A Long Look at the Jamaica Rifle Association

The first Jamaica Rifle Association was formed in 1896. On the 25th May of that year, there is a press record of a meeting of delegates from the existing parish rifle associations to form such an association to permit rifle shooting throughout the island. Seven parish associations became affiliated and individuals also became eligible to become members. Affiliation with the National Rifle Association of Great Britain was subsequently approved.

However, it was not until the 20th of July 1897 that the very first rifle competition was held and this was at the “Bisley” range in St Catherine. The site of this former range is unknown to present-day riflemen.

Local competitions continued to be shot annually until the idea of sending a rifle team to Bisley in England, accepted even in those days and now recognized as the finest target rifle range in the world.

It was obvious that the best riflemen from the respective islands within the colony to represent the region would have to be selected to compete at this level. Eventually, in 1902 a team was selected to be sent overseas to compete at Bisley and again in 1908.

Between the years 1908 to 1920 and especially during the war years 1914-1918 not much rifle shooting took place between the colonies. The enthusiasts of the sport waited patiently following the end of the war and were rewarded in winning the Swettenham Cup for Jamaica in 1920.

This cup was being shot for over 300, 500 and 600 yards between the islands.

In early 1930 the Jamaica Rifle Club was formed and morphed into the nucleus of what transformed into the Jamaica Rifle Association.

The first fully Jamaica team to visit Bisley England was in 1937. The colony of Trinidad and Tobago were the fore runners having been to Bisley the 5 previous years. British Guiana had also sent off its first team the same year as Jamaica.

The rivalry then was tremendous as it remains today. However, it was not until 1938 that Jamaica won its first ever team match named the Junior Kolapore.

The Junior Kolapore cup as it is still competed for to this date comprises teams of four.

In 1939 team members H.E Vendryes and Cpl. O.K Chambers qualified for the Kings Finals an impressive performance.

The Second World War saw no shooting taking place until 1948. In 1950 the first truly representative West Indies team was selected with 7 shooters from Jamaica, Trinidad, Barbados and British Guiana.

The second Jamaican team traveled in 1953 under the auspices of the British West Indies Shooting Council formed in 1948 specifically to send off teams overseas from the shooting colonies.

It is now a matter of record that we have shot at Bisley numerous times and have been a serious force to be reckoned with. We have won all major Junior Events many times and individually against target shooters from throughout the world excelling at the highest level.

We have won the 1000 yard championships twice with victories in The Young Rifleman Falkland’s trophy, Faunthorpe gold medal, Sudan cup and the Ellkington won by David Phillips.

Stephen Harker placing 5th in the finals of HM The Queens prize, Hugh Tomlinson winning the second stage of HM The Queens prize, with a perfect score of 150/150. He followed up the following year by placing 7th in the Grand Aggregate for the championships and Major John Nelson placing 4th in HM The Queens first stage also with a perfect score of 105/105. It was this quality performance by Hugh Tomlinson and Major John Nelson which saw them both nominated for this nations Sportsman of the Year Awards in 1992.

It was not only in England we did exceptionally well. Teams also competed in Canada at their championships but fell short of the success in England entirely because England remained the Blue Ribbon event.

Despite this, special mention is made of David Rickman’s solid shooting in 2005 in making the finals of the Governor General’s championships. We cast our collective minds back to 1966 at the very first Commonwealth Games held in Jamaica and the introduction of shooting held for the very first time at the present home of the JRA.

However, it was in the Caribbean that Jamaica’s men and women target shooters excelled.

In 1953 formal championships started within the region. The four major territories started to be later joined by Antigua and Barbuda and Bermuda.

In 1976 then Lt John Nelson of the JDF won the Wogarth cup the very first Jamaican to have won this event, the winner of the highest individual prize in the team championships. A feat he would repeat an additional 4 times to place himself second behind Lennox Braithwaite of Guyana with 6 victories.

We also recognize the following all of whom have won this prestigious award, Hugh Tomlinson, Major Ian Robinson, Carl Smith and Jose Nunez. But the Jamaica Rifle Association has been a multi-dimensional organization for the sport of target shooting.

The discipline of practical pistol was introduced to the JRA in the late 1970’s and this was shortly after the formation of the International Practical Shooting Confederation (IPSC).

At present the JRA and Jamaica boast the only two Grandmasters in the English speaking Caribbean. This is the highest level shooters competing can achieve. We celebrate this incredible achievement as we recognize Lesgar Murdock and Errol Lawson. However, closing on the Grand Master qualifications are top practical pistol shooters Anthony “TJ” Johnson, Andy Yap, Patrick Evelyn and Ryan Bramwell.

In early 2019 the JRA introduced our newest discipline of Archery and this Olympic Sport has now taken off by leaps and bounds. Being able to attract all ages and males competing against females on equal footing, the group now boasts in excess of 70 archers and growing by the week.