86 British Homing World, July 20th, 2012

In May 1952 ‘JLR’ or Jack Roberts of Marplestarted to write for the Racing Pigeon News andGazette and as always made an excellent jobwith his contributions. Of course Jack will berememberd by many of the older fanciers forthe sterling work he put into the NorthernCounties. He did excellent work for the NationalFlying Club and in due course he became itsPresident. In May 1952 Jack wrote two briefthough highly interesting articles on (1) J.Kirkpatrick of Annan and the other on the ‘Worldof the Gits’. Let us start therefore with hisobservation on John Kirkpatrick and his birds.

In September on 1952 Jack made thejourney north to visit John in Annan,Dumfrieshire and winner in that year of 1st and2nd places in the Scottish and National FlyingClub from Nantes, 820 birds being liberated at0730hrs on Friday, 18th July and John’s firstbird, a 3y red cock was clocked in at 9.03am onSaturday, this to be followed by another 3y redcock at 10.10am. From that point onwardsSecretary and ex-Provost A. Black had a twohour wait before another telegram arrivedindicating another winner. A most marvellousperformance by the birds in the first twopositions.

On examining the birds Jack was mostimpressed by the type of birds housed in thesemost famous of famous lofts. He found them tobe of medium-size, good deep coloured eyesand profuse in a silky type of feather. All thebirds were of a tame disposition and were notall concerned as Jack walked through the loftsto take photographs. The lofts themselves were ofwooden construction with separate compartmentsfor the racing birds, stock birds and youngsters.

All the birds flew through the open doors at thefront of the loft and no time was lost when the birdsreached home for they flew directly into theirboxes.

Looking back, and this was not John’s firstNational win for he won the Rennes National in1937 with Coronation Express, the bird making arecord velocity from Rennes to Scotland of1559ypm, John was also 4th on the same day.John Kirkpatrick also has bad luck in notwinning the Gold Cup outright when hischampion, Gala Bank King (SURP.49.S.1326was 2nd in 1951) being beaten by one of hiscolleagues, Mr McKay of Annan. Theoutstanding performance of winning 1st and2nd in the Nantes National assured John ofwinning the Silver Challenge Cup presentedby the ‘News of the World’ and a trophypresented by A. L. Ellsworth. These twotrophies were for the best average Rennesand Nantes. He also won a silver trophypresented by Mrs D. Leslie and H. Smith’sGold Medal for the best two bird averagefrom Nantes.

The Nantes winner Gala Bank Prince,SURP.49.S.1332 was also 40th in theRennes SNFC race before going toNantes. This bird alone won the Combinedaverage and has crossed the Channel fourtimes, viz – Guernsey 1950, Rennes 1951,and Rennes and Nantes 1952. Thesecond Nantes SNFC winner was alsoanother outstanding pigeon, also havingflown the Channel on four occasions,viz – 1950 Rennes, 1951 Rennes, winning£77 and Rennes and Nantes 1952. John’sthird bird from Nantes was also prominentin the prize list winning 21st position. He

was a grizzle cock SURP.50.S.1144 and hadwon three first prizes in club races before goingto Rennes in 1952. He had flown the Channelon three occasions. This year’s fourth bird fromNantes won 35th position and was a red cheqcock SURP.49.S.1326 and in 1951 this bird putup a marvellous performance by winning 2nd inthe SNFC Rennes race with 4,209 birdscompeting. This pigeon in particular impressedJ.L. by its buoyancy and feather, Jack addingthat this particular bird would have to be takeninto consideration in future National events.

The first three birds from Nantes were alllooking at their hens at the time of basketingwith the fourth pigeon (mentioned earlier) wasfeeding a youngster 8 days old. When the twowinning champion cocks won 1st and 2nd in theRennes race they were both sitting ten daysand therefore, in Jack’s opinion was a goodpigeon, if fit, has a chance of winning in manyconditions.

The strain of the birds were a combination ofthe very best from Bricoux, Marriott, and Logan,indeed Mr Kirkpatrick’s present day birds wereall bred down from his best Channel winnerssuch as Coronation Express, King’s Cup andFirst Rennes and his old champion mealy cock,six times Rennes and always a big winner withits best performance probably being 3rdNational Flying Club Rennes with over 4,000birds competing. There was also his good redcock, ‘900’ which flew the Channel on elevenoccasions being 11th, 18th etc from Rennes.His old blue pied Marriott Hen, a full sister won

1st Nantes twice and last but by no means least hisold champion racer and reproducer, Gala BankSupreme, SURP.39.1131, and which is sire,grandsire, and great-grandsire to all his presentday champion racers.

