Although Greek-born and a resident of Athens, Gerald Merlin was of British parentage and elected to represent Great Britain at the Olympic Games. There were eleven separate individual shooting competitions at the 1906 Olympics and Gerald Merlin took part in ten of them. Apart from his medals in the clay pigeon events, his best performance was in the dueling pistol at 25 metres where he finished fourth shooting at dummies dressed in frock coats. In 1906 the clay pigeon, single shot, competition consisted of 30 clays from four traps at a distance of 16 metres and as Merlin and Ioannis Peridis of Greece each hit 24 clays, a shoot-off was necessary. Peridis was the first to make a mistake when he missed the fourth clay and the gold medal went to Gerald Merlin. One of Merlin’s infrequent visits to England coincided with the 1908 Olympic Games when he took the opportunity to defend his Olympic title but he was not successful and finished in 19th place. Gerald Merlin and Sidney Merlin are invariably referred to as brothers but this is not correct. A search of the British Consular Birth Register reveals that Gerald was the son of Charles E. P. Merlin and his wife Irene (nee Stournare) whereas Sidney was the son of the British Vice-Consul for Athens, Charles L. W. Merlin and his wife Isabella (née Green). However, they were certainly related and were, in all probability, cousins.
Great Britain