Kerr Stainthorpe of Lesmahagow by Billy Wortley

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Copied from Facebook 21st February 2026

 

Something a wee bit diffo from Billy as its outside the Solway Federation but certainly not outside WP Wortleys expert knowledge. 

Kerr Stainthorpe from Lesmahagow was a very knowledgeable fancier with a wealth of experience in our hobby and importantly was a right nice person indeed, ‘one of nature’s gentlemen’.   He did so much for the pigeon fancy, locally and nationally and in all ways epitomised all that is good in our hobby.   He made a considerable impression in all organisations within which he participated, none more so than in the Scottish National Flying Club.   He served on the committee of the S.N.F.C. for a long number of years and was for a time Senior Vice President of the Club.   During the years that the Club was involved in litigation, he sat on the Committee.   The Scottish fancy must never lose sight of the fact that through the efforts of Kerr Stainthorpe and those other members of the Committee of the time, the survival of the Club, which we so highly prize, was ensured.

Kerr was reared in South Lanarkshire, which was a pigeon hot-bed with many of the fanciers who resided in the community being household names in the pigeon fancy and over the years had the privilege of ‘rubbing shoulders’ with these legendary fanciers.   Near neighbours were Gray and Mitchell who were known across Scotland,   One of his closest friends was Peter Scott, who lived in Coalburn and was an Ace fancier.   Davie Angus lived nearby as also did the great Jock Allan.   Davie Angus initially resided at Symington and subsequently moved to Thankerton.   Year after year he was up amongst the leaders from the Classics and eventually won the Rennes National in 1962 with Mealy cock ‘Townfoot Goodboy III.  I could fill many pages of script listing the achievements of Jock Allan.   Consider, for example, that from the five Rennes Classics between 1978 and 1982 only seven West Section pigeons beat the Allan loft and over those five years the loft winning were in excess of £19,000.   Jock won four S.N.F.C. Gold Awards with ‘No Surrender’, Pleasant Surprise’, ‘Irish Mick’ and ‘Bright Eyes’.   

Close to Lesmahagow is the village of Douglas Water, where there resided several of the very best fanciers ever to compete into Scotland.   Prominent amongst these was the famous Jake Burrell who gained 4 x 1st West Section with the S.N.F.C. in the days when there were big entries going to the Nationals and importantly,  quality fanciers prepared their birds to compete from these Classics.   In 1939 he sent four pigeons to Rennes and was 3rd, 15th, 25th and 89th Open competing against an entry of 4,390 birds.   Amongst the great individual Burrell pigeons was ‘Glen Hero’, which won out of turn on the road and produced a dynasty at stock.   This cock remained fertile until he was 20 years of age.   Near neighbours and close friends of Jake Burrell were Leishman Brothers, who founded their family on the lines of Keir Brothers from Ipswich.   Such was Peter and Jim Leishman’s ability at breeding pigeons that Major Andrew Neilson Hutton dedicated a chapter in his book ‘Pigeon Lore’ to the brothers’ breeding methods and demonstrated how the brothers kept the family going through successive generations.  Another of the great fanciers from Douglas Water was Jimmy Mitchell who competed as Mitchell Brothers.   Jimmy came very close to winning the Rennes National in 1973 when he was beaten by 0.4 of a yard and actually won the Section with the National on four occasions.

Resident in the community also was Davie Davidson, otherwise known as ‘Logie’.   Logie initially competed into Douglas Water and then moved to the neighbouring village of Rigside.   The bloodlines housed were Osman, through pigeons introduced from Jimmy Walker from Fauldhouse.   One of the birds purchased from Fauldhouse was barren and when Jimmy Walker was advised of the fact, he immediately replaced it with one his own stock hens.   This pigeon proved to be a magical stock hen and left a host of winners.   Similar to Leishman Brothers, ‘Logie’ Davidson was a Master Breeder and line bred the family to retain the winning genes.   

Kerr had a host of stories to tell and told me that on moving from Douglas Water to Rigside, Logie Davidson did not immediately win as he had previous done and having given some thought to the matter reasoned that his change of fortunes was due to the fact that at Rigside the loft was situated some 200 feet higher than when it was located at Douglas Water.   He therefore set about altering the loft to reduce the volume of cold air entering the structure and lo and behold he returned to his winning way.   Kerr told me also that on one occasion, he and Peter Scott went to the loft of Jake Burrell to verify a pigeon from the National, which they did.   On leaving the loft the legendary Douglas Water fancier apologised for an oversight and said he should have showed them the second pigeon that he timed from the race.   He walked into the loft and brought out the pigeon sitting on its bowl and set it down on the loft platform.   He then lifted it off the nest to let Kerr and Peter see it and after they had handled it he put it back on the nest and carried the bowl back into the loft. 

