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Luke & John TIPPINS
Luke Tippins and his son John were both members of Colchester
Rifle Club, indeed Luke being a founder member. They lived at Mistley
on the River Stour. Luke was the local schoolmaster, but his interest in
rifles and ballistics led him to leave his profession and become a full
time gunsmith. Many of his rifles and shotguns are still to be found in
this country and others have been found as far away as Australia.
Luke was a man who did not mince his words, as anyone who has read his book
"Modern Rifle Shooting" will know. He was a member of all the
C.R.C. teams which challenged the Royal Warwickshire Regiment, then based
in Colchester Garrison, to a rifle match in 1900 after the club's inauguration.
John Tippins won the national Service Rifle Championship in 1911. He was
a contemporary both of L.Cpl. H. Ommundsen ( later Captain) and of Arthur
Fulton of Fulton's gunsmiths of Bisley Camp. Ommundsen won the King's Prize
in 1901 and was five times winner of the Service Rifle Championship between
1905 and 1913. He also won the Bisley Grand Aggregate three times and was
runner up twice between 1900 and 1912. Until four years ago, Arthur Fulton
was the only man to win the King's / Queen's prize three times, a feat now
shared by Alain Marion. In a poll taken around 1912, John Tippins was voted
by his peers to be among the 10 best marksmen in the world. Sadly both John
and L.Cpl Ommundsen were to be killed in the first year of the Great War.
John, aged 27, shot through the heart while fetching water for a machine
gun.
An article from THE RIFLEMAN February 26, 1910.
The journal of the Society of Miniature Rifle Clubs
latterly the National Small-bor Rifle Association
MEN IN MINIATURE.
No. 5.-Mr. JOHN TIPPINS.
The subject of my memoir this week is not well known to
miniature shots as he has only attended about six open meetings, but as
",A chip off the old block" the son of L. R. Tip¬pins, one
of the greatest living authorities on the Service rifle, and a very fine
shot himself with the Lee-Enfield, without him "Men in Miniature"
would be incomplete. He started shooting at the age of sixteen with the
Morris Tube in a Martini-Henry rifle at about twelve yards range. Going
straight from this to the service weapon with full charge his first shoot
at 200 yards was a best 34 out of 35 on the then seven-inch Bisley bull.
His first shoot through the ranges was 89 and won him a Skilled Shot's Certificate.
His first shoot at Bisley the same year was in the "Ince", when
he made 68 on his first ticket at each range (unlimited entries). In his
first squadded shoot the same meeting he was second in "Halls Wine"
with 32 and 34.
Since then his records are too numerous to mention. He won the Championship,
last year, of the North London Rifle Club, and also won the Astor Championship
Competition at the Miniature N.R.A. Bisley at the Agricultural Hall (possibly
in Vincent Sq., nr. Vauxhall, South London - eventually held at Alexandra
Palace - Ed). For miniature shooting his favourite rifles are the Winchester
Musket and the B.S.A. Martini with heavy barrel, and his pet occupation
is shooting for groups, without much caring whether the group be inthe bull
or not.
At rapid, disappearing, and moving TARGETS
he is a marvel, and I must recount
how at the Beckton Meeting last year, he really conjured a shot on to his
target. The competition was ten shots rapid at fifty yards. He had a misfire,
and in ejecting left the bullet in the chamber. Quick as lightning with
his right hand he grabbed a live cartridge, and between his finger and thumb
broke out the bullet, and holding his rifle muzzle up inserted the cartridge
with priming and powder only and fired out the bullet left in the chamber,
and scored a carton. I never saw anything prettier, and marvelled at his
coolness. If ever we get in a tight corner, and have to take up arms, may
we have many men like "Mr. John" to get us out of our difficulties.
"MARTINI."
See also Tippins' articles on page of Historical
notes and extracts
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