THE RACING PIGEON 19 APRIL 2024
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Jim Soutar was, in my opinion, one of the all-time ‘greats’ in the South of Scotland. The base of his family were J B Joel Logan’s, which he introduced from 1936 SNFC Nantes winner, Jos Aitchison from Annan. He also housed examples of the Rev McKenzie’s Grizzle Family. Jim was an absolute master at racing pigeons both inland and from the Channel. He scored with great consis- tency in National competition with his most prominent positions being 2nd Section 5th Open SNFC Guernsey, 1st Section 2nd Open SNFC Nantes and 3rd Open SNFC Avranches. He never actually won a National but in 1971 was 1st Scottish Section from the International race from Beauvais when the Scottish entry of 1,564 birds formed part of an International entry of 18,500 birds. To appreciate his ability, it should be understood that prior to the formation of Brydekirk Club, he competed in the strong Annan Club. At that time he resided at Cleughead, midway between Annan and Brydekirk and then moved into the village of Brydekirk. In the
near the front, so often, he eventually gained that elusive National win from Avranches in 1966 with ‘Creca Pride’. Tom had kept pigeons from schoolboy years but parted with them when he left home to serve with the Assault Engineers/Commandos during the War. On demob he re-entered the Fancy, basing his loft on Logan’s that were initially obtained from Duncan Thomson from Muirend, Glasgow supplemented with further examples of the family, which were gifted to him by the parents of his great friend Tom Stoddart who was killed in a road accident. Tom shared a friend- ship with John Kirkpatrick and received a number of pigeons from ‘The Master’ including a son of ‘Galabank Supreme’ and the nestmate to what became known as ‘Galabank Producer’. In addition to the many fine pigeons raced by Tom himself, he produced a number of quality pigeons for others including the dam of Mr & Mrs Horburgh’s ‘Fechan Lass’, the dam of Hind & Crombie’s ‘Shawhill Faithfull’ that was 2nd Open Rennes, the dam of Tom Laidlaw from Jedburgh’s YB
This archive photo shows (l to r) Jimmy Jackson, Jim Soutar, Ewart Warwick and their good ladies.
season that he moved residence, he won four races in succession to the original loft location. He then moved the loft on a farm trailer, hefted the pigeons within days and came out and won the next two races in Annan Club. Donald Scott & Son Ben were amongst the early members of the club. Together they gained a host of successes, which included winning the magnificent Ellsworth Trophy with the SNFC for the best average from Rennes and Nantes, the two prestige races in the programme. Following the unfortunate death of Donald, Ben entered partnership with his wife, Jean and they were the first loft in Scotland to win three Gold Awards with the SNFC with ‘Scott’s Jubilee’, ‘Sheila’ and ‘Sheila’s Boy’. Davie Murray was affectionately known as ‘Pivie’ and was the brother of Joe Murray who won the 1976 Rennes National. ‘Pivie’ shared a close friendship with Annan fanciers Will Robertson and Jack McGlasson and obtained pigeons from each of them. Whilst ‘Pivie’ also achieved success, he is best remembered in the area for the quality pigeons that he bred for others. Consider, for example that John Jamieson obtained from him mealy cock ‘674’, which proved to be one of John’s most influential stock pigeons. Dam of ‘674’ was mealy hen ‘ 10391’, which was a direct daughter of the great Will Robertson stock cock ‘Johnny’. Dam of ‘674’ was ‘940’ bred by Will Robertson, which contained the Bricioux x Sion lines of James Lumsden of Blackburn, West Lothian. Kit Rae worked on the 1,000 Ton Press in the Cochran Boilerworks and was highly skilled at his job, forming large diameter Dished Ends and Hemispheres. This was really hard work and when he returned home at night, his turn-off was to care for his pigeons. When we changed from rail to road trans- port, Kit became the Convoyer for the Solway and East Cumberland Federations. Kit’s son Alistair, affec- tionately known as ‘Eck’, is currently a prominent member of the club. Whilst John Armstrong resided at Ecclefechan, he was an enthusiastic member of Brydekirk Club. In 1974 he was 2nd Open Rennes with a 3yo Huysken Van Riel Blue hen, which was a very good pigeon on the day as the race winner was Eric Dishington from Reston on the other side of the country. Mr & Mrs Lew Horsburgh also resided at Ecclefechan and were members of Brydekirk Club. Amongst the families that they used to form their loft were the Kirkpatrick x Logan lines of Tom Little, Stassarts from J McGuigan, Fabry’s from S R Bloomfield and Gaffers from Ed Fell from Workington. Mr & Mrs Horsburgh raced a number of superb pigeons including ‘Fechan Girl’ that was an Ace
