He won numerous medals and was in the Queens Hundred several times, his best result being twelth. He was also in the British Team to the Channel Islands in 1974 and to Canada in 1978.

Although ill health prevented his visits to Bisley for some time, his shooting gave him great pleasure for many years and I hope some people will remember him still.

Michael died on March 13th after a long battle with lung cancer at the age of 83. He leaves me, two sons, a daughter and two granddaughters.

Deirdre Puttock

Norman Barton was born in 1926 on the Isle of Wight to a family that can be traced back to the 1500s.

During the Second World War he served as a home guard messenger boy and well remembered the bombing of Cowes in May 1942.

He started a five year apprenticeship in the ship drawing office at J.S. Whites Shipyyard at Cowes in 1943. Two wartime destroyers built at the yard, HMS Cavalier and the Polish Blyskawica are still preserved today.

From the 1950s Norman shot with the Newport and District Rifle Club, both at the indoor range at Newport and at the outdoor range at Newtown Creek. He participated in summer visits by the club to Bisley.

In 1964 the shipyard closed and Norman and his family moved to Brookwood, so he could commute to London to his new job as the Greater London Councils Naval Architect. The proximity to Bisley was obviously also a strong influence on where to move to.

In addition to work connected with the Woolwich ferries and the fleet of sludge vessels, he found time to shoot at the basement range at County Hall.

Norman was a member of the Farnham Rifle Club since the 1960s and was Club Secretary from April 1981 until 2012, a grand total of over 31 years. Members recall him as a helpful person and welcoming to new members. He was also regarded as a good wind judge particularly at long range - experience gained over many years shooting.

One of his most satisfying achievements was to reach the final of the Queens Prize in 1978. To do so he used one of the first South African Musgrave rifles to have been imported into the country.

He joined the Crown Agents in the 1970s rising to be in charge of the marine department. This entailed overseas trips to places as diverse as Brunei and Tanzania.

Norman retired from the crown agents in 1984 and was then the NRA armourer until 1987. He then looked after the NRA trophies exhibition for a couple of years.

In 1988 he participated in the RAF Target Rifle Club goodwill team to the bi-centennial tour to Australia and he combined this with a four month tour together with his beloved wife Audrey.

Norman always enjoyed visiting Bisley and continued to shoot with Farnham RC until early 2012, and he watched his final Queens Prize final in July last year.

Unfortunately increasing frailness and illness meant he moved to a local nursing home in October 2012 where he subsequently died on 20 February 2013, having bravely battled prostate cancer. He will be missed by many shooters at Bisley.

His early years were spent in North Yorkshire and Surrey. He joined the Royal Navy during World War 2 and was on HMS Argonaut at the D-Day landings and later as part of the British Pacific Fleet. He stayed in the Navy after the war and I believe it was during this time his interest in shooting began ? the first evidence I have come across is in the form of team photos from the mid 1950s. After leaving the Navy in 1966 he worked for the John Lewis Partnership in and around London. The family moved to Berkshire to enable that daily commute. However, being within easy distance of Bisley was also a factor in the choice of location. Later he moved successfully into financial planning. Again the shooting was a factor as being self employed allowed him the time to undertake a number of trips with GB teams around the world as well as attending meetings around the country.

I, as one of those three sons who did not follow him into shooting , am not in the best position to describe his shooting achievements. Now, as I sit in his study and look around me I see some of the evidence of his shooting career and successes. There are cups, medals, tankards, badges, spoons, team and individual photographs. Great Britain Rifle Team tour photos contain a number from trips to Canada between 1978 and 1988. He was Captain for the last of these. There were also trips to the West Indies, Australia, Channel Islands and possibly more. There are team photographs for the England team at the Mackinnon Match for a number of years as well as group and individual photos ? formal and informal.

My personal memories of his shooting include the winning of a national trophy in a close finish with Lord Swansea but then being unable to raise himself from a prone position as his back had ?gone? - again ! I remember his pride when he did make it into the last 100 of the Queen?s Prize. I recall one particular trophy ? a Berkshire Stag ? being a fairly frequent resident at the house for a number of years.

He was always a private man. It was said that he did not speak just to fill a silence but only when he felt he had something he wanted to say.

