NATIONAL RIFLE ASOCCIATION SCHOOL OF MUSKETRY

[Greg Bloomfield]

Was this an army unit? Can anybody supply any information on the organisation please?

Many thanks

Greg

[James Kastner]

Your question peaked my interest and I found this article full of colorful ancedotes on the history: Wimbledon & The Volunteers.

Hope it helps.

Jim

[Sniper]

Greg,

The NRA's Chairman, Lord Cheylesmore, approached Kitchener in early 1915 and suggested that the NRA form a battalion of the country's finest marksmen. This was, not unnaturally, turned down flat by K and the next idea was that the Association should establish a Musketry Camp at Bisley.

This was immediately upgraded to a Musketry School and members of the NRA who were too old or too infirm to enlist were recruited to act as Instructors. Hythe also sent some of their staff to assist.

The School was commanded by Colonel Philip Richardson, the England Captain and International shot, assisted by Staff Sergeant Lattey who invented the Lattey sight, much used by target shooters and subsequently adopted by the War Office, as the 'official' issue Galilean telescopic sight.

The Sniper Wing trained many men who subsequently became either Instructors or Sniping Officers when they reached the Front.

I am away from my notes, but I will add to this tomorrow when I shall have access to them.

Sniper

[Matt Dixon]

Did this come from Lt Tovey on yesterdays Remembering Today?

[Greg Bloomfield]

Jim and Sniper

Thanks lads, interesting input.

And Matt, yes it did!

[Sniper]

Greg,

Both Philip Richardson and Henry Lattey, as long-standing competitors at Bisley, had lobbied for a Sniping School from the earliest days of the war.

When the War Office sanctioned the School, the original idea was to train 18 officers and 80 NCOs. Within a month, the demand had increased to 66 Officers and 300 NCOs.

They had no establishment, nor did they receive any assistance from the WO. They received no rifles or ammunition and had to rely on their own resources, using the local Boy Scouts and schoolboys to run the ranges and provide markers in the butts.

By February 1915, 154 out of 198 officers and 559 out of 767 NCOs were fully qualified Sniping Instructors.

Richardson and Lattey also undertook the calibration of telescopic sights and in addition to their training duties they calibrated over 2,500 sniping rifles

By Christmas 1915 the School had taught musketry to one and a half million men and by Christmas 1916 of the 150,000 members of rifle clubs nationwide, 10% had been killed and 35% had been wounded.

So, the answer to your original enquiry is that the School was run almost exclusively by NRA members, although they were nearly all given or already had military rank and it continued up until the Armistice.

At the Victory Meeting in 1919 the King's Prize was won by a New Zealander for the first time. Sergeant Loveday had reached the King's 100 in 1911, became a Musketry Instructor, gave up his sergeant's stripes to get to the Front and earned the Military Medal as a scout-sniper.

PS In my last, I should have said that Cheylesmore went to Kitchener in 1914, not in 1915.

Sniper

[Greg Bloomfield]

Thanks Sniper.

I very much doubt you'd get that kind of commitment today.

[butely]

Would you have any information on a Frederick Snelling No 692 who was a member of the National Rifle Assocciation of Musketry during the war. Any information would be gratefully accepted.

Thanks Sniper.

I very much doubt you'd get that kind of commitment today.

[TonyE]

One sad point from the above.

The last remaining WWI building from the School of Musketry at Bisley is the Sergeants Mess, which for the last few years has been run as the "Trench Experience". Now it is due to be demolished by the NRA to make way for a new hotel project on the camp.

Regards

TonyE

[chrrip]

Am I right in thinking Henry Lattey was London Rifle Brigade? Chris

[Matthew]

As an occassional shooter at Bisley do you know if this history is comemorated somewhere on the camp? If it isn't I would have thought it should be.