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 Scottish Smallbore Rifle Association
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SCOTTISH SMALLBORE RIFLE ASSOCIATION
HALL OF FAME
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There is little doubt that Ella Mackenzie was one of the finest Scottish lady shooters, if not the best ever. None have matched her overall domestic achievements. In an international career spanning 24 years she is fourth on the all-time list of ladies who have shot for Scotland, achieved in an era where cap-winning opportunities were far fewer than in this day and age. She has shot in more Open Scottish teams at the Scottish National Meetings than any other lady and has only recently been overtaken by Sheena Sharp in terms of Bisley meeting caps for the �Main� team. She was the first lady ever to shoot in an Open Scotland team. She won the Earl Haig Scottish Long-Range championship three times (being the first lady winner in 1954, then winning two in a row from 1957), the Scottish Aggregate twice (1953 and 1958) and the Flowers (GB Women's Championship) no fewer than seven times, along with numerous other National Meeting titles. |
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She was the first lady ever to win a National Meeting trophy other than those
confined to women.
The photo on the left is of Ella Mackenzie in 1958, the year she won (l-r) the
Earl Haig, the Nobel Statuette (Class A Aggregate at the Scottish Meeting (Class
X hadn't been invented yet)) and the Flowers (British Women's Championship).
On the right is a caricature which appeared in a local paper in 1955 during the Scottish Meeting in St Andrews.
She was born in c1906 and spent her life in the Dundee area, shooting with several local clubs over her lifetime. She graduated from Dundee University as a primary school teacher, and those who knew her will remember a gracious friendly lady who took her frequent and numerous successes with extreme modesty.
She married J J Mackenzie in 1948, a week before the Bisley Rifle Meeting. Her entry was already submitted using her maiden name, so she shot the meeting as Miss Stratton. During the meeting she earned a place in the Scottish Women's team for her second cap and her first at Bisley. Married life must have suited her as she scored 299 in the International, the highest score in both the Women's and the main match.
Jim Mackenzie was a sheep farmer in Glen Clova (Kirriemuir), and an outstanding shooter for Scotland and GB himself. They were a formidable double-act, but they had no children so their prodigious talents were not passed on.
She shot in the GB Women's team in the Randle Match seven consecutive times from the inaugural match in 1952, and was the Captain in 1960 and '61. Unfortunately these matches were all lost - GB did not record its first win until 1965.
She attended the Women of Scotland Luncheon held in Glasgow several times in the 1960s
It's recorded in her obituary in the Rifleman magazine that she gave up the sport she loved in 1965 to care for her husband in his long illness, but she must have made a comeback after he died in 1968 as she won her last cap in 1970 after a gap of seven years.
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WFH
May 2007
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