performer with all her wins being on the day. She raced from Rennes on five occasions and once from Nantes. She was 4th Section 4th Open, 4th Section 17th Open, 58th Section 172n Open and when 8yo was 20th Section 79th Open Nantes. The best known of the Horsburgh pigeons, however, was red pied hen ‘Fechan Lass’ that was 1st Section 1st Open SNFC Rennes 1963 and 3rd Open from the equivalent even in 1964. Dam of ‘Fechan Lass’ was a chequer pied hen bred by Tom Little that was out of a Logan hen when coupled to a grizzle cock bred by John Kirkpatrick. The pied hen, the dam of ‘Fechan Lass’ had a marvellous eye, she won many eyesign classes and was admired by all who viewed her, the Sire of ‘Fechan Lass’ meanwhile, was Mr & Mrs Horsburgh’s noted ‘Fechan King’. Tom Little resided at Creca and was also a member of Brydekirk Club. Tom was a real quality fancier and over the years gained 2nd, 3rd, 4th and 5th Open from the Gold Cup race from Rennes. He was also 2nd Open Nantes and 3rd Open Falaise, having been so
National winner and the sire of Tony Hodge’s marvel- lous pigeon that was 1st and 2nd Open Palamos. Brothers John & James Dalgliesh entered the pigeon fancy when only schoolboys, which coincided with the formation of Brydekirk Club and they became early members of the club, competing under the loft title Dalgliesh Brothers. Having explained that the village was homely and friendly it was no problem for them obtaining pigeons as each of the fanciers in the village gifted them stock, bred from their best. It should be understood also that their father was friendly with the great John Kirkpatrick and when he learned that they had joined the club, he told their father at a local Quoiting Match to tell them to go and see him. Having been alerted by his father, James cycled into Annan and went to John Kirkpatrick’s home at Galabank Avenue where he was invited to select four wee youngsters from the nest. On consid- ering the quality of the pigeons, which the brothers received, consider that they were gifted a blue pied cock by John Jamieson that went on to score from the Channel on several occasions with his best position being 9th Open Nantes 1953. The pied cock was bred direct from the original pied hen that John Jamieson introduced from John Kirkpatrick that was sired by a dark cock bred direct from the noted Sumner Brothers Logan hen when she was paired to the immortal ‘Galabank Supreme’. Sire of the pied cock was another pied, which John Jamieson introduced from S B Cooper from Snaith. They also received a hen from fellow club member, ‘Pivie’ Murray that had been bred by Mrs R Johnson from Mickleover, Near Derby, which was an extra special producer leaving winners with seven different cocks including 5th Open Rennes, 1st Solway Fed Dol etc. John and James coupled the John Jamieson cock to the ‘Pivie’ Murray hen and in time they gifted a hen from these two pigeons to Jimmy Irving and Eric Johnstone, who had just started in the fancy in Annan, which bred the immortal ‘Solway King’ that won the Rennes National in 1959. As our readers will no doubt understand, ‘Solway King’ was subsequently sold to Louis Massarella who made no secret of the fact that it was the best pigeon that he ever owned. In time the brothers joined the Forces and having completed their National Service and returned home, they split partnership and in 1958 formed their own individual lofts, initially competing into Brydekirk and then competing into Annan with each enjoying much more than their share of success. James was a truly exceptional; fancier who only housed a modest team of pigeons but nevertheless scored from the Classics year after year. He was 1st Open YB National in 1973 with ‘Annandale Princess’ and in 1977 was 1st Open
This photo taken at the SNFC Presentation shows James Dalgliesh with the famous Gold Cup.
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