He was always competitive in his shooting. He chose to retire from participating when he felt he was not able to continue to the standard he had set himself. But he always retained his interest in the sport.

If there are friends who would like to share their thoughts and memories of my father the family would be delighted to receive them.

John Kingston

Tony Ellis and I joined Leek Rifle & Pistol Club in 1972. The club was founded as a Home Guard Training Centre in the early 1940s and all the shooting was in a cement blockhouse in Alma Street in Leek.

Tony joined as a Police Officer member and was instrumental in helping to plan and build what is now The Leek Shooting Centre at Blackshaw Moor on the Buxton Road, three miles outside the town of Leek. It has a Clubhouse, Indoor 25 metre range, Outdoor 25, 50 and 100 yard ranges. This enables us to shoot everything from air-pistol, air-rifle up to full bore rifle.

Tony was not only a Police Master Pistol Shot, but an excellent small bore and full bore enthusiast. He trained the Staffordshire Police Armed Response Group and the Riot Squad and was Police Sniper trained.

After he retired with the rank of Inspector he was invited back to take part in the Police Athletic Association Full Bore Bisley Competition in 2003 and won it with a score of 149.23 out of a possible 150.

He was a leading influence in inter-club co-operation and our outdoor range at Thorpe Village in the Peak District is shared with several with several clubs from Derbyshire and Notts. To share meetings, competitions and real friendships with the Mansfield and Derwent Clubs have led to great relationships. Several years ago the Derwent and Leek full bore sections were amalgamated under Leek?s banner.

At various periods, Tony was Team Captain, Competition Secretary, Chairman and President of the Club. He had more influence for the good of every member than anyone else I know of. He was totally respected as the best type of Police Officer, Companion, Friend and Sportsman with a sense of humour that was never far away. He is sorely missed.

Vic Smith
March 2013

A great supporter of Gloucestershire shooting passed away suddenly in February. Martin Workman from Dursley was one of those people who you could always count upon as being there to do things for a Club, to help out with a team in a match or to provide individual advice and encouragement. He was the kind of person who simply kept things going.

I admired his efforts especially as he had suffered health problems in more recent years. A particular event stuck with me - and indeed, although he never knew it, caused me to use Martin as an example when trying to describe the essence of full bore target rifle shooting to visitors to Bisley who would comment on the difficulties of dealing with wind and weather. Martin may have been surprised that I remembered something which happened back in 1976 but in that year he won both the Corporation and Monday Aggregate. No mean achievement but remarkable for the manner in which it was done.

At that time he shared a rifle with his brother Chris and owing to a small early morning misunderstanding on where the sights had been set, Martin went off to shoot at 1000yds with a 900 yards setting. Perhaps unsurprisingly he missed with both his sighters but realised the error, carried on, scored 50, scored highly in the extra tie shots used at the time and came out on top!
I thus use a phrase which characterised him in that competition and which might be a motto for many a full-bore target shooter. 'Never give up'.
He didn?t then and he didn't in later years when afflicted with Guillain-Barre syndrome which left him seriously ill and even after many years with some difficulties in mobility. However he would not miss a trip to Bisley and the Imperial meeting even if he was not shooting. In any type of weather he would be keen to make his way across the range to support Dursley Club or Gloucestershire County teams and to enjoy the company of those he knew at Bisley.

He will be sadly missed. He was a real help to us all and one of those people who make it a pleasure to be part of the target shooting sport. He took pleasure from a long awaited Gloucestershire success in the county Short Range Championship Junior event in 2012 - a first victory ever - and he also could be pleased in seeing how individual young shooters he helped got established in the sport.

His well-attended funeral service at Dursley on 15th March caught the sense of how he helped people in spite of difficulties. He will indeed be missed by many in the sport as well as his family.

John Deane

Sadly we have to report the sad loss of Friedel Hanna who died in Basingstoke Hospital on 26 February 2013.

Friedel was the widow of Bill, who was a mainstay of Hampshire, Manydown, ATRC and Irish teams for a long time and captain of both Hampshire and Manydown.

Friedel had been frail for a little while and had planned to move to a local nursing home, but sadly her health failed and she was admitted to hospital on Saturday.

