LORD COT:ESLOE

RIFLEMAN " PAR

EXCELLENCE"

Lord Cottesloe, C.B., one of the outstanding authorities on the rifle and himself a first-class marksman, died yesterday at his home in Buckinghamshire, of which county he was for many years Lord Lieutenant. He was 94. Up to 10 years ago he still shot regularly at Bisley.

The Right Hon. Sir Thomas Francis Fremantle, third Baron Cottesloe, of Swanbourne and of Hardwicke, in the county of Buckingham, in the peerage of the United Kingdom, and a baronet, was born on February 5, 1862, the eldest son of the second Lord Cottesloe. He early evinced remarkable prowess with the rifle and was in the Eton Shooting VII in 1879 and 1880. In the latter year the team won the Ashburton Shield.

When he went up to Oxford, where he attended Balliol, he represented the university each year he was there in both the Chancellor's Plate and Humphry Cup teams-Oxford won seven out of the eight events. In 1884, his last year at Oxford, he was in the " Queen's Sixty " (2,200 competitors shot for the Queen's Prize that year). Other years in which he was in the final stage were 1893 and 1921.

He first shot for the Elcho Shield in 1885 and from 1920 to 1928 was captain of the English team competing for that trophy. He was also captain of the successful British team in the match for the Palma Trophy at Ottawa in 1902 and in the return match at Bisley in the next season. At Bisley in 1909 he was captain of the Olympic team and again in 1910 he was captain of the British team in the Empire match. For many years he shot for the House of Lords in the annual match against the Commons and held innumerable trophies of success in individual events.

He was hardly less distinguished in ballistic research, which he began as early as 1887 at first in collaboration with W. E. Metford and then with Sir H. Holford. He took over the latter's range at Wistow and shot there up to 2,000 yards to determine the trajectories described by various bullets fired from different makes of rifle and with Mr. A. Mallock, F.R.S., he determined the extreme range of the S.M.LE. with Mark VII ammunition by a new method in 1909 and 1911.

WORK AT WAR OFFICE

For many years he was chairman of the Small Arms Committee at the War Office and was also an associate member of the Ordnance Board. He was sent in 1900 on a special mission to report on the safety ranges in various countries on the Continent and he held a commission for many years from 1881 in the Volunteers and then in the Territorial Armny gaining both the V.D. and the T.D.

His career as an administrator of rifle shooting began in 1889 when he was appointed assistant secretary of the National Rifle Association and so...