In the Scottish National races John had awonderful record and racing mainly from Renneshis performances were as follows: 1 x 1st, 2 x 2nd,

2 x 3rd, 1 x 4th, 2 x 5th, and a 6th, 7th, 9th

A Few Highlightsfrom 1952 and More

A young Jack Roberts. Gala Bank Duke.

John Kirkpatrick holding Gala Bank Duke and GalaBank Prince, 1st and 2nd Nantes SNFC 1952.

British Homing World, July 20th, 2012 87

and 11th etc. He attributes his success to patienceand making the birds content so that their greatlovel for home surmounted all obstacles.

THE SNFC DINNER

It is probably appropriate to bring thebrief report on the success of JohnKirkpatrick to a close with a resume ofthe SNFC Dinner when the appropriatetrophies were presented to John.

With regard to the dinner, this verywell organised function was one of thebig social events of the season andsome 250 guests, members and theirfriends enjoyed an excellent dinner atthe Ca’doro Restaurant in Glasgow. Thechairman, Mr T. R. Millar, in his owninimitable way, welcomed those presentand set a tempo to the gathering withpromise of better things to come. Afterthe loyal toast, Dr Wm Anderson, whomeveryone was pleased to see,presented the King’s Cup and ClubGold Cup to John Marshall of Hamilton,winner of the Rennes National.Commenting on the race, the doctorsaid that un-doubtedly it had been avery open race with honours wellspread and for that reason hecongratulated Mr Marshall on hisbrilliant win. Accepting the twotrophies, Mr Marshall thanked thosepresent for the reception given him andsaid he hoped if he did not win themagain next year that they would at least come backto Lanarkshire. Mr F. W. Marriott, in presenting theBHW Cup to Tom McCrorie of Galston,commented on the progress made by the BHWexplaining that it was his aim to put all his years ofexperience at the disposal of his readers. Theclub’s President, Mr T. R. Millar when presentingthe ‘Gleniffer’ and the ‘News of the World’ Trophiesto John Kirkpatrick said that there could be nodoubt but that Mr Kirkpatrick was one of the ‘ace’fanciers not only in Scotland but also in the BritishIsles.

Coming forward to receive the trophies, MrKirkpatrick received a wonderful ovation. Thankingthe Chairman and those present for their goodwishes, he said how proud he was to be the winnerof such much coveted trophies. He was particularlypleased that not only had he won the race, but thathis second bird was also good enough to win thesecond prize, the sort of thing that fanciers onlydream about... A. L. Ellsworth, a great favourite atthis function, before presenting the handsomeEllsworth Cup to Mr Kirkpatrick, told the companythat it would be a happy moment for him when hehanded over to the Mearnskirk Hospital the club’scheque for £58. He repeated his promise of lastyear when he told Mr Kirkpatrick that if the won the

cup again, that he, Mr Ellsworth, would give himhis pick of a gold watch. The Gold Medal,presented by W. H. Smith, was also won by Mr

Kirkpatrick, truly a wonderful performance to winfour out of the seven trophies. It must brremembered that Mr Kirkpatrick’s name wasalready inscribed on at least two of the other three.

The toasts of the Club, Visitors, Press andKindred Clubs were duly honoured and betweentimes four artists kept the company entertained.

I appreciate that a great deal has been writtenabout John Kirkpatrick in the past, however theabove is a first for Jack Roberts and gives someidea as to his style. The photo is of a young J.L.which, no doubt will make many of today’s olderfanciers smile.

Still in 1952 and my sorting out continuesunabated. This time I came across a photo ofcelebrated film stars Yvonne De Carlo and RockHudson. No doubt many older readers willremember these two in many a swashbuckling film.I certainly remember them both and particularly thelatter. This photo was taken from the technicolourfilm ‘The Sea Devils’. The film itself featuredpigeons in War and where British Army Pigeonsbased in Jersey foiled Napoleon and his invasionarmy. Pigeons were used extensively in makingthis spectacular and moving drama of Napolionictimes.

In the photo, sub-titled ‘Guest of Honour’ –Yvonne De Carlo proudly shows her co-star RockHudson, the famous ‘Ruhr Express’, the British

pigeon that won the V.C. for gallantry duringthe last was when it flew 500 milesin eleven hours bringing news ofthe German Surrender in theRUHR POCKET in April 1945. Inthe film play the pigeon bringsnews of the imprisonment of MissDe Carlo thus saving her life. Theclosing comment was to the effectthat this exciting film uniquelyportrays the vital work of the racingpigeon as the swift and silentmessenger in wartime espionage.

The official record of RuhrExpress reads as followsNPS.43.29018 Awarded DickinMedal. After 2 years consistentlygood work in A.S.R. and emergencyintercommunication service thispigeon was dropped by parachutewithin the enemy lines more than300 miles from base and broughtvery valuable information in the besttime recorded in this operation. Oneof the best performances of its kindon record – 13th April 1945 – Ruhr‘Pocket’. Bred by RAF StationDetling – Trained at the samestation.

