English Chess Forum

Whilst we are on 1950, James Mahood died then. He was Assistant Paymaster General and won the Civil Service Championship in 1928. 1929 and 1930, pretty impressive when you consider the opposition.

"BCM reported that, “He was an excellent shot at rifle and was several times in the King’s Hundred at Bisley.” The King’s Hundred started as the “Queen’s Prize” in 1860, and is regarded as the most coveted prize in the shooting world. Queen Victoria gave a prize of £250 for the winner, and this amount has not changed to this day. The winner is allowed to quote the letters “GM” (for Gold Medal, not grandmaster…) after his name.

But, the National Rifle Association has no record of James Mahood competing in this event, which leaves something of a mystery.

I am not saying the then editor of the BCM should have contacted the NRA to say "Is this true?" !

I would suggest that the BCM and the National Rifle Association are both slightly at fault here.

A quick newspaper search reveals that Mahood competed for the King's Prize in 1906 at Bisley. He made it through to the last 300 and would have then have competed for the last 100 but his name did not figure in the subsequently published list of 100. (ref. The Times, Thursday, July 19, 1906, page 11 - "L-Corporal J. Mahood, 12th Middx" 96 [out of 100]" in the first stage of the competition)

Whoever dealt with obits at BCM in 1950 (probably Brian Reilly) probably hadn't a clue about rifle competitions, so the wording is understandably imprecise. It should perhaps have said something along the lines of "competed for the King's Prize".

Similarly, if the National Rifle Association say that they have no record of James Mahood competing in this event, that is not strictly true. I guess it depends on how the question was couched.

I see Mahood lived in my neck of the woods. His death entry in the Times classifieds gives his home as 16 Regent Road, Surbiton (date of death 14 March 1950). The Times also recorded the death of his wife the previous year. Chessgames.com has a useful potted biography here, though it seems they got the date of his wife's death wrong.

I don't know about James Mahood in connection with the rifle issue, but winning the Civil Service Championship three times is perhaps not as impressive as being runner-up in the 1913 British Championship. The 1911 census shows he was born in Portaferry, County Down, and his chess activities were sometimes reported in the chess columns of Belfast papers, but by 1911 he was living in Willesden, England. His age then was stated as 34 and he was married in 1907 to Violet Maud Daintry (in Folkestone). They had a daughter aged 3 in the census.
I don't have time to do any more on Mahood now.

Another daughter, Molly, achieved fame in her own right.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molly_Mahood

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2017/ ... d-obituary

Thanks to everybody for the info. I sent the NRA the quote from BCM and I guess they correctly said he didn't reach the last 100, although reaching the last 300 is pretty good.

In the days of regional qualifying events for the British Chess Championship, entrants could reasonably say they were playing in the British Championship, even if they were not there in August as one of the 32.

"I don't know about James Mahood in connection with the rifle issue, but winning the Civil Service Championship three times is perhaps not as impressive as being runner-up in the 1913 British Championship."

Of course.

I must add that the UK NRA is interested in sport shooting, and is nothing like the US NRA, which is more politically motivated.