Charles Maitland Yorke Trotter (8 February 1923 – 8 September 2003) was a British sports shooter and photographer who represented Guernsey and Kenya in both fullbore and smallbore disciplines. Trotter's achievements in rifle shooting made him one Guernsey's most decorated sportsmen.
Born in Edinburgh and educated at Elizabeth College, Guernsey, Trotter served in the Royal Engineers during World War II and then in Egypt after the war. After studying photography at the London School of Photo Engraving and Lithography, Trotter established a photography business in Nairobi from 1951 to 1962, achieving considerable success as a commercial photographer in British Kenya. During this time, Trotter represented Kenya at the 1956 and 1960 Summer Olympics.
After returning to Guernsey in 1966, Trotter won H.M. The Queen's Prize in 1975, becoming only the second winner of the event from the island. He represented Guernsey in three consecutive Commonwealth Games from 1974, winning a bronze medal in the Fullbore Rifle singles event at Brisbane 1982.
Early life and education
Charles Maitland Yorke Trotter was born on 8 February 1923 in Edinburgh, Scotland. He was the son of James Maitland Yorke Trotter (2 March 1888 – 1960) who generally went by his middle name, Maitland, and Margaret Dippie Trotter (). Trotter's parents married in October 1921, two years before his birth. After his birth, Trotter's mother, a post-office clerk at the time, moved with him to Uganda, where his father was working as a surveyor in the Department of Land and Surveys in the Colonial Service. In the six years after his birth, Trotter accompanied his parents on a near-permanent safari owing to the itinerant nature of his father's work. He and his family mixed almost exclusively within the British colonial community where they enjoyed a busy social life, captured by his mother, who was a keen photographer.
At the age of six, Trotter returned to England where he attended boarding school, while his parents lived in Nigeria and later undertook a tour of the Caribbean through his father's work as a surveyor in the British Empire. In 1936, Trotter and his family relocated more permanently to Guernsey. He was educated in Guernsey at Elizabeth College, an all-boys public school, where he started shooting, and represented the school at the schools' championships at Bisley three times, captaining the team in 1940. That year, Trotter was evacuated along with fellow students and staff to Great Hucklow, Derbyshire during the German occupation of the Channel Islands. He took with him some valuable stamps collected by his father, twelve pounds and the addresses of friends in England.
Life and career
Photography career; Olympic games: 1940–1966
After leaving school in 1940, Trotter joined the Royal Engineers with whom he served during the Second World War. Later, Trotter commanded a group of German Prisoners of War in the Canal Zone in Egypt.
In 1949, Trotter enrolled in a photography course at the London School of Photo Engraving and Lithography, obtaining a first-class pass in his exams. Establishing a photography business in Nairobi, Kenya in 1951, Trotter achieved considerable success, and his work spanned a broad range of material, including weddings, natural history and news items. He also undertook commercial commissions showing industries of the time, and public occasions such as sporting and cultural events and royal visits. One of Trotter's film productions, a nature documentary about baboons, was awarded a Blue Ribbon Award.
During his time living in Kenya, Trotter represented the nation in the Men's Smallbore Rifle events (Prone and Three Positions) at two Olympic Games – Melbourne 1956 and Rome 1960 – and the World Championships in 1962.
Trotter returned to England in late 1962, living briefly in London and then to Fleet, Hampshire. He was employed as a photographer by the Royal Aircraft Establishment, first in Farnborough and later in Aberporth, Wales. Among other things, Trotter was tasked pictures of the de Havilland Comet.
On 15 February 1963, Trotter married his wife, Joan Peary. The two were involved in a head-on car collision in 1965, which rendered both disabled. In spite of the injuries which impaired his mobility, he was still able to continue shooting.
Queen's success; Commonwealth games: 1966–1987
In 1966, Trotter returned to Guernsey. Soon after, he became the owner of a long-established gun shop on the island. He won the Scottish Fullbore Championship in 1972.