CHARACTERS

Two of the most likeable andinteresting fanciers in the Hesketh Bank Club areJimmy Bridge and John Orritt, indeed one photoshows them both together at some DiamondWedding Celebration, the only remaining problemto this day is that they cannot remember who sawthe other home. John has a long history in thesport of pigeon racing and has previously won 1stSection L in the NFC from Pau. He still performswell in the National events with the longer racesbeing his forte. Certainly he and Brian Harrisonhave flown the flag for Banks in many of the longerraces. John’s family of birds is probably one of theoldest in the area.

With regard to Jimmy Bridge, he did his NationalService in the Royal Army Service Corps andwhere he made his mark shooting well for the unit.Again Jimmy is a fancier of the old school anddespite age continues with his progression as alocal fisherman off the Lancashire coast. He is adedicated fancier and again has performed well nomatter what the distance, certainly both he andJohn are ideal club members. Not surprisinglyJimmy’s knowledge of the tides and the intricacy ofthe local marshes are unsurpassed. Without thatknowledge every time he went out he would put his

life in jeopardy. Being on the marshes, or at

Jimmy Bridge (left) with John Orritt.Jimmy Bridge setting off for a days fishing.

Rock Hudson and Yvonne De Carla with Ruhr Express.

88 British Homing World, July 20th, 2012

sea, on his own, brings its own form of tranquilityand he sees nature in the raw. He has certainlyseen the peregrine on its killing run on manyoccasions when taking pigeons out of the sky andas a consequence he has found quite a number ofrings from birds taken.

Talking to Jimmy about his fishing experienceand a life on the ocean waves is quite revealingand a more detailed report is a must. However herecollects seeing batches of pigeons when at seaand out of sight of land, where they are going isa matter of conjecture. He has seen pigeons justskimming the waves and on the odd occasion a

bird has swooped to the water taken a gulp, andthen carried on, another siting has been of theodd pigeon landing on the boat and not leavinguntil land came in view. One sighting thatintrigued me was the occasion when a budgielanded on the boat and again only left when landcame in view. Finally, and only recently whenfishing off Formby Point, he saw the first of thereturning swallows, his first sitting being earlymorning when they came in low and in smallbatches of anything up to six in number, howeverthe ‘convoy’ continued all day long and, no doubtrestarting early the following morning.

READ AND DIGEST

B.A.S.C. – ‘The Voice of Shooting’ hasrecently published an article under the heading‘P.R. Campaign halts Buzzard research’, a copyof which has been sent to me. It does pose onealmighty question, that being ‘Just who governspredator control’. The article read as follows:

Research into buzzard predation at releasepens is being redefined after the ministerresponsible was subjected to a campaign ofpersonal abuse. Attacks in the press wereskewed to give a wholly misleading view,suggesting that Government research todetermine the extent of any problem was a coverfor tweedy toffs to shoot birds of prey. The targetof the attacks, environment minister RichardBenyon, has been particularly effective in hispresent role; this is because he is a genuinecountryman with an informed interest in ruralaffairs. In supporting research into buzzardpredation he had made a genuine attempt to helpresolve the friction between game shootinginterests and protectionists. But he wassubjected to personal attacks by journalistsdetermined to whip up public sentiment ratherthan wait for independent scientific enquiry.

DEFRA had announced that there would beresearch to discover whether buzzards were aproblem and, if so, what non-lethal deterrantsmight help. But faced by a wave of emotivereaction, DEFRA has said it will look again at theterms of reference for the research.

Let’s be clear: BASC fully supports DEFRA’s

initiative. We believe that buzzards can present aproblem for game rearing in some areas. Wewelcome open and independent research toresolve conflicts of interest. When the latest storybroke BASC’s press team gave interviews toBBC TV and radio in favour of the initiative. Thelaw already allows people to seek a remedy toprevent serious damage by an otherwiseprotected animal. Licences may be issued afterindependent assessment. But it is clear theopponents have sought to subvert this processby provoking public outrage. The RSPB claimedthat the research alone would be ‘tantamount to

persecution’. What DEFRA actually said was:‘We work on the basis of sound evidence. Thisis why we want to find out the true extent ofbuzzards preying on young pheasants and howbest to discourage birds that may causedamage to legitimate businesses’. This wouldbe only in areas where there is a clearproblem, using non-lethal methods includingincreasing protective cover for youngpheasants with vegetation, diversionaryfeeding of buzzards, moving the birdselsewhere or destroying empty nests. Theresults of this scientific research will helpguide our policy on this issue in the future’.