Another local fancier with whom Kerr shared a close friendship was Billy Davidson from the neighbouring town of Coalburn.   Kerr and Billy were friends for over fifty years, with each having enjoyed considerable success.   Importantly, the two friends exchanged pigeons over the years with each influencing the other’s success.

A further local fancier with whom Kerr shared a close friendship was Jock Alston from Ravenstruther.   Their friendship was such that they exchanged pigeons over the years.   Jock passed a particularly well bred Chequer hen to Kerr, which he coupled to a Dark Chequer Cock that was bred from a son of Jock Alston’s No.1 Stock Pair x a daughter of Billy Davidson and Son’s good Blue hen that was 1st, 2nd and 3rd Sect. Niort and Nantes and this pairing produced Dark hen ‘1763’, which was passed back to Jock.   This hen proved to be an absolute topper; she was 1st Sect. 17th Open S.N.F.C. La Ferte Barnard and was named ‘Kerr’s Pride’.   In 2012 Jock Alston won the West Section from the very difficult S.N.F.C. Niort National with a direct son of the same ‘Kerr’s Pride’, which was indeed the only pigeon in the Section in race time.   At the 2012 S.N.F.C. Prize Presentation, Jock Alston was presented with trophies for the best average in the West Section and Region ‘E’ from all National races.  I remember writing at the time that only two lofts in Scotland had timed from all races that year, these being John Bosworth, who won the National Average and Jock Alston. 

In keeping with the other members of South Lanarkshire Federation, Kerr competed with the S.N.R.P.C., when it was formed.  

He developed an interest in the pigeon hobby as a boy visiting lofts in the village where he lived, listening and learning.   From these early years he fell under the spell of the Rennes and Nantes Classics and whilst Nantes was important he always considered it secondary to the magical Rennes race.   When he was about 10 or 12 years old a family neighbour brought him two Logan youngsters, which he had obtained from a workmate and the acquisition of these youngsters motivated him to truly enter the fancy.    Some two years later his next door neighbour sponsored Kerr to be a member of Lesmahagow Homing Club.   He was delegated with the responsibility of cleaning the wicker baskets and moving shavings from the local Joiner’s Shop to the Club storage area, which was a Waiting Room’ at the local Railway Station.   He said that the work was laborious but he stuck to it.   At that time, also he acquired a 9 feet x 8 feet loft, which was the maximum size the Council allowed.   As the years moved forward, Kerr grasped every opportunity to listen to the more experienced fanciers and bit by bit he learned about distance racing.   Amongst the famous names of the time who advised him were David Davidson, Peter and Owen McIvor, Peter Scott and John Aird.

Following his marriage, David Davidson and his son, Billy built him a loft at his new address.   Gavin Gray had taken Kerr under his wing from early years with Kerr being a regular visitor to his home.   He told me that Gavin “was a quiet, gentle man, a jobbing joiner, a top class pigeon man who had a fantastic team or original Logan’s from his neighbour, George Grierson, whose uncle was loft manager to a well to do English fancier who had spent a small fortune on them”.  Kerr was fortunate to obtain pigeons from Gavin and obtained young birds also from fancier friends, whose priority in the pigeon game was to succeed from Rennes and Nantes, these included Archie and Jimmy Gilbert who were 3rd Rennes when only boys in 1932 and won £60, which was an immense sum of money at the time.   Pal, John Muir, joined Kerr in partnership for a time and they became involved in assisting in the Club, clock checking etc.

Notwithstanding the time expended establishing a new home and working long hours, Kerr and John enjoyed moderate success   When John married he moved to a neighbouring village and Kerr reverted to working the birds himself.   At that time he won the ‘Silver Rose Bowl’ in the Clydesdale Lanark Two Bird Club and was one of the youngest members to do so.   Importantly, he made the list also from Rennes and Nantes in 1965 proving that ‘he was getting there’. 

He and his good lady had two further house moves but nonetheless, the quality of pigeons housed gradually improved as also did performances achieved.   

