ARCHERY was first contested at the 1900 Olympics but Britain did not compete until 1908 when they won their only two archery gold medals. Their first gold was won by William Dod. Britain did not compete again until archery was re-introduced into the Olympic programme in 1972 after a break of 52 years. The last British archery medal was a bronze won by Alison Williamson in the women's individual at the 2004 Athens Olympics.
Steven Hallard and Richard Priestman (Men's team 1988 and 1992), and Simon Terry (men's individual and team 1992) have each won a record two medals for Britain.
Britain's Gold Medallists:
DOD, William
Born: 18 July 1867, Lower Bebington, Cheshire, England
Died: 8 October 1954, Earl's Court, Kensington, London, England
Olympics competed in: 1 (1908)
Olympic medals: 1908 Gold - Archery (Men's double York round)
Dod was not one of the fancied British archers for the gold medal at the 1908 London Olympics, particularly with the five-times British champion Reginald Brooks-King in the field. But it was Dod who got the better of the appalling conditions at the White City to win by 47 points from Brooks-King. It was a great way for Dod to celebrate his 41st birthday. Dod's sister Lottie was runner-up in the ladies event as they became the first brother and sister ever to win Olympic medals.
Lottie Dod went on to become one of Britain's greatest all-round sportswomen. She won the ladies singles title at Wimbledon five times, was a hockey international and was the British ladies amateur golf champion in 1904.
William and his sister came from a very wealthy family and he never had to worry about work or school and had private education at home. Consequently he spent most of his time playing golf or hunting game.William and Lottie obviously got their bowman skills from one of their ancestors Sir Anthony Dod of Edge who was in command of the British archers at the Battle of Agincourt.
Shortly after the outbreak of World War One Dod enlisted with the Royal Fusiliers - Sportsman's Battalion, and it saw him fighting on the front line in France but he soon decided he wanted a transfer to the Navy, which was granted before he was invalided out in 1916.
Willy and Lottie never married and spent most of their later life together, firstly in Devon where they were prominent members of the Westward Ho! Golf club, and latterly at Earl's Court, Kensington, in London. Lottie moved to Hampshire after Willy's death in 1954.
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NEWALL, Sybill Fenton "Queenie"
Born: 17 October 1854, Hare Hill, Littleborough, Rochdale, Lancashire, England
Died: 24 June 1929, Cheltenham, Gloucestershire, England
Olympics competed in: 1 (1908)
Olympic medals: 1908 Gold - Archery (Women's double national round)
Queenie Newall trailed Lottie Dod at the end of the first round in the 1908 Archery competition at the White City, which like the men's event was also contested in awful conditions. However, Dod collapsed dramatically in the second round, to allow Newall to not only take the gold medal by 46 points but in doing so at the age of 53 years 277 days she became, and remains, the oldest woman to win an Olympic medal of any colour in all sports. Furthermore, it would be Britain's last archery medal for 96 years.
Perhaps fortunately for Newall, and the other archers, the best British female archer of the day, Alice Legh, chose not to compete at the White City, instead she decided to prepare for the defence of her national title - which she won 22 times between 1881 and 1922, when she was 67. Had she taken part in the Olympics she would surely have taken gold. In fact, a week after the Olympics, Legh proved that point by beating Newall by a massive 151 points at Oxford. Queenie continued Archery until well into her seventies with here beloved Chelteham Archers.
Like Willy Dod, the 1908 men's champion, Newall's family can be traced unbroken back as far as the days of Henry IV in the 14th century. Newall's grandfather John Fenton (Liberal) was the first MP for the newly created Rochdale constituency in 1832.
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