SHOOTING

Page under construction

Gervas was born in 1907, and was taken on his first "public" shoot near Barnstaple, Devon, in 1925, aged 18 by his father Gerard Clay.

Gerard had been a subscriber the The Field for many years, and it was soon after that that Gervas took out a subscription of his own.

We decided not to renew his subscription to The Field in 2009 when it came up for renewal, as by that time he could no longer read nor take much interest in it.

He had thus been a subscriber for some 80 years - possibly a record?

Throughout his time in Northern Rhodesia, Gervas used to go out after game, usually for the pot.  In the early days, with a rifle after antelope, when he fed his men, but latterly, just for his family, after birds with a shotgun and gun-dog.

Upon retiring to England, Gervas bought a half-gun in a pheasant-shooting syndicate.

He kept a game-book most of his life, and only gave up shooting after the season after his 86th birthday, when he became embarrassed at other guns coming to help him over fences.

His shotgun had been a wedding present to him from his father-in-law, and when he stopped shooting he gave the gun to his eldest son, and asked that it be then passed on to that son's eldest son, who has it now.

Articles on the subject that Gervas wrote will be found in the Library.