The sad fact is that in seeking to overturnthis responsible, science-based approachcritics have undermined the constructiverelationships in the countryside on which allmeaningful conservation depends.

IN MEMORY

Another D-Day Anniversary has comeand gone and while it did not receive anygreat coverage in this country the Express(7th June) carried an article headed‘Hollande’ Hails D-Day heroes’, it read.

Francois Hollande became the first FrenchPresident to visit the graves of thousands ofBritish was heroes who died liberating hiscountry on D-Day. The newly-electedPresident paid a visit to Ranville Cemetery(where many members of the 9th BnParachute Regt are buried), near Caen inNormandy to mark the 68th anniversary ofthe invasion. It is the final resting place for2,563 British soldiers, many of whom weremembers of the 6th Airbone Division who died on6th June 1944 after landing by glider andparachute.

Mons Hollande’s decision to place acommemorative wreath in the nearby village inNormandy helped ease past accusations that theFrench underplay the British contribution tovictory during the Second World War. As rainpoured down Mr Hollande, who was joined byDefence Secretary Philip Hammond said, ‘Therain doesn’t matter, being here does’. He shookhands with Parachute Regiment veterans, as wellas serving British and French soldiers. A sourcein his Socialist Party said, ‘The President is, likemillions of French people, hugely indebted to theBritish.

Still with Merville and from a dramatic accountof Pompeii being buried under ash by theeruption of Mount Vesuvius in AD 79 seenthrough a teenage girl’s eyes to the Allied attackon the Merville Battery on D-Day, young authorsare rising to the challenge. Both ideas are amonghundreds of imaginative entries received for theChalke Valley History prize run in partnershipwith the Daily Mail and Waterstones whichchallenges children to write vivid stories bringingparticular periods to life.

The next item under this heading could wellhave a sub-title ‘An Opportunity Missed’.Yesterday the Queen unveiled a memorial to the55,000 members of Bomber Command who losttheir lives in the Second World War, the memorialwas long overdue and had the support of many. Ihave seen many photos and paintings ofmembers of Bomber Command receiving theirbriefing for the flight-path. In many instances, beit photo or painting, a container carrying pigeonswas to be seen on the table. Pigeons have been

completely ignored in the memorial and I feel thatthis was something we, as an organisationshould have made some form of representation.A pigeon container with one of the 7 crewmembers would have added a dimension ofreality, it was certainly deserved.

On reading Glenny’s article (BHW 22nd June)I was pleased to note that it appears that theCumbria Region is making progress in their questfor a Memorial to Animals in War. Let us hope soand that all their efforts come to fruition. I wouldalso like to think that they have set a pattern forall other Regions to follow.

PIGEONS IN TIME OF CONFLICT

Also emerging from another box of old booksetc were a number of tapes relating to pigeons inwar and while four of them are short promotionalfilms (5-10 mins) showing how pigeons carriedmessages when called upon to do so, these willbe of interest to many. One American produced

tape of 30 minutes duration also relates topigeons and the wars and this starts with theseige of Paris right through to the end of 2ndWorld War, indeed some of the footage fromWW1 is superb.

There are also a number of other tapes outsidethe scope of war with three of them having beingexceedingly interesting. Tape ‘A’ covers the 1997Nantes Disaster, tape ‘B’ is titled ‘A CompleteFancy’ and features ladies in the sport, e.g. MollyHolt (Red Hen), Claire Simpson of Milnthorpeand not surprisingly Audrey Lawrence Johnson.Tape ‘C’ was made by a TV Company in theMidlands and covers the 1987 NFC Race fromNantes when entries exceeded 10,000 and thewinner M. King of Charlton Marshall. The taperuns for 30 minutes and covers the race fromstart to finish, however more info has beenpromised and therefore I will review the tape at alater date. Nevertheless many fanciers from thattime feature on the tape though I cannot put aname to them, some I do recall include ‘PeterPau’ at Louella Pigeon World, Race Marking atReading, Geoff Kirkland, John Goodwin, RonnieBradshaw, Jack Adams, Tom Birch, Alec Kew ofCoventry and Major Edward Camilleri. The tapewent under the title ‘Everyone a Winner’.

The books devoted to pigeons in war makeinteresting reading, however they are alwayssubject to change and the following explains this.One book on the Battle of Hangman’s Hill, Cassinomakes mention of the fact that three pigeons wereused to rescue 400 gurkhas after beingsurrounded, it does not appear in any referencebook. In addition, some books on Arnhem refer toWilliam of Orange (Dickin Medal), the fact that fourother pigeons were released at Arnhem is againnot recorded in any records. There are many moresuch cases. BRIAN NEWSON

Gala Bank Prince.

Gala Bank King, winner 2nd Open SNFC Rennes in1951, J. Kirkpatrick.