He  won first Section from Falaise in 1979 with a Mealy hen bred down from one of two Red Chequer cocks, which were nestmates  that he gifted to Andrew McTaggart and Hugh Dunlop of Beith, Ayrshire, who crossed one of the cocks with a Dark Chequer hen that scored prominently from Rennes.   They gave Kerr a lovely Red Chequer hen from the first round and this proved to be the Dam of the Mealy hen.   The Sire was a Red Chequer Pied from his great friend, Billy Davidson’s 12th Section 30th Open S.N.F.C. Avranches.   The Red Chequer hen obtained from Ayrshire flew the channel five times but regrettably failed to get a Gold Award as two of her positions from the channel were in Vaux Usher Nationals organised by Charlie Graham.   This, however, proved fortunate as Kerr retired her to stock and she left a dynasty of pigeons for Billy Davidson and himself.   Her progeny continued to produce winners over a long number of years.   In 2011 Billy and David Davidson’s 2nd Section Fontenay with the S.N.R.P.C. could be traced back to these bloodlines from 20 to 30 years previous.   I should add that Billy and David enjoyed an extra special race’ from Fontenay gaining 1st, 2nd, 3rdand 4th Section, 4th, 5th 6th and 9th Open.

Kerr’s team of pigeons was initially based on introductions from local fanciers in Lesmahagow;  fanciers such as Gavin Gray (who became Gray & Mitchell) original Logan’s, Andrew Brown Barkers, John Burrell’s, original Osman’s,  and eventually a daughter of ‘Mademoiselle’ of Pau National fame crossed with a Black Burrell cock produced a long line of channel winners.   Harrison Brothers, Archie Gilbert who worked with Inch Brothers lines, W.Harrison from whom the great Willie Wilson from Larkhall obtained his original bloodlines, Meikle Brothers 2nd Open Nantes  etc.   All these fanciers swapped pigeons throughout the Club; all were one hundred per cent National racers and as happened in those days, gave pigeons freely to Kerr.   The basic family was progressively augmented with introductions from top Scottish fanciers.   From Jim Hamilton from Ferniegair who worked with Black Eyed Blue Pied Sions, from John Frood Snr. from his Red Chequer Bailey Hamilton cock and Blue Sion hen, quality pigeons from the Davidson family from Coalburn, which contained Osman and Clark of Windermere lines, stock from the great Logie Davidson, which contained Osman bloodlines and the lines of Joe Rafferty from Kirkfieldbank, stock from John Aird from Coalburn and from J.& I. Alston who had worked for twenty plus years with the Mitchell of Douglas Water family, latterly known as Sash Mitchell.   Kerr shared a close friendship with Gray and Mitchell and obtained examples of their Logan, Barker and Kirkpatrick family, the Kirkpatrick’s having been obtained from Brown and Croal from St.Andrews.   He shared a friendship also with Scott Irving and obtained a pair from Scott that contained the lines of his Niort National winner, which emanated from the loft of Mossop and Moore from Distington, West Cumbria.  He introduced stock from George Rankin bred from his noted Grizzle hen and ‘Red Rocket’ and obtained stock also from John Callan, which contained Ian McGhie Firpark lines.  He obtained occasional birds also from his brother in law, Walter McGaffney, which contained Robert Cormack bloodlines from the ‘Broken Wing’ hen and obtained birds from Mr. and Mrs. David Elliott who had what Kerr considered one of the best long distance families in the country.   Amongst the pigeons introduced from David Elliott was a hen from ‘Fern’, champion breeder and racer.  He obtained stock from J.Hamilton from Ladybank from the best of his team and received two nestmates from Jim Benvie, which contained the bloodlines of Jim’s and John Proctor’s National winners and also obtained a stock cock from John Frood Jnr. from his Jock Allan family.   

He won much more than his share and if I were to list all positions gained by him over the years it would make monotonous reading, suffice it to say that he was 1st West Section 7th Open Falaise, 1st West Section 31st Open Sartilly, which was the only pigeon in the Section on the day.   He was 1st West Section 17th Open Reims, 1st West Section 22nd Open Lillers and 1st West Section 8th Open Reims etc etc.   In 2012 he won the William McNeil Trophy for the best average in South Lanarkshire Federation from Reims and Arras.

In former years Kerr and several other fanciers from South Lanarkshire viewed the Solway Federation results at the end of each season and selected the Federation Fancier of the Year.   He absolutely loved undertaking the task but with the passage of time eventually wrote to Maurice Lytollis the Solway Federation Secretary to inform him that he was no longer able to perform the task due to indifferent health.   He told me that he prized a very kind letter that he received in response from Maurice on behalf of the members of the Solway Fed., thanking him for his help over the years and wishing him better health.  

Kerr was a superb fancier who contributed meaningfully to all organisations with which he had an association and as previously articulated, epitomised all that is good in our hobby.   

 

Billy Wortley