THE RACING PIGEON 19 APRIL 2024
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Mr & Mrs Lew Horsburgh.
Scott Irving Senior (centre) photographed with Johnnie Mossop (left) and Billy Moore.
poured tea and brought the Pies out of the oven. The Federation Secretary was Miss McTurk who was Secretary to the Managing Director at the Cochran Boilerworks and she and Jim Halliday ‘got on like a house on fire’. What wonderful memories. I must emphasise also that the friendship that existed amongst Brydekirk fanciers was such that when any one of them had a real good pigeon, their friends obtained one from it without one penny changing hands, which maintained, indeed strengthened the
having been missed when she homed. ‘Nantes Surprise’ was a mealy cock that was bred by George Anderson from Annan and was 1st Open SNFC Nantes 1962. Jim and his brothers, David and Walter lived together in a cottage in Lady Street in the village. Away back in the early 1980’s I penned an article on Jim for the Fancy Press and what hospitality I enjoyed when I visited the family home to glean information for the article. Whilst I questioned him on his pigeon experiences, David made ‘doorstep’ sandwiches for the supper and Walter poured glasses of whisky. Jim housed his pigeons in the back garden of the family home whilst his brother, Walter, kept an entirely inde- pendent team of pigeons in a separate loft in the same back garden. Walter was also a very good fancier and gained a number of prominent National positions over the years including 2nd Open Rennes 1963 and 3rd Open Nantes 1965. His greatest achievement in our hobby, however, was from Nantes in 1976, which he won with dark chequer hen ‘Ellen’s Pride’. Sire was a red cock that was introduced from Arthur Hill from St Just and contained the breeder’s ‘Hanover Queen’ lines. The dam was bred by fellow club member, Ewart Warwick, and contained the Kirkpatrick bloodlines of J M Dalgliesh. Jim and Walter’s brother, George Halliday also had an interest in the Fancy and actively encouraged his son, Robert and daughter, Margaret to participate in our hobby. In adult life they became tremendous workers for the club and indeed the pigeon interest continued into the next generation with Robert being the current Club Secretary and his son John now being a prominent member of the club. Having explained that Jim Halliday was 2nd Open Rennes in 1958, the winners of the race were Thomson & Kean from Annan with the race winner recording a velocity of 1,451ypm and Jim Halliday’s pigeon recording a velocity of 1,446ypm. Truth was that the result could have been much closer. Jim’s clock was a Toulet puncturing clock, which, as happened at the time, had been sent to Glasgow by rail to be set and when the clock was set the clock- setter taped up the puncturing handles to ensure the clock was not maliciously struck off enroute back to Annan on the railway. On the afternoon of the National Jim was in the local church carrying out a minor repair. His brother David was at home working in the garden and when the pigeon arrived he trapped it, removed the rubber and went to time it but discov- ered that the puncturing handles had been taped. Being uncertain what to do he ran to the church to alert Jim that the pigeon was home and Jim ran to the loft to time the rubber. One will never know what might have materialised had he been at the loft when he pigeon arrived but one certainty is that the result
would have been much closer. As explained, when Brydekirk Club was formed in 1949 Jim was elected Secretary, a position he held until 1996 when ill health caused him to hand over the reins of management. In 1984 the members presented him with a suitably inscribed wrist watch in appreciation of his services to the club and on his retiral in 1996 they presented him with a silver salver and wallet loaded with money. His services on behalf of the pigeon hobby were acknowl- edged by the wider community in 1992, when he was awarded the Annie Bowes Memorial Trophy in recog-
Tom Little.
Walter Halliday.
gene pool in the village and perpetuated the succes- sion of top quality pigeons that emerged. Let us now consider several of the fanciers and their winning pigeons… As explained Jim ‘Beck’ Halliday was one of the pioneer fanciers in the village who raced a number of quality pigeon over the years with his two most promi- nent performance pigeons being ‘The Hadden Hen’ and ‘Nantes Surprise’. ‘The Hadden Hen’ was so named as she was bred by Jim’s great friend Jack Hadden, who was Secretary of the Solway Federation and was 2nd Open from the Rennes National in 1958,
nition of his contribution to the fancy. He was so appreciative of receiving the trophy and if you gifted him a fortune he wouldn’t have been more pleased Jimmy Dalgliesh Senior resided at Luce, Near Brydekirk and was another of the pioneer fanciers in the village. He raced J T Clark bloodlines, which he obtained from Matthew Thorburn from Lockerbie. Jimmy gained many prominent positions including winning the Federation from Penzance during the War and on another occasion was 3rd Section 20th Open SNFC Rennes.
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