The first Imperial Meeting was contested on
Wimbledon Common in 1860. 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) 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. 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. 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. 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. 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. 1966 was the last meeting at which the Army provided personnel to mark targets and perform other duties. From 1967, the military operated their own Service competitions, with the Imperial Meeting itself being purely civilian - although many service personnel continued to compete in a private capacity. 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. 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. ==Programme==