Charles Hyde

The son of a retired Army officer, Charles Hyde was a radio and electrical engineer by profession. He started competitive shooting in his early 20s and became an exponent of small-bore rifle shooting. After World War II, Hyde won the National Small-bore Rifle Association’s (NSRA) News of the World Challenge Cup in 1949. He was also a member of the Wiltshire county team that dominated the NSRA Western Counties Bowl in the late 1940s and 1950s.

Hyde competed at the 1952 Helsinki Olympics with a best position of 12th in the small-bore rifle 50 metres prone event. Individually, Hyde’s best results were in capturing the English Small-bore Rifle Championship in 1953 and 1956. He had the honour of captaining the inaugural postal three-position small bore rifle match between the NSRA and the National Rifle Association (NRA) of America in 1954. Hyde’s wife Winifred was also an England international shot, and their son Richard and daughter Mary were also top-class shooters.