| Status: | Active |
| Genre: | Sporting event |
| Date: | July |
| Frequency: | Annual |
| Venue: | National Shooting Centre |
| Location: | Bisley, Surrey, England |
| Country: | United Kingdom |
| Founders: | --> |
| Area: | Worldwide |
| Organised: | National Rifle Association |
| Or Sponsors: | --> |
The Imperial Meeting is a major annual target shooting competition hosted by the National Rifle Association on the historic Bisley Camp in England.
The Meeting lasts for 3 weeks each July, encompassing inter-service military matches; cadet shooting competitions; the Schools Meeting (culminating in the Ashburton Match); Historic Arms; as well as civilian Match Rifle and Target Rifle competitions. The meeting closes with the Sovereign's Prize.
The first Imperial Meeting was contested on Wimbledon Common in 1860.[1] [2] The National Rifle Association had been founded the previous year with the express purpose of running such a competition to improve the standard of marksmanship. Queen Victoria fired the first shot and awarded her "Queen's Prize" of £250 (~£38,000 in 2023)[3] [2] to the best individual marksman. Seventeen-year-old Edward Ross of the 7th North Yorkshire Volunteers was the first winner.[4] The meeting was initially open to members of the Volunteers movement, who would have used the issued service rifle of the day, such as the Snider–Enfield and Martini–Henry.[1] [5]
The Imperial Meeting quickly gained significance in high society. In 1878, the society biographer and journalist Edward Walford wrote:
Key matches such as the Elcho were significant social occasions on par with the Boat Race.[6] Shooters and officials were often household names, and featured or even caricatured in society publications such as Vanity Fair.
The association moved from Wimbledon to Bisley Camp in 1890 after housing development around Wimbledon caused concerns about the ongoing ability to safely operate the ranges.[7] [8]
The NRA and the Imperial Meeting heavily influenced the development of shooting sports around the world, particularly in the British Empire. The formation of the National Rifle Association of Australia was prompted in part by a desire amongst regional associations to send an Australian team to compete at Wimbledon.[9] In 1897 the Dominion of Canada Rifle Association built a pavilion on Bisley Camp to accommodate the Canadian national team whilst competing at the meeting.
In the first half of the twentieth century, the meeting was extensively covered by newsreels including Pathé and Movietone, resulting in an unusually rich heritage of archival footage.[10] [11] [12]
1966 was the last meeting at which the Army provided personnel to mark targets and perform other duties. From 1967, the miliary operated their own Service competitions, with the Imperial Meeting itself being purely civilian - although many service personnel continued to compete in a private capacity.[13]
The sport became significantly more civilian-oriented through the second half of the twentieth century. Where competitors had typically shot accurised military surplus rifles such as Lee–Enfields, dedicated target rifles such as the Swing were developed, with the Swing becoming the first rifle not of a military design to win the Queen's Prize.[5] The military models were increasingly consigned to specific service rifle and historic arms matches.
In 2019, the NRA celebrated the 150th Imperial Meeting (this was 159 years since 1860, as a result of the Meeting's cancellation during the World Wars).
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the 2020 meeting was postponed. However, wishing to keep intact the record of only being interrupted by two World Wars, a "miniature Imperial" was held in stages through September and October.[14] This included the Queen's Prize, which featured a reduced number of finalists qualifying to allow wider spacing on the firing point for social distancing.[15]
The Imperial Meeting officially takes place during two weeks of July, although there is a build-up of other events including inter-services matches through late June, not all of which are run by the NRA.
| + Typical Imperial Meeting Programme | ||||||||||||||||||
| Pre-Imperial | Week 1 | "Middle Weekend" | Week 2 | |||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| W | T | F | Sa | Su | M | T | W | T | F | Sa | Su | M | T | W | T | F | Sa | |
| F-Class | ||||||||||||||||||
| Historic Arms | ||||||||||||||||||
| Match Rifle | ||||||||||||||||||
| Schools | ||||||||||||||||||
| Gallery Rifle | ||||||||||||||||||
| Sporting Rifle | ||||||||||||||||||
| Target Rifle | ||||||||||||||||||
| Pre-Grand | Grand Aggregate | King's Prize | ||||||||||||||||
The match rifle meeting is conducted at ranges between 1000 and 1200 yards during the first week. Match rifle is a less restricted form of target rifle, permitting the use of telescopic sights and other advancements. Competitors may shoot prone or supine (lying on their back). The Elcho Shield is contested on the penultimate day (usually First Wednesday), followed by the Humphry match between Oxford and Cambridge universities on the final day.
The Schools Imperial (or Schools Meeting) is contested during Week 1 by school-based Combined Cadet Forces, using the L81 Cadet Target Rifle (not the SA80-derived L98 Cadet Rifle). It culminates in the Ashburton Shield Match.
The discipline of target rifle attracts the largest entry of the meeting. The Target Rifle Imperial runs for nine days through Middle Weekend and Week 2, and is attended by international teams from around the world, with a particular emphasis on Commonwealth nations.
Individual competitors have three main blocks of competition -
There are a number of significant team matches, including:
The NRA awards a number of trophies over the course of the meeting, including examples donated from across the former British Empire.