comforts
Entertainment
Serious Aims
Common Problems

The Novelty Acts

The Owl newspaper made its debut at Wimbledon in 1864 and generously gave a prize, which was shot for under special regulations, as set forth in the following proclamation:

Owl Shooting Extraordinary.
Oh Yes! Oh Yes!!
Take Notice all,

A Prize of £50 has been given by the venerable owls of the Owl newspaper, to be competed for on such terms as the Council may fix. Out of consideration for the generous but benighted donors, the competition shall take place in the dark, at 200 yards. Lights, called Owl's Eyes, will be substituted for Bull's Eyes.

Conditions:
Each competitor shall pay one shilling per shot,
and if the competitors do not appear in great numbers -
'The moping owl will to the moon complain.'
The prize shall be in the form of a beautiful silver owl, shall be adjudged to the competitor who shall by the end of the meeting have made the greatest number
of owl's eyes; that is, who shall have oftenest knocked out the owl's eyes.
Every precaution has been taken to guard against accidents.

The silver owl was won by Mr. Martin Smith, who fired ten shots, making four owl's eyes. Forty men in all shot for this prize. The competition was not repeated again, on safety grounds.

In 1873 Colonel Lloyd Lindsay introduced a prize for mounted riflemen. The initial experimental competition was a great success and it was for many years a feature of the shooting programme. The conditions in 1873 required that sections of four mounted men were to ride about three quarters of a mile, taking two flights of hurdles in the course, and were, while dismounted and their horses either linked or held by alternate files, each to fire five shots at 200 yards standing, and the same number at 400 yards in any position. There was a time limit of twelve minutes, and the rifle, of any Government pattern, had to be carried on the back or slung to the saddle. The winning team of the nine competing in the inaugural match was the Warwickshire Yeomanry, who carried Westley-Richards rifles.

A further mounted competition was added in 1879, this being for Regular Cavalry and was called the Royal Cambridge. Conditions were much the same as the Lloyd Lindsay, except that the arm was the Martini-Henry carbine. Four teams entered, with the 5th Dragoon Guards being the winners having cleared the course in eight minutes and twenty-seven seconds and scoring 107. The second placed 11th Hussars scored 88 and were 10 points above the winning score for the Lloyd Lindsay.

©2005 DBMinshall

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