Friedel's funeral will be this Friday 8th March 9.30am at Basingstoke Crematorium (RG25 2BA) and afterwards at the Fox Pub North Waltham.

Please advise Charles Brooks (charles.brooks@penningtons.co.uk) if you propose to attend so that he can update the family on approximate numbers.

He and Joan met during the war and were married in 1946. They lived in Nottingham before moving to various locations as his job dictated in Kent, Birmingham and retiring to Church Stretton, Shropshire before moving to Farndon, Nottinghamshire some fourteen years ago. They had no children but Ray was very orientated and took great interest in the development and progress of three generations of nieces and nephews.

Rays hobby and love was his rifle target shooting and he represented the GB Rifle Association on numerous occasions - some of them as Team Captain. This took him all over the world including Australia, New Zealand and Canada, as well as shooting annually at Bisley, where he narrowly missed winning the Queens Prize on two occasions. He also captained a touring team which was aptly named The Bramley Seedlings.

In 1981, at the Scottish Open Meeting, he took the Friday aggregate, the City of Glasgow and the Grand Aggregate.

In 1983 he almost cleared the deck at the Scottish meeting making a clean sweep of both major open prizes. He shot as if the wind (at best difficult and at worst unreadable) was only blowing on other peoples targets

Ray was very fond of wildlife and he and Joan were much travelled throughout the world, having safaried in Africa and sailed on a passenger carrying cargo boat around the Arctic Circle. They also loved holidaying each year in Switzerland, Austria and Germany.

Ray died on 22nd December 2012 at the age of 92.

Cath came to shooting quite late in life in the 1970s, as a Clay shooter with Mays Green Sporting Clay Club in Surrey. Always an organiser, she soon found herself acting as both Secretary and Treasurer of the Club & a key member in keeping the Club running.

During this time she actively supported Hatchford Park School for handicapped children in Hatchford, Surrey, by organising fundraising and sponsored shoots. In the mid 1980s, she took up pistol shooting and joined Ham & Petersham Rifle & Pistol Club and then later Wembley Rifle & Pistol Club.

In the late 1980s she joined Enever Rifle & Pistol Club (based at Bisley NSC), initially as a Pistol Shooter and then after 1997 as a Gallery Rifle shooter. Once again her organisational skills found her taking up the joint roles of Secretary and Treasurer for the Club.

She held these roles for over 25 years and although passing on the Secretary role in 2010, she still acted as Treasurer and continued to organise both the Clubs finances and also the desk taking shoot fees and selling ammo, a job she did pretty much unbroken since joining the Club.

Although reducing her shooting in later years, she carried on shooting into her 80th year & the last shoot she attended was just a month or so back in December 2012.

She will be sadly missed by both the Club and her family.

Cath leaves behind her husband Ernie to whom she was married for 57 years & a son, Roy.

Caths funeral will be at Chichester Crematorium on Wednesday 20th February 2013 at 11.45am.

Family flowers only please.

See http://www.iwestsussex.co.uk/profile/80907/Chichester/Chichester-Crematorium/ Chichester Crematorium

Westhampnett Road
Chichester
West Sussex PO19 7UH

Charitable donations instead of flowers will be going to St Wilfrids Hospice, who provided palliative care at home for Cath during her last days with such compassion, professionalism and care. http://www.stwh.co.uk/

Donations in Caths name (made out to St Wilfrid?s Hospice) can be sent (or made by phone) to:

Reynolds Funeral Services http://www.reynoldsfuneralservices.co.uk/

27-31 High Street
Bognor Regis
West Sussex
PO21 1RR,
Tel.: 01243 864 745
Fax.: 01243 840 890

It is much regret that the NRA has learnt of the death of AM (Tony) Loughnan a former president of the NRA of New Zealand and of ICFRA.
He captained the New Zealand team in the Palma match in 2011. The debt owed to him in his defence of Ranges and Rifle Shooting in New Zealand is enormous.

Brigadier Robert Ockenden, CBE (Late 2RTR) passed away peacefully on 23rd September aged 79, and is survived by his wife Pat and two children, Paul and Jessica. There will be a funeral service at 11.00am on Thursday 4th October in the Charing Parish Church, Family flowers only, please. Donations to Pilgrims Hospices in East Kent.

