Major Hesketh Vernon Hesketh Prichard (1876-1922) was an explorer, adventurer, big-game hunter and marksman who made a significant contribution to sniping practice within the British Army during the First World War. The measures he introduced to counter the threat of German snipers were credited by a contemporary with saving the lives of over 3,500 Allied soldiers. During his lifetime, he also explored territory never seen before, played cricket at first-class level, wrote short stories and novels and was a successful newspaper correspondent and travel writer. His many activities brought him into the highest social and professional circles. Despite a lifetime's passion for shooting, he was an active campaigner for animal welfare and succeeded in seeing legal measures introduced for their protection. He wrote his first story Tammer's Duel (1896), which his mother helped him refine, and was sold soon after to Pall Mall Magazine for a guinea. He and his mother worked on the plot of A Modern Mercenary (1897), the stories of Captain Rallywood, a dashing diplomat in Germany.