Walter Padgett

Born in Hull, Walter Padgett was the senior partner of the plumbing and electrical engineering firm of W. G. Padgett & Sons, based in the town. He was also a director of Hull FC Rugby League Club. Padgett was acknowledged as one of the finest rifle shots produced by Yorkshire, and for 22 years he served as a volunteer and rifleman with the 1st Volunteer Battalion of the East Yorkshire Regiment (Hull Rifles).

Padgett had a fine record in the annual Bisley Meeting. He won the Grand Aggregate Silver Cross in 1906, and added the Gold Cross the following year when he was also runner-up in the Secretary of State for War prize. That year, however, 1907, he was involved in one of the most bizarre turn of events seen at Bisley.

In the Meeting’s leading event, the King’s Prize, Padgett finished one point ahead of the Lieutenant W. C. Addison, and Private T. P. Hope. Having been congratulated on his victory by Lord Roberts, the band was getting ready to start up and accompany Padgett on his victory parade as he was chaired around the grounds. An objection, however, was put in. It had been discovered earlier that his sixth cartridge in the final round was defective and did not reach the target. He was allowed to fire one more cartridge that gave him three points and enough to win the title by two points. But the objection claimed he should not have been allowed a replacement cartridge as per the rules and those three points were deducted, relegating Padgett to fifth place. The title eventually went to Addison after a shoot-off, as he became the first Australian winner of the King’s Prize, and on his Bisley début.