IT WAS the early part of the last century, the Boer War was over and Great Britain was doing its best to digest the lessons learned in that conflict.
The British colonial military authorities were given a serious wake-up call by the superior marksmanship of the South African Boers. Reports of the deadly, long-range rifle accuracy of the rag-tag farmers rang alarm bells in Whitehall and at the War Office on Horse Guards Avenue. Many high-ranking figures, including Lord Baden Powell, the Lord Mayor of London, Lord Salisbury, and British Commander in Chief, Lord Roberts, realised something had to be urgently done to rectify the situation.
In June 1904, in a speech that was to become known as the ‘Bisley Address’, Lord Roberts impressed upon the nation the importance of rifle shooting, stating: “Our troops in the South African War were very poor marksmen against moving targets, and strangely enough, at the shorter distance. The Boer commandos on the other hand were excellent shots, having to shoot to eat.”
It was imperative that a nation of riflemen be developed, and Queen Victoria insisted all able-bodied men learn to shoot well. This was not the first time a Monarch had made such a decree. In the
