Shooting Times & Country Magazine
Long live great Shots
King George V was an accomplished Shot and remained so despite the many other demands on his time, says Scolopax as the nation mourns
Readers will naturally think of the late HM King George V in his role as a famous game Shot, fisherman and country squire. It is safe to say as it is also a happy reflection to us who know, understand and love the countryside that nowhere was King George more in his natural element than when at his own country home in Sandringham, which is so appropriately situated among those broad acres of Norfolk.
For the Head of the Realm there were countless interests and pastimes in other spheres that can be cultivated and enjoyed to the full. So it is great to know that, wide as his activities were in many directions, he was never happier than when engaged in those pursuits that belong to field and covert, and moor and marsh.
It is, of course, common knowledge that the late King was considered, by those competent to judge, to be one of the best six Shots in this country of game shooters, and that is saying a great deal. But when it is pointed out that he well maintained this position throughout the whole of his shooting career — and he shot almost to the end — it is saying even more.
This constitutes a considerable feat, especially when the many other calls upon his energy are considered, and when the type of shooting in which he excelled is taken into account. For His Majesty was particularly brilliant at high overhead pheasants and, as everyone who has done this kind of shooting knows, great bodily activity is essential in order to kill such birds consistently.
Required lead
To kill a high bird well in front does not require nearly so much physical suppleness as it does to kill the same bird when it is almost vertically over you. Then it is necessary to move the right leg well back in order to be able to swing the body back from the hips, and obtain the required lead. Many men getting on in years find themselves unable to do this at all, and even active sportsmen feel the strain if any number of these shots have to be executed in the course of a day. And the fact that the King was able to deal successfully with such “skyscrapers” until the end is proof positive that his healthy and active life did for him what we all hope our own days in the open air may do for us.
Lack of fluster
As a driven partridge Shot, the Monarch was equally brilliant. At times he killed five birds out of a covey, a feat that few sportsmen can ever do. Think what this really entails — keen eyesight and good and rapid judgement and decision, perfect footwork and body swing, deliberation combined with quickness, absolute concentration and control, and a complete lack of fluster.
Anyone who can lay claim to all these qualities may well feel proud, and if he can still show them when three score years and 10, he has indeed qualified for an honoured place among the great Nimrods of the world. But it was not only the late King’s marvellous skill with his gun that will go down in history, but his high sense of true sportsmanship in the best meaning of the term.
For instance, he always abstained from firing long shots, and to a man with his skill the temptation at times must have been enormous. For if you find you can continually kill birds at 40 yards, it is sorely tempting to try
to see if you can go one better and kill them at 45, and so on.
Another matter that King
George was careful to avoid was the unsporting one of carrying on shooting late in the afternoon, thus not allowing the coveys the chance to collect and return to their feeding ground. This is all evidence of a real desire to avoid causing any suffering or hardship to the birds and beasts that make sport possible, and to give the hunted a fair chance. There are not a few shooters today who might follow such an excellent example.
Right-and-left at wigeon
A keen wildfowler, the King enjoyed the delights of duck flighting on the Wolferton marshes no less than the orthodox days at driven pheasants and partridges. He would brave the elements in the depths of winter for the chance of a right-and-left at wigeon, mallard or other fowl. Nor must it be forgotten that he was a first-class rifle Shot and his skill — both at big game abroad and at red deer at home in his own wild forest at Balmoral — ranked with his prowess with the shotgun.
“The King had a high sense of true sportsmanship in the best meaning of the word”
He had plenty of scope for this kind of sport when drives were arranged in the great woods of Deeside. Here it was, too, in his earlier days, that he spent much time fishing for salmon and trout.
As evidence of his keenness as an angler, perhaps it may not be generally known that, when he was HRH the Prince of Wales and living at St James’s Palace, he would often summon the manager of Hardy Bros, the tackle firm, from the shop in Pall Mall to his private quarters, just to talk “flies and fishing” of an afternoon.
Well in front
As a grouse Shot King George was a fine performer and I had the good fortune to witness a whole day of his shooting. This was in 1909, before he came to the throne, and was on Dava Moor in Scotland, as the guest of Sir Arthur Sassoon.
Time and again I saw him kill his four birds out of a covey, and it was noticeable that he took his first bird well in front. His guns were hammer ones, made by Purdey, and at the end of each drive he jotted down his score in a little diary.
It was a lovely day in late August and lunch was served on a table set out by the side of the railway line that crosses the moor. The bag was about 170 brace of grouse, besides the blue hares and a few duck and snipe. Talking of the latter birds brings back the memory of a real Gabriel of a snipe on that day which flew at a great height down most of the line of butts. Nearly everyone had fired at it, but it still flew on.
In the passing of this great sportsman there can be no real tragedy, for surely such an example of all that is best in our great world of fieldsports will live and endure in this generation and in those to come.
A great deal was written during
His Majesty’s Jubilee year, concerning his interests in fieldsports and more especially his prowess in the shooting field. Of this, not a small proportion was hearsay and many of the stories related of him seemed to err from the truth. Nevertheless, on the calendars of sport his name will be writ indelibly, and a rising generation will do well to study his example.
This article was first published in the 25 January 1936 issue of Shooting Times.