Gertrude Appleyard

Gertrude Appleyard was the daughter of wealthy Brighton landowner Harry Tuppen, and like many young women in her position in the late 19th century, archery was the chosen sport or pastime. Her first season as a competitive archer was 1897 when she won the South of England Championships at Crystal Palace in her very first competition in public. Appleyard was a member of the Mid-Surrey Archery Club and was regularly amongst the prize-winners in club tournaments. However, on a national level, it was unfortunate for Appleyard that she was competing at the same time as two of the all-time great British female archers Lottie Dod and Queenie Newall. However, one of her finest achievements was in winning a silver medal at the 1907 Grand National Archery Meeting at Malvern. At the 1908 London Olympics, Appleyard was one of 25 all-Great Britain entrants in the women’s Double National Round and finished joint 11th, a long way behind the gold and silver medallists, Newell and Dod.

When she married major general Frederick Appleyard in 1885, Gertrude Tuppen was just 19-years-of-age, and he was 36 years her senior. After her husband’s death in 1911, Appleyard relocated to Cheltenham, and competed regularly at meetings of the Cheltenham Archery Club, until her own death in 1917. She competed in her final Grand National Archery Meeting at Cambridge just two years before her death.