Shooting Award badge, Empire Day Challenge Cup 1912: Private Archibald Allan Stokes, 4th Australian Infantry Regiment Team

Place	Europe: United Kingdom, England, Greater London, London
Accession Number	REL46671
Collection type	Heraldry
Object type	Badge
Physical description	Gold
Maker	Walker & Hall
Place made	United Kingdom: England, South Yorkshire, Sheffield
Date made	1912
Conflict	Period 1910-1919

Description

Gold shield shaped badge, featuring a shield and scrolls overlaid by a pair of Lee-Enfield rifles under a King's Crown. A separate, smaller gold shield is soldered to the front, bearing an engraved 'AS' sits over a stylised target. The reverse is engraved 'EMPIRE DAY CHALLENGE CUP 1912 4TH A.I.R. TEAM 3179 PTE. A. STOKES'. The reverse also bears the maker's name (W&H within a triangular flag), and the legend 9CT.

History / Summary

Issued as a prize in the Empire Day Challenge Cup Rifle Shooting Competition. The competition was founded in 1908 by Lieutenant Colonel R W Schumacher of Johannesburg and held in London every year between 1908 and 1914 inclusive, when the war saw its cancellation. The 1912 competition was run between 15 April and 24 May. The number 3179 refers to the number of points gained by the Australian team, which also won a 20 pound prize.

When Archibald Allan Stokes, a married wheeler of New Lambton, enlisted at Newcastle on 20 January 1917, a month before his 24th birthday, he noted that he had previous military service with 4th Australian Infantry Regiment, and had won an award for shooting in the 1912 Empire Day Challenge Cup. Assigned service number 2967 and embarking from Melbourne aboard the transport 'Boorara', Stokes arrived at Suez on 20 June 1917 and was assigned to 4th (ANZAC) Battalion, Imperial Camel Corps (ICC) on 23 August.

Stokes joined the ICC soon after its involvement in the Second Battle of Gaza on 19 April 1917, in which the unit suffered high casualties. Later in the year, they were active in the operations to destroy the Turkish defensive line between Gaza and Beersheba. As the Camel Corps moved into the fertile country of northern Palestine, their utility declined and, in June 1918, the unit was disbanded.

Shortly before this on 18 May Stokes contracted malaria. He appeared to recover but re-entered hospital at Port Said on 24 July 1918 and died of pneumonia there on 20 August.