Established 1904
www.lanarkshireracingpigeonfederation.co.uk - new website address
OUR STORY
Lanarkshire Racing Pigeon Federation was formed in 1904 by a group of like minded fanciers from around Lanarkshire and the surrounding area, these men being the Founder members were, Tennent of Bothwell, Chalmers of Uddingston, Wise also from Uddingston, McKendrick of Motherwell, McLean of Larkhall, Reid of Hamilton and also Orr from Hamilton, Adams of Cambuslang and finally a gentleman by the name of Hamilton who hailed from the Govan area of Glasgow.
These gentlemen met in a public house in Hamilton known as the Bucks Head and successfully agreed on a framework to move forward with. At the end of the meeting Mr D C Orr emerged as the very first President of the newly formed Lanarkshire Racing Pigeon Federation, the first Secretary was Mr E McLean of Larkhall, the first Race Controller was Mr R McKendrick of Motherwell and the first ever Convoyer was a Mr C Wyper, who's details are unknown at this time.
It was decided that the first route to be flown would be the then Irish route, however
during this season a new race program for the 1905 season was agreed upon, the race
points being, Dumfries, Maryport, Milliom, Kirkham, Shrewsbury and Bath.
In these early years, unlike today in 2013, losses were very few and far between with some sterling performances achieved by the participating fanciers. Before timing clocks were invented, a nominated boy who had to be around 12 years of age had to run to the nearest post office and shout "time" to the office master and he recorded the birds arrival and to whom it belonged, this was how the results were arrived at.
The Federation went from strength to strength in the following years, though details
of the earliest years are few. At its peak 37 individual clubs formed the Federation,
numbers alas are no longer sustainable with the number of present clubs being 28;
of which Strathaven, Lanark, Carluke, Burnbank, Dalzell, and Low Waters have been
members since 1932 with the rest of the clubs joining at various interval's since
then.
The Federation at its peak in the 70's and 80's were convoying as many as 13,000+
birds per week, making it the largest Federation in Scotland, a title still enjoyed
today though our maximum birdage per race is now around 7,500-8,000 birds.
There have been many outstanding servants of the Federation in our 109 Years history,
however the most significant appointment, in the entire history of the Federation,
was that of Mr Iain Henderson who accepted office as Secretary/Treasurer in 1972
at a time when due to dis-organisation the Federatiion was in real threat of folding
due to a lack of finance. Under his stewardship and that of the Presidents he served
under, the Federation began to grow in strength again and 39 years later when Iain
Henderson finally past the mantle on to someone else, the Federation had a six figure
sum at its disposal.
Transportation has always been an issue with racing pigeon fanciers, we all to a
man wish nothing but the best for our treasured birds, firstly they traveled by rail/boat
to the race points before turning to road transport, a move that did not go down
well at that time with the fanciers, however since road transport is still being
used to this day and restrictions being in place when dealing with hauliers to pull
our trailers the members decided to take the bold step and buy our own transporters
so we are now the proud owners of 2 new and state of the art transporters bought
from German company Geraldy. Something we would never have managed to do without
the diligence shown by Mr Iain Henderson whilst in office.
At the inception of our new website the incumbents elected by the members to run
the Federation on their behalf are; President, Mr John Quinn from Wishaw, the SVP,
Mr Jim Cullen of Uddingston, the JVP, Mr Davy McCaig from Coatbridge, the Secretary/Treasurer
is Mr Jim Cameron from Uddingston. The Transport Manager and the man who almost single
handed organised the purchase of our new transporters, Mr Gareth Rankin from Larkhall,
Assistant Transport is Mr George McKeown from Bellshill. Finally the man with what
is arguably the most difficult position to undertake, that of Race Controller, is
Mr David Young also from Uddingston.