This Sunday, the Campbelltown Liverpool District Pistol Club will host one of its most famous and longest running events – the Major Peter Badcoe VC memorial competition.
It will be held at the club’s home in Kentlyn, located off Georges River Road.
The Badcoe competition is an individual and teams’ event which attracts pistol clubs from around the state and the Sydney metropolitan area.
Entrants for this year include pistol clubs from Glenn Innes, Cowra, Ulladulla, Cessnock, St Ives, Central Coast, and Sydney clubs LEX, Holsworthy, and Genysys.
This annual event is one of the longest-running team competitions in the country, and while nobody is certain, it could very well be the longest-running event of its kind.
The inaugural Major Peter Badcoe VC memorial competition was held in 1969 to honour one of the club’s earlier members.
Peter John Badcoe was an Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in battle.
Badcoe joined the Australian Army in 1950. He was promoted to Major after he transferred to the Royal Australian Infantry Corps following a tour of Malaya in 1962 that included a week in South Vietnam observing the fighting.
Badcoe arrived in Vietnam in 1966 s a member of the Army Training Team.
He displayed gallantry and leadership on three occasions while in operations with the South Vietnamese Regional Force.
In the final battle he was killed by machine gun fire. He was buried in Malaysia. He was awarded the VC posthumously.
