A noteworthy object on the Wimbledon Range is the flagstaff. This is 153 feet high, and has the reputation of being the tallest flagstaff in England of one piece only. It is known as the “Douglas Pine,” and is the product of Vancouver’s Island. It was presented to the London Scottish in 1872 by an old member of the Corps, who had settled on that island and felled it on his own land. The recruit is usually informed that it took two ships to bring it over; the explanation that one ship brought it to Liverpool and the other to London being reserved.
It will be noticed that the little stick in question is protected by a somewhat formidable lightning-conductor, its predecessor having been destroyed by lightning one afternoon whilst shooting was going on at the Range.
We must not quit Wimbledon without a passing comment on the Wimbledon Camp.
Wimbledon Camp.
The “Civil Service” was among the earliest of the Metropolitan Corps which formed its own private camp at the great rifle meeting, and from 1864 to 1885 the dark blue flag with its Prince of Wales’s Feathers was always to be seen flying in its own peculiar corner of the enclosure. This unbroken record of nearly a quarter of a century was not obtained, however, without some trouble. In the early days, when camping out was a novelty, and Wimbledon afforded the only means of enjoying that novelty, there was little difficulty in ensuring a good attendance; but, with the rise of Camps of Instruction and the Aldershot Camps, applications for the Wimbledon tents, with their somewhat heavy fees, began to fall off. For many years it was kept up merely by the efforts of a small band of enthusiasts, to whom the Wimbledon “picnic,” with its jovial round of holiday mirth, had a peculiar charm. The support of the general body of the Corps fell off to such a marked extent that in 1886, four years before the National Rifle Association removed to Bisley, the Camp was discontinued.
Shooting.
To pass from Wimbledon and to remark briefly on the shooting records of the Regiment is an easy digression.
The “Civil Service” has never yet had the good luck to provide the winner of the Queen’s Prize, and this fact is sometimes thrust forward by the thoughtless to detract from its merits as a “good shooting Corps.” A simple computation will show that, with 200,000 Volunteers to shoot for it, a Corps of 600 strong will have done its duty if it wins the prize once in 333 years! But members of the Corps have on more than one occasion run the winner very hard. Lord Bury himself was second for the prize in 1861.
Others who have been within measurable distance are: Private W. A. Impey (Audit Office) in 1869, Lieutenant J. Mitford (Post Office) in 1875, and Sergeant W. W. Akhurst (Post Office) in 1885.
Wimbledon honours have also been earned for the Corps by Sergeant J. P. Wright (Bank of England), winner of the Grand Aggregate in 1874; Captain H. W. E. Jeston (National Debt Office), winner of the N.R.A. Challenge Cup in 1869; and teams who have on various occasions won the Mappin Challenge Cup for running and shooting.