Arthur Fulton (sport shooter)

Arthur George Fulton (16 September 1887 – 26 January 1972) was a British sport shooter who competed at the 1908 Summer Olympics and 1912 Summer Olympics. He was the first person to win the prestigious King's Prize at Bisley three times, a record not matched until 1996 – over twenty years after his death.

At the 1908 Olympics, Fulton won a silver medal in the team military rifle event. Four years later, he won the silver medal in the team military rifle event, was sixth in the 300 metre military rifle, three positions event and placed ninth in the 600 metre free rifle event. He won his first King's Prize in 1912, and placed second in the same competition in 1914. During the First World War, he served as a machine-gunner and sniper, and was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal (DCM) for gallantry. For most of his life, he worked in the armourer's shop established by his father, George Edmonton Fulton, at Bisley Camp, the centre of British rifle shooting.

Fulton won the King's Prize again in 1926 and in 1931. During the Second World War, he served as an officer in the Home Guard. He was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1959 for services to shooting. On his death, he was described in the shooting press as "the most famous rifle shot the world has ever known".

Early life
Arthur George Fulton was the second child of Isabella Savage and her husband, the wood-engraver and noted marksman George Edmonton Fulton. He was born on 16 September 1887 in their house at 57 Rosenau Road, Battersea, London. Arthur's elder sister, Ethel, had been born in 1886. The year after Arthur was born, George Fulton, a soldier then in the Middlesex Regiment of the part-time Volunteer Force, won the Queen's Prize, the most prestigious trophy in British rifle shooting. He subsequently used the prize money he had earned from shooting to establish an armourer's shop in Wandsworth around the year 1895. Fulton followed his father into the Volunteer Force and joined the Queen's Westminsters in 1904. In 1905, George Fulton moved his shop to the newly-opened headquarters of the National Rifle Association at Bisley in Surrey; Arthur began to work for him at the same time and first competed in the shooting competitions at Bisley in that year. At the 1908 London Olympics, Arthur won a silver medal in the team military rifle event. Four years later, at the games in Stockholm, he won the silver medal in the team military rifle event, was sixth in the 300 metre three-position military rifle event and ninth in the 600 metre free-rifle event. He won his first King's Prize at the 1912 Imperial Meeting, with a score of 335 out of a possible 350 points. He subsequently, in July 1914, won the second of the three stages of the King's and placed second in the final after losing a tie-breaker shoot to J. L. Dewar, having led by three points going into the third stage.

First World War
Following the outbreak of the First World War in August 1914, Fulton was deployed to France with the Queen's Westminsters, which had been redesignated the 1/16th (County of London) Battalion (Queen's Westminster Rifles) and were now part of the Territorial Force. The regiment landed at Le Havre on 3 November; Fulton was recorded as entering the theatre of war with an administrative date of 1 November.

Fulton was rapidly promoted to sergeant and initially served as a machine-gunner, but subsequently became a sniper. In this capacity, he was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal, Britain's second-highest military award for gallantry, and is generally considered to have made around 130 kills. His biographer, Tony Rennick, writes that Fulton was often "borrowed" by other regiments on account of his sniping skills. He married his wife, Madge, in 1916. He was recalled from active service to work alongside other pre-war target shooters with John Herschel Hardcastle, an officer of the Royal Artillery conducting experiments in ballistics and rifle design at the Royal Arsenal in Woolwich, London. By the war's end, Fulton had received the 1914 Star, the British War Medal and the Victory Medal. His younger brother, Frank Laurence Fulton, died of wounds at Karasouli (now Polykastro) in Greece on 17 March 1917, after being hit by mortar fire during a failed offensive towards the Vardar.

Later life
In 1920, Fulton won the first stage of the King's Prize. He worked for most of his life in the shop his father had established; he became a partner in the business in 1923. He went on to repeat his King's win in 1926, after scoring 272 points out of 300 and winning a four-way tie shoot – the first time the match had ever been tied between so many people. This made him the fourth shooter to win the Sovereign's Prize twice, and the first to have won all three of its constituent stages. By this point he had competed in fourteen Sovereign's Prize finals.

Fulton's third King's win came in 1931 with a score of 285 out of 300; he also won the competition's second stage. His three-win record would not be matched until the Canadian shooter Alain Marion equalled it in 1996; as of 2023, it has yet to be surpassed. He also held the record, at twenty-eight, for the most times qualifying for the Sovereign's Final. He gained the nickname "the rifle visitor" for his frequent tours with the National Rifle Association team to Africa, Scandinavia and North America. In total, he represented Great Britain twenty times and England forty-four times, including serving as captain for the British victory in the 1959 Empire Match.

During the Second World War, Fulton joined the Home Guard as a lieutenant. His son, Robin, won the Queen's Prize in 1958. Arthur Fulton was appointed as a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1959 New Year Honours for services to rifle shooting. He died on 26 January 1972 at his home, Oak Tree Cottage in Pirbright, near Bisley Camp. In addition to his son, he had a daughter named Josephine. On his death, he was described in the shooting press as "the most famous rifle shot the world has ever known".