Skilled Shot Certificate.

by NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION

£100 · Offered by Henry Sotheran Ltd

NATIONAL RIFLE ASSOCIATION. Skilled Shot Certificate. Granted by the N.R.A. , 30th September 1910. Oblong card certificate; illustration of Stickledown Range, Bisley by I Burton Witson; very good. Skilled Shot Certificate awarded to Mr G.B Barrett, South West District Post Office Rifle Club, for making a score of 282 points out of 300 over 25 yards with a service rifle at Chelsea Post Office Range. The National Rifle Association was established in 1860, 'to give permanence to Volunteer Corps, and to encourage rifle shooting throughout Great Britain', and in reaction to fears of invasion by Napoleon III. Its first prize meeting, to enable Volunteers from around the country to compete against one another, was held in the year of its formation at Wimbledon Common on land belonging to John, fifth Earl Spencer. Ranges were constructed to the south and east of the windmill at distances up to 1000 yards. The meeting was opened by Queen Victoria, who fired the first shot, and the award ceremony took place at Crystal Palace, in front of some 20,000 spectators. The National Rifle Association Meetings at Wimbledon flourished but as the area developed due to the expansion of the London suburbs there was increasing pressure to find an alternative site and the last Meeting at Wimbledon was in 1889. After much debate the members of Council voted to move to Bisley, near Brookwood in Woking. Preparation of the site began in autumn 1889, executed entirely by soldiers, and included the construc

• Binding: Hardcover

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