CONNAUGHT SHIELD

Marksmanship in the Early Days of Scouting The Connaught Shields, formerly Scouting's Miniature Rifle (.22 inch rimfire) Trophies, are now the Grand Aggregate Trophies of the National Scout Air Rifle Competition

Whilst at school at Charterhouse, BP had been a keen member of his School's Rifle Team.
This photograph, taken at the Public Schools Rifle Shooting Competition at Wimbledon in 1874,
shows B-P second from the left. He was credited with the only bull's-eye of the day.

Picture from "Scouting Milestones" More about B-P at Charterhouse School

HRH The Duke of Connaught KG presented his Trophy in 1911 "for Annual Competition in Rifle Shooting by Troops of Boy Scouts (Baden Powell's)" It is thus one of Scouting's oldest and most distinguished trophies.
(Photo reproduced by permission of the NSRA)

Marksmanship has been a Scouting skill since the earliest days of the Movement and is still enjoyed by the Scouts of today, nearly a century later. This certificate, signed by Robert Baden-Powell, is from the Imperial Scout Exhibition held in Birmingham in 1913. It was awarded to R F Byars of the 1st St.Andrews Troop. (Image reproduced by permission of the NSRA)

In 1915, within a year of the outbreak of the First World War, B-P published this small book on Marksmanship.
It contains details of how Boy Scouts could win the newly-introduced Scouts Defence Corps 'Red Feather'.

One of the requirements for the Red Feather was the ability to drill with and shoot small arms.
Instruction in these matters is the subject of the book. B-P was well-suited to give such instruction,
not merely from his army experience, as he himself had been in a prize-winning school rifle club team.

The context of this Marksmanship booklet is Defence, rather than target shooting as a sport but it
should be remembered that it was produced at a time when the country was at War and that to be a
member of the Scout's Defence Corps you had to be 16 years old (an age at which many young men
were already on active Service).

More about Scouts in the First World War

Picture from "Scouting Milestones"

	In 1925, the first year of the Junior Trophy, 45th Nottingham Troop won both the Senior and Junior Trophies. (Photo reproduced by permission of the NSRA)
The "Double" was to be repeated for small-bore shooting in 1931 by 2nd Framlingham, in 1943 by St. Columba’s 53rd Ayrshire (Largs), in 1949 and 1950 by 2nd Tolworth, in 1957 by All Hallows School and in 1966, 1971 and 1972 by Estonian Kalev of Canada.	The first "Double" to be achieved through the National Scout Air Rifle Championships was in 2006 by 10th South West Cheshire and its associated Explorer Scout Unit, Fiennes ESU.

6th Itchen (Hamble) Sea Scouts, winners in 1936, 1938 and 1939. The picture above (which was reproduced in the March 1937 issue of "The Rifleman") shows the 1936 team receiving the Trophy from Admiral B S Thesiger, Deputy Lieutenant of Hampshire and Hampshire's County Commissioner for Boy Scouts. Information on the photo below would be welcome!

Find out more about the Connaught Trophies
Results of the 2005 Competition	Results of the 2006 Competition
Results of the 2003 Competition	Results of the 2004 Competition
Results of the 2001 Competition	Results of the 2002 Competition
Results of the 1999 Competition	Results of the 2000 Competition
SCSRC Home Page	HSRC Home Page
Milestones in Scouting - More about the History of Scouting

Revised 29th October 2006