Keith Mott pays tribute to a dear friend...

BEAT PENN OF BRENTORD

I write this tribute with a heavy heart, as I have just been given the very bad news that my dear friend Beat Penn has passed away. She was the ‘first lady’ of pigeon racing, dedicating a life time of hard work to our great sport and was one of the sport’s greatest administrators. She was also my aunty Beat and I loved her!

I’ve known Beat and her late husband, Ernie, more or less since I started racing pigeons in 1970 and at that time she was the secretary of the Isleworth S.R.F.C., West Middlesex Federation and S.M.T. Combine. I remember writing at that time that she was the best lady administrator in the sport!  I often hear pigeon secretaries, quite rightly, complain about their thankless plight, but this lady had three times as much as the average secretary on her plate and loved every minute of it.  She was the secretary of the S.M.T. Combine for many years, starting when it was formed in the 1960s and once told me the only task she hated was when she had to print at the bottom of a Combine result that a member had been disqualified through no fault of their own.

Beat started as secretary of the West Middlesex Federation in 1962, with a short break when she had to retire because she had a major operation in 1971 and I can remember the great times we had at the annual Federation Show, held at Isleworth in those days. At that time Beat commented to me that the Isleworth club members were second to none and without their help she would not have been able to cope with all her jobs. She had held the secretary's job in the Isleworth club, off and on, since 1958.

I think one of Beat’s major triumphs in the mid 1970s was when the West Middlesex Federation needed a new transporter and they decided that a new top would be built on top of the old transporter chassis at the princely sum of £6,000. She told me at the time that the fundraising events put on by the member clubs were overwhelming, but they got their new transporter, and it was well worth the massive effort. The new vehicle had an aluminium body, air conditioning and held 264 crates, with the release system allowing many small liberations if required. When she took on the S.M.T. Combine secretary job it was still rail transport for the pigeons and when road transporters came in she much preferred the new form of transport, saying it made the job much easier and the birds' comfort was much improved.

Beat had been an R.P.R.A. councillor since time began and was President of the R.P.R.A. London Region; I think I’m right in saying that she was the first lady to hold that office. She was secretary of the London Region for many years and carried out lots of work for charity.  

Beat flew pigeons in partnership with Ernie from the early 1970s, but prior to that was a silent partner with the birds since their marriage in 1944. Ernie was a shift worker at Heathrow Airport, which is sited only a few miles from their home in Brentford, so Beat’s input was very vital to the management of their very good team of pigeons. At that time she told me she didn’t pick out favourites in the loft, but I think she had a soft spot for the partners good blue cock, ‘904’, the winner of several first in sprint races. One of Beat’s fondest memories was the day of her daughter’s wedding and ‘906’ won the Exeter race, which gave the great day an extra edge. The loft housed many successful families and in the mid 1970s the Cattrysse pigeons were introduced from the Trussler Brothers partnership in West Molesey. Beat fed, cleaned out and clocked the pigeons, but when it came to pairing up etc, Ernie took the reins.

Beat telephoned me a while ago and asked if I fancied a day out in London as she had to present a £1,500 cheque to the Richard House Children’s Hospice in Docklands. The money was a donation from the British Homing World ‘Show of the Year’ and I was pleased to go, as I hadn’t seen Beat for a while and it was such a worthwhile charity. My good friend, Peter Taylor, came along and we picked up Beat at her beautiful home in Brentford to start the two hour drive through central London to the Children’s Hospice, which was sited near Docklands Airport. On our journey too and from the Hospice, Beat and I had a really good laugh about the good ol’ days and the good times we had at the S.M.T. Combine prize presentations and West Middlesex Federation Shows back in the 1970s. This was the first time Peter had met Beat and after we dropped her back home, he commented to me, what wonderful lady she was, and that’s exactly what she was, a wonderful lady. That great day out in London was the last time I saw Beat Penn!

I don’t know of any other person who has done more for the sport of pigeon racing over the last 50 years than our Beat. She was up in her 80th years and still working tirelessly for the sport nearly till the end. I will miss her happy voice on the telephone, her Christmas card every December and I will greatly miss meeting up with her at the Blackpool Show every January. Beat Penn was one of the greatest people I’ve ever met in the sport of pigeon racing and I’m very proud that she was my friend.

3/10/07