In 1859 it was decided that a volunteer force should be raised for defence of the Isle of Wight, and in November of that year, six Corps of volunteers were raised.

• The 1^st and 3^rd at Ryde.
• The 2^nd at Newport.
• The 4^th at Nunwell.
• The 5^th at Ventnor.
• The 6^th at Sandown.

These six units operated completely independently of each other until July 6^th 1860. They were then formed into the 1^st Administration Battalion, Isle of Wight Rifle Volunteers.

All of these units were 200 strong, and the members of these units were from the working class, who worked 10 hours a day with Sunday a day of rest so that they may go to church. Sunday was also the only day they could attend Parades. These units had no monitory support from any authority, and as the accounts show, they all paid £1 annual subscriptions (all 200 of them).

As the only weapon they had was the rifle, this formed the basis of the target shooting competitions. In 1877 they formed an association called the Isle of Wight County Rifle Association.

In 1898 the government was going to disband the Rifle Volunteers and replace it with a paid force called the Territorial Army in order to support the regular army i.e. The Hampshire Regiment. This disbandment included the County Rifle Association from 1898 to 1904. In the County Press for that period, there were two rifle shooting results, one for the County Rifle Association and the other was for The County Civilian Rifle Association, but they consisted of the same members! Reading the County Press for this period was a bit confusing!

In 1904, The Isle of Wight Rifle Volunteers became the 5^th Battalion Hampshire Regiment T.A. but they did not include the Rifle Association. Its members had been preparing to carry on shooting as a civilian organisation and that is when the Isle of Wight Civilian Rifle Association was formed. This later became known as the Isle of Wight Target Shooting Association.

The information here was provided by Ron West (Life President of the IWTSA)