While the bow and arrow was a symbol of power in ancient civilisations, representing both male warriors and kings, it was not one solely of masculinity. The myths of Artemis and Diana and the Amazons in classical Greece and Rome, are that of women with a bow hunting and fighting. In fact, archery was among the first sports to include a women’s event at the Olympics in 1904, and World Archery was the first international federation to have a female president.
It wasn’t just in ancient history where we see women taking up the bow and arrow. Royalty across Europe began taking up archery for sport in the Late Middle Ages. Anne Boleyn, the infamous second wife of Henry VIII, is said to have used archery to help seduce her husband, and her daughter, Queen Elizabeth I, was also an archer. Later, the young Princess Victoria also dabbled in the sport before taking up royal patronage of a selected group of archery clubs.
Target archery grew rapidly across England in the 18th century for two reasons. Firstly, it met the requirements of the aristocracy in being gentle and refined, and it didn’t hurt that the activity fit in well with the romantic neo-medievalism that was popular at the time. But crucially, for women, it was also a sport where they could wear the extensive fashions of the day. And archery for women rapidly became an acceptable area to display marriageability. A guide to country pursuits coyly remarked that “few exercises display an elegant form to more advantage”. And in 1787, it was recorded that “several young ladies” shot with the Royal British Bowmen which was the first British sporting society to admit women.
During the Napolionic wars (between 1803-1815), archery came to a near complete stop. It wasn’t until 1843, that English archery had recovered enough to begin competition again. In 1843 William Gray, Hon Sec of the Thirsk Bowmen, started correspondence with a number of leading and well-known archers of other societies, discussing the idea of an annual competition for all archers within the UK. Gray’s efforts led to the first Grand National Archery Meeting being held in York in 1844. And in 1860, the Grand National Archery Society became the official governing body for the sport in England and defined its first competition round specifically for ladies.
Alice Legh
Alice Legh was by far the most successful female archer of her day, winning the British national championship 22 times between 1881 and 1922. She was also the first female archer to describe her technique and philosophy in detail, and on one occasion said:
“A great secret is to be very quiet and rather deliberate in all your movements; never hurry, never pull up by jerks, do not talk or move your feet”.
Alice also praised the relatively low cost of the sport and the fact that, apart from some minor alterations to allow for more freedom of movement, it didn’t require much in the way of specialised clothing either.
She was born in Canada, the eldest of three daughters of Piers Frederick Legh and his wife, Emma Beata. In 1862 the family returned to England to live at Grange-over-Sands, north Lancashire. Alice’s parents joined the Lonsdale Archers and became closely involved with the pastime; they were said to have been instrumental in forming the North Lonsdale Archers in 1868. And it is generally believed that Emma taught her daughter the sport.
Alice’s first recorded competitive tournament was with Cheltenham Archery Society in June 1874. Shooting the ladies national round of four dozen arrows at 60 yards, and two dozen arrows at 50 yards, she made a modest 44 hits, scoring 168 with 2 golds; at the September meeting of that year this had improved to 55 hits, 251 scored with 2 golds. In 1875 Legh attended her first public meeting, at Leamington, Warwickshire, shooting a double National round and scoring 405 with 93 hits and 6 golds, gaining an award for best gold at 50 yards.
From then on she shot competitively every year up to and including 1923, with the exception of 1876 when she was absent in Canada, and during the First World War.
Alice Legh was national ladies’ champion 23 times, between 1881 and 1922. After her first victory, at Sutton Coldfield in 1881, she lost the title in 1882 to her mother, who held it for the next 4 years. Alice regained the title in 1886, and then held it consecutively for 7 years until 1892, and then for 8 years between 1902 and 1909.
Her shooting technique was said to be precise, unhurried, and deliberate. She drew the arrow conventionally to the right side of her mouth with three fingers and these did not drop away but remained in place when she had released her shaft. She paid much attention to her costume, which was invariably smart and fashionable, and advised others to do the same, explaining that competitors should take care with their dress when shooting.
The 1922 national championships were Alice’s last competition, before she hung up her bow forever, undefeated, at the age of 67. She is credited with a quiet and gentle personality, and with impeccable manners at the target. For much of her life she lived with her parents and unmarried sisters near Minchinhampton, Gloucestershire. Her shooting record has never been equalled and she remains the greatest of all the British national lady archery champions. She died at Resthaven, Pitchcombe, near Stroud, Gloucestershire, on 3 January 1948, and was buried at Minchinhampton.
Back to some archery history….
When the Olympic movement emerged in the 1890s, archery was one of the first sports to allow women to compete. Not all Olympic sports were as welcoming at that time. Archery’s first modern Olympic competition was held in 1900, and the first women’s event was held at the Games in 1904 in St Louis, USA, with America’s Matilde Howell taking the sport’s first gold medal. The first Olympic Games in London in 1912 saw athletes organised as representing individual nations for the first time. The British team was the only nation that fielded both male and female archers, with 25 women shooting alongside 15 men.
Following the 1955 Helsinki Olympics, it would be another 17 years until archery returned to the Olympic programme. When it was reinstated in 1972, archery had an individual event for men and an individual event for women
Another feather in the cap for equality in archery came with World Archery’s sixth president. Inger Frith, a British archer who shot at three world championships, was elected in 1961 after serving as vice president since 1953. Making her the first female president of an international federation. And she was also the president that successfully campaigned for archery to rejoin the Olympic programme. Furthermore, the available prize money on the Hyundai Archery World Cup has been equal since the international circuit’s inception in 2006, and mixed team competition made its Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020, seeing men and women compete together.
While we like to think that the world of sport is beginning to see more equality, there is still a lot more work to do, but as archery has shown, it is possible to have men and women compete alongside each other.
Author: Emily Brown
Sources:
https://worldarchery.sport/news/178437/archery-history-sport-pioneered-equality-womens-participation
https://www.oxforddnb.com/view/10.1093/ref:odnb/9780198614128.001.0001/odnb-9780198614128-e-103387
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