Dalton Arundel

While living in Montreal, Dalton was invited to an SCA event in 1989. At that event he met Simon, the captain of arrows of the shire, now the Barony of Dragon Dormont [1] Simon was leaving for the summer to plant trees and Dalton immediately signed up to be their Captain of Archers. He was in the SCA three days total before taking on an office. He started shooting in May of 1989. By November of 1989 he was a grandmaster bowman (in 8 months). He was the East Kingdom's first Canadian grandmaster.

Dalton was admitted into the East Kingdom Order of the Sagittarius in 1992 for his teaching, leadership and excellence in target archery.

He trained with Master David McDougall (OP, ret.) of the East Kingdom who served as that Kingdom's Archer General. David taught Dalton much from equipment tuning, to serving the Crown by mustering and training effective archery companies to teaching archers on a one on one basis. Dalton credits David to this day, even though David is no longer active in the SCA at all. He has never forgotten his teachers and never ceases to give them credit and firmly believes in service. He also swore fealty and service to Master of the Chivalry Alyn Min Tianga of the East Kingdom, a fealty which he follows to this day. Dalton feels he serves his master best by teaching and mentoring the people around him

He was active as an archery marshal, teacher and coach in Dragon Dormont for the ten years he was there until he left for Avacal in 1999

When Dalton arrived in Avacal, he met with Master Thorvald Grimmson who took him to his first event Silver Arrow, coincidentally the longest running archery themed event in Avacal! The Shire of Bitter End has always been a 'second home' to Dalton and he is always pleased to travel and teach there.

In October, 2001 Dalton was offered entry into the An Tir Order of the Grey Goose Shaft by King Avaloc and Queen Maliqua. He declined entry into that Order, citing several reasons:

- Dalton had only been in Avacal for less than three years at this point

- As a member of the Saggettarius he considered it a companion order

- He was surprised in court and had no time to call his Master at Arms or reflect on this decision.

Their Majesties were supportive and understanding of Dalton's decision and gifted him with a token of personal meaning from Queen Maliqua, which Dalton continues to treasure.

- He continues to support the Order of the Grey Goose Shaft by corresponding with the Order with his concerns and comments, and frequently recommends new members to that order, specifically Michael O’Byrne Malabar Membro Spaccato, Ellias Silver and Gareth Haydon all worthy additions to the Order.

He was the first to bring Archery to Quad War, often transporting his own personal butts to the site until permanent archery butts were donated. Dalton took the Pennsic model of how archery is run and has implemented the very popular "populace shoot" at Quad War which has evolved into a war point, The populace shoot averages 300 archers over the weekend, many who have never picked up a bow before .

Dalton placed first in the An Tir Top Ten, Longbow class for three consecutive years. He swore he would shoot scores for three years, to honour the members of his family - one year per member. Both his father and sister passed away quite shortly after he arrived in Avacal and this was his tribute to them. After 2001 he rarely shot competitively again, but focussed on teaching bringing "Eastern style" archery to Avacal and creating a legacy of champions as a result. Since 2001 his teaching has been consistently represented in the An Tir Top Ten.

Beyond teaching future leaders and teachers, Dalton continues to be an active figure in the archery world in Avacal and now Artemesia. At Hidden Treasures in 2005 his students devised a surprise tribute to him. Taking a page directly from "A Beautiful Mind" - specifically the scene where each professor walked by and gave a pen to John Nash as tribute- the Archers of Avacal lined up and spontaneously gave Dalton an arrow. Dalton was left holding a bundle of arrows, speechless and with tears in his eyes. The tribute from his students and friends was one of the most memorable experiences he has had in the SCA to date.

He is an accomplished scribe and an excellent artist. Upon arriving in the Barony of Montengarde, he noted the Champions did not have a Scroll. He devised the championship scrolls for rapier, heavy and archery and inscribed the name of every champion that held the honour prior. Now it is a tradition in the barony that the outgoing champion inscribes his or her name on the scroll and passes it to their successor to cherish for a year. Many champions take a colour copy of the scroll as a keepsake. The addition of these beautiful scrolls is a deeply respected by the recipients. Dalton did not sign these scrolls but donated them anonymously. The name on the back of the scrolls reads "quillus".

Dalton has the following awards:

Order of the Saggetarius (East Kingdom) Award of Arms Order of the Guilded Griffin (Avacal Service) Order of the Golden Link (Montengarde Service) Order of the Goutte de Sange Order of the Rose Petal (Montengarde Arts and Sciences)

He can always be found on any archery range during an event, teaching, shooting and marshalling. He is most often found in the company of Thorwulf and Wulfwyn, Kenneth of Shaftsbury, Markus from Cold Keep and the Barony of Montengarde and Avacal generally.