A fine and rare .461 (No. 1 Gibbs) 'Farquharson' falling-block match rifle by George Gibbs, no. 14721 / C306

Footnotes

The makers have kindly confirmed that this rifle was completed circa 1894

By family repute this rifle was built for John Poyntz Spencer, 5th Earl Spencer, K.G., P.C. (1835–1910) who was educated at Harrow and Trinity College, Cambridge, before embarking on a lifelong political career that began when he was elected Liberal MP for South Northamptonshire at the age of 21. He was sworn into the Privy Council in 1859 and made a Knight of the Garter in 1864, after which he split from the aristocratic liberal norm over the issue of the Irish reform bill. He was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1868 where he endeavoured to oversee a fairer system of landlord-tenant relationships. He also argued that one method of gaining more control over Ireland would be for a member of Queen Victoria's direct family to reside there in an official capacity. Both recommendations were denied by Gladstone when the government fell in 1874, Spencer returned to England. In 1882 he returned to Ireland for a further three years until the political upheaval resulting from the assassination of Lord Frederick Cavendish brought about his resignation. He later accepted the role of First Lord of the Admiralty, during which time he modernized the Navy's armaments, including arming the marines with bolt-magazine rifles that had previously been reserved for the Army, and recruiting six thousand more personnel.

In 1866 he served on a War Office committee to investigate breech-loading rifles leading to the eventual adoption of the Snider-Enfield, a conversion system for the Pattern 1853 Enfield percussion rifle. This was not Spencer's first attempt to increase the military effectiveness of British forces. In 1859, he was a leading member of the committee that established the National Rifle Association, which was created to improve the marksmanship of the newly formed volunteer forces formed in answer to renewed fears of a French invasion. Spencer himself raised and commanded the 1st (Althorp Rifles) Northamptonshire Rifle Volunteer Corps. In 1861 he was promoted from captain to major following the amalgamation of the Althorp Rifles with the Northamptonshire Corps into a single battalion.

In 1860 Spencer hosted the N.R.A. committee's meetings at Spencer House and the first of the famous competitions was held on Wimbledon Common, part of Spencer's manor of Wimbledon and land that he later donated to the public. Queen Victoria opened proceedings at the first meeting, and over the next thirty years the competition would attract many thousands of competitors. The total entries for 1886 numbered over forty thousand. Spencer was a member of the N.R.A. committee for nearly fifty years, serving as its chairman between 1867–8. He inaugurated the Spencer Cup to be competed for annually by boys of school age, and frequently shot in the Lords' team in the Lords and Commons rifle match. The Wimbledon Common meetings flourished until 1890 when the ever expanding population of London deemed the location unsafe and the events subsequently transferred to Bisley, now the National Shooting Centre.

Spencer was also a keen fox hunter and was for many years Master of the Pytchley Hunt, a pastime that combined with his other extravagances led him to lease Spencer House and to sell his impressive library. The latter was sold to the widow of John Ryland, formed the basis of the library at Manchester University.

In 1905 Spencer suffered a stroke while out shooting on his Norfolk estate, from which he never recovered. Before which it was assumed that he was about to be made Prime Minister - and the 5th Earl's cousin and protégé, Winston Spencer-Churchill, said that seeing him so cruelly deprived of this prize was "akin to seeing a battleship sink whilst in sight of harbour".