Bob was Chief Executive of the NRA from 1988 to 1990, the first in that newly defined office and head of the, then, new organisational structure that is almost identical to the one we have now.

We are sad to announce the death of Maurice Ayling who passed away on 21st May.

His funeral will be at 12:00 on Wednesday 30th May at Chichester Crematorium. His family would like to know if you plan to attend.

Please click here to download the Eulogy from his funeral.

Chris's many friends will be sad to learn that he slipped away on 16th October, after a protracted battle with prostate cancer. He was just 59.

His Funeral will take place at Mountsett Crematorium, Dipton, Stanley, Co.Durham (DH9 9JP) at 12.30pm on Thursday 27th October.

There will be a 'wake' to follow, to which all are invited.

No flowers please, but donations, if desired, to the Royal Signals Association (Paul Bysouth, 9 Croft Road, Crowborough TN6 1DL).

Arthur's funeral will be on Thursday 26 February at 12.30 pm at the Kent and Sussex Crematorium, Benhall Mill Road, Tunbridge Wells Kent TN2 5JJ

Only family flowers but donations to Cancer Research can be sent to the Paul Bysouth Funeral Directors. 9 Croft Road, Crowborough, East Sussex TN6 1DL

After a long and uncomplaining battle with prostate cancer, a battle he knew he ultimately could not win even though he gave it a really good try, Womble died in his sleep just over two weeks ago in the Dove House Hospice, Yorkshire. He is survived by his wife, Wink, who gave up work over a year ago in order to be able to make Bill as comfortable as was possible in the circumstances.

Well-known in both MR and TR circles, Bill's sense of humour as well as his wind-reading expertise will be greatly missed. He Captained Scotland (TR) for the three years from March 2003 until the end of February 2006, in the process leading a Touring Team to Canada where matches were shot in British Columbia and Ottawa in 2005. Picking up a newly re-barrelled rifle on arrival at Chilliwack, Bill immediately used it to shoot several possibles, winning the Scottish Sword amongst a variety of other trophies, and showing the younger members of the Team how it should be done, in spite of the sweltering heat.

Bill's career in shooting was long and distinguished but, if the shooting world is the poorer for his demise, so is the world at large as he was above all a great human being.

John's funeral will be held at 11 o'clock on Wednesday 19 March 2008 at Aldershot Crematorium, Guildford Road, Aldershot, Surrey, GU12 4BP.

The service will be followed by a buffet lunch at the British Pistol Club clubhouse at Bisley.

Those intending to attend either the funeral or the lunch are asked to advise Robin or Jessie on 01483 486293 or by email to britishpistolclub@ntlworld.com. Please advise them by Sunday 16 March.

Family flowers only please.

Anyone wishing to make charitable donations should send them to John's favourite Charity, Dogs Trust, 17 Wakley Street, London, EC1V 7RQ. Alternatively they can be handed to family members or British Pistol Club committee members on the 19th March.

Directions to Aldershot Crematorium
Leave the M3 at junction 4 then take the 2nd exit at the roundabout onto the A331 (signposted Guildford, Farnham)

After 5.5 miles branch left (signposted A323), then take the 4th exit at the roundabout onto the A323

After 0.6 mile, at the Prince of Wales public house, turn left onto Lower Farnham Road - B3208 (signposted Badshot Lea, Crematorium)

After 0.25 mile continue forward at the mini-roundabout onto Lower Farnham Road - B3208

After 0.15 mile turn left onto Guildford Road (signposted Crematorium)

Ena was a former Sussex County Captain and President. She toured Canada in the early 1970s and took a GB Ladies team to Australia for their bicentennial meeting in 1988.

Her funeral will be held at Wadhurst Parish Church, Wadhurst, East Sussex, on Thursday 6 March at 3pm. Donations if wished may be sent c/o Waterhouse and Sons, Funeral Directors, High Street, Burwash, East Sussex, TN19 7ET (cheques made payable to Hospice in the Weald or Cancer Research UK).

Members may wish to know that there will be a memorial service for him at the Guards Chapel, Wellington Barracks, at 1200 on Friday 25 January.