Walter Winans

Walter W. Winans was an American marksman, horse breeder, sculptor and painter, born on 5 April 1852 at the Nikolaevsky Railway Works in St. Petersburg, where his father was building the first major railway in Russia, and died on 12 August 1920 in Dagenham, Essex. He settled in England at the age of 18 and lived off the family fortune. At the 1908 and 1912 Summer Olympics he won two medals in shooting, a gold in 1908 and a silver in 1912, and he demonstrated pistol duelling at the 1908 Games. He also won a gold medal in the art competitions in 1912 for his sculpture An American Trotter. He wrote ten books, among them The Art of Revolver Shooting, and the Winans range at the National Shooting Centre at Bisley is named after him. His failed prosecution of a Scotsman for grazing a lamb on his Highland land helped to establish the right to roam.