RIP George Firth of Lockerbie

[sapper756]

Copied from Facebook 27/8/26

I was sad to learn of the passing of George Firth from the village of Boreland, North of Lockerbie. George had a wealth of experience in our hobby and prior to moving to Lockerbie, lived at Leeds and was very much involved in the administration side of our hobby. He was Secretary and Delegate of Bramley Club in Leeds, Aire and Wharfdale Combine and Leeds Amal. He was also President of Mid Yorkshire Combine and along with Tony Oates was one of the prime movers in the formation of the Combine. George spoke kindly of the late Alec Mollkin who was loft manager to Guy Barrett and described Alec as his mentor. Having had birds from the early 1950’s he was invited to Guy Barrett’s loft in 1963 and was gifted a Blue and a Red Cock. He thereafter attended any Sale that Guy Barrett put pigeons in and bought them and was also gifted occasional pigeons by Alec Mollkin. These pigeons, which were primarily Gurnay x Van der Espt, raced ever so well and he said how grateful he was to Guy and Alec for their assistance. In 1996, whilst in Belgium on an organised trip, he purchased a cock from Pauw Brothers, from their National winner that proved to be a real ‘topper’, it left a number of good pigeons including a particular cock named ‘500’ that won out of turn and importantly produced winners direct and in subsequent generations. George then purchased another quality pigeon from Jos Deno and when he coupled the Pauw Brothers line into the Jos Deno line he immediately produced pigeons to perform from the channel, indeed the first pigeon bred from this pairing flew the channel three times as a yearling from 400, 500 and 350 miles. Prior to moving to Scotland he sold the majority of his pigeons but importantly retained examples of the lines mentioned, which formed the base of his ‘new’ team. He shared a friendship with Robbie and Robert Rome, having been in their company on several occasions when they went to Belgium. On moving to Lockerbie he spoke to Robert Rome who arranged for local fancier David McDonald to build him an 18 foot loft. George subsequently arranged for fellow Club member, Michael Currie to build him two further sheds, which were compactly positioned in the form of a ‘U’. On moving to Lockerbie the birds were originally worked on the Natural system, but he was such a good fancier and understanding ‘the job in hand’, knowingly varied his management system over the years to provide the required motivation,.

On the sad news of the passing of Solway Federation member GA Firth, here's a few words from WPW.

 

I was sad to learn of the passing of George Firth from the village of Boreland, North of Lockerbie. George had a wealth of experience in our hobby and prior to moving to Lockerbie, lived at Leeds and was very much involved in the administration side of our hobby. He was Secretary and Delegate of Bramley Club in Leeds, Aire and Wharfdale Combine and Leeds Amal. He was also President of Mid Yorkshire Combine and along with Tony Oates was one of the prime movers in the formation of the Combine. George spoke kindly of the late Alec Mollkin who was loft manager to Guy Barrett and described Alec as his mentor. Having had birds from the early 1950’s he was invited to Guy Barrett’s loft in 1963 and was gifted a Blue and a Red Cock. He thereafter attended any Sale that Guy Barrett put pigeons in and bought them and was also gifted occasional pigeons by Alec Mollkin. These pigeons, which were primarily Gurnay x Van der Espt, raced ever so well and he said how grateful he was to Guy and Alec for their assistance. In 1996, whilst in Belgium on an organised trip, he purchased a cock from Pauw Brothers, from their National winner that proved to be a real ‘topper’, it left a number of good pigeons including a particular cock named ‘500’ that won out of turn and importantly produced winners direct and in subsequent generations. George then purchased another quality pigeon from Jos Deno and when he coupled the Pauw Brothers line into the Jos Deno line he immediately produced pigeons to perform from the channel, indeed the first pigeon bred from this pairing flew the channel three times as a yearling from 400, 500 and 350 miles. Prior to moving to Scotland he sold the majority of his pigeons but importantly retained examples of the lines mentioned, which formed the base of his ‘new’ team. He shared a friendship with Robbie and Robert Rome, having been in their company on several occasions when they went to Belgium. On moving to Lockerbie he spoke to Robert Rome who arranged for local fancier David McDonald to build him an 18 foot loft. George subsequently arranged for fellow Club member, Michael Currie to build him two further sheds, which were compactly positioned in the form of a ‘U’. On moving to Lockerbie the birds were originally worked on the Natural system, but he was such a good fancier and understanding ‘the job in hand’, knowingly varied his management system over the years to provide the required motivation,.  

