Harcourt Ommundsen

Lieutenant Arthur Norman Victor Harcourt Ommundsen was a Scottish officer of the British Army who died during the First World War. Before the war, he had been a sport shooter, who competed in two Olympics and was regarded by one obituary as the 'world's most famous rifle shot'.
He was born on 23 November 1878, in Alloa, the son of Norwegian commission merchant Adolph and Margaret Ommundsen, of Leith. After finishing his studies in Edinburgh, Ommundsen worked as a typist and clerk for a solicitor's office. He moved to London shortly before the war, and there became involved in a rifle business. He married Beatrice Alice Lowrey in 1914.McCrery, Nigel (2016), The Extinguished Flame: Olympians Killed in The Great WarThe West Coast Times: "World's Most Famous Rifle Shot". 11 November 1915, paperspast.natlib.govt.nz. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
A keen shooter, Ommundsen won numerous competitions, among them the King's Prize in 1901, and participated in the 1908 and 1912 Olympics. He won the silver medal in the team military rifle event at both Olympics, and in 1912 also placed seventh in the 600 metre free rifle event. His knowledge of weaponry led him to write, in conjunction with E.H. Robinson, the book Rifles and Ammunition, as well as design, with E.J.D. Newton, the Remington Negative-Angle Battle Sight.
Ommundsen was a pre-war territorial, serving as an other rank and non-commissioned officer in the 4th and 5th Battalions of the Royal Scots. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant in November 1914, in the Honourable Artillery Company. With the regiment on the Western Front, Ommundsen acted as a sniper for a while, and at the time of his death was employed as a bombing officer. He died on 19 September 1915, during the Second Battle of Ypres, when a German shell hit the entrance of No. 4 Company's headquarters, killing three other officers.
He is buried in Brandhoek Military Cemetery.
==Notes==
==References==
*Ancestry.co.uk.
*Ommundsen, Harcourt, cwgc.org. Retrieved 7 November 2016.
Category:1878 births
Category:1915 deaths
Category:British military personnel
Category:British Army
Category:British people of Norwegian descent
Category:Buried in Belgium
Category:Lieutenants