Champions > Bruce Parker

BRUCE PARKER

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Bruce Parker was one of the leading lights of Guernsey shooting in the 1960s, winning the Island Championship in 1962 and the Guernsey Grand Aggregate three times in a row from 1964 to 1966. He won the Century at Bisley in 1963, with a record score, and made three appearances in the final of the Queen’s Prize, all within the decade.

Don Bisset (left) and Bruce Parker (right) comparing plot-sheets, Guernsey 1964.

As a schoolboy, Bruce was the British Public Schools’ champion in 1956 and won the UK Cadet Forces championship in 1959. In 1957, he was part of the Elizabeth College VIII which finished second in the Ashburton, setting a record score at 200 yards which would endure until the distance was dropped in favour of 300 yards in the mid-2000s.

Starting at a pilot BBC radio station for the Channel Islands in the 1960s, before joining BBC South in 1967, Bruce made his name with the BBC as a journalist, political interviewer and editor, and television presenter. He was the first presenter of Antiques Roadshow, and presented editions of Nationwide and Songs of Praise.

Well accustomed to interviewing Members of Parliament, Bruce once found himself shooting alongside them when he was made “Member for Guernsey” for the Vizianagram match.

Combining his award-winning journalistic skill with his lifelong passion for target-rifle shooting, Bruce has invariably provided coverage of Guernsey shooters at Bisley and further afield, oftentimes whilst competing in the events himself. Bruce regularly appeared for Guernsey and Channel Islands teams at Bisley until 2003.

Yet, despite his shooting prowess, perhaps Bruce’s greatest legacy to the club will be his painstaking research on the storied history of rifle shooting in Guernsey. Bruce, together with his peer and contemporary, Mike Martel, published ‘A History of Guernsey Full-Bore Rifle Shooting’ in 2016.

Bruce Parker in 1963, aged 22, drinking from the Century Cup, which he won with a record score.

Bruce continues to report on Guernsey shooting today from his home in Hampshire, where his services to charity and the community saw him made a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 2017.

Text by Charlie Brewin, last updated 2024.