Having settled in Scotland, he gave notice of his intentions in 2012 when he won the Section from the Y.B. National from Leicester with a light Chequer hen that was bred from a Koopman cock that was purchased from Premier Stud when paired to a Blue hen that was obtained from Ronnie Evans, the Up North Combine Ace. In 2014 his adult pigeons won out of turn with the highlight being when he gained 3rd Section from the Inland National from Buckingham with a Blue Chequer cock that was bred from two super pigeons that were purchased for stock. The Dam was a Koopman, which was bred by J.D.Poortvliet and produced a number of pigeons to score including a Fed. winner. The Sire meanwhile, was bred by Raymond Moleveld, being out of a Kannibaal Hen when paired to a Koopman cock. Even greater success was to follow in 2014, however as he won the Young Bird National from Buckingham with a home bred Blue hen named ‘My Way’. Parents were coupled in February and during the early part of the season, she was worked on Semi-Darkness. She had all races in the Solway programme with the exception of Stafford and was 3rd Lymm. She went to the Fed. Open race from Wollaston, the week previous to the National but on a very difficult day, sat out all night. She went to Wollaston covering eggs and when she homed on the Sunday, she returned immediately to the nest. She was sitting deep on basketing for the National and was given a wee youngster the day previous to despatch, which she covered straightaway. She ‘came like a train’ to win the race and returned to the nest immediately she entered the loft. Dam of the winner was the same hen that bred the Section winner from the 2012 Y.B. National. It was bred by Ronnie Evans from Sunderland out of Blue hen ‘Tilly’ when paired to Chequer Pied cock ‘354’ that gained 3 x 1st Club, 2 x 1st Fed. and 1st Sect. against 4,000 + birds. There were a host of winners in the pedigree of ‘354’ including ‘Simply the Best’ and the ‘Amal. Hen’. ‘Tilly’ gained 4 x 1st Club, 2 x 1st and 1 x 2nd Fed. and 1st Sect. from an entry of 6,000 + birds. ‘Tilly’ was bred from ‘Frank’ and Miss Partis’, which were both prolific winners. Sire of the Y.B. National winner was a Blue cock that was bred by Wall, Lunt and Green. His Sire was obtained direct from Andreas Drapa bred direct from his No. 1 Cock ‘Champ’. Paternal grand-dam of the Y.B. National winner was bred direct from Wall, Lunt and Green’s ‘Adonis’, which was a superb breeder, being Sire of two times Provincial winner, ‘The Promise’ and many other winners in the U.K.

 

The success story continued, year after year, he was for example 1st Section 4th Open from the Y.B. National from Buckingham in 2016, 1st Section from the Young Bird National from Buckingham in 2019 and 2nd Section from the Young Bird National from Huntingdon in 2021. At the Solway Federation Prize Presentation in in 2025 he was presented with the Sir John W. Buchanan Jardine Trophy for Highest East Section from the Old Bird Open Race. On this occasion the Open race was flown from Brighton with birds being duplicated out of the National into the Federation, with George’s Section winner being 4th Open Fed., 4th Section 7th Open National. Having previously been a member of Lockerbie Club, he joined the neighbouring Hoddom Club some two years ago and from the Lymm race the week previous to his passing, he headed the result. He was without question a very able fancier with a superb team of pigeons and will be sadly missed by his friends and colleagues in the pigeon fancy; on their behalf I extend condolences to the family at this sad time.