Regimental collections inevitably contain many group portraits, and the Welch’s collection is no exception. This is a particularly fine example of a rifle group in Malta.
Evidently, the men with rifles were just about to begin, or had just finished, competing as individuals or against a team from either another of the Welch Regiment’s Battalions or even another regiment. The prizes were the silver trophies that take centre stage of the photograph; it was normally the case these were donated as prizes either by officers or NCOs.
They are probably firing a Magazine Lee-Metford Mark II rifle, a weapon first adopted by the British Army in 1888. Fittingly, many of the men have earned the crossed rifles proficiency badge that denotes a sharpshooter; at least three of the men carry this on the left forearm.
