MIDLANDS NATIONAL FLYING CLUB

MIKE LAKIN

Pigeon Plaque Presented To Carentan

Handing the Plaque to the Mayor of Carentan

The Midlands National Flying Club, probably the most forward thinking pigeon racing organisation in the United Kingdom, recently presented a Portland Stone plaque in memory of the racing pigeons that carried hundreds of often ‘top secret’ messages back home from occupied countries during the two World Wars. These vital messages helped to save literally thousands of lives during these years of conflict.

Many of these missions were flown from the Normandy area and so it was considered that an ideal new home for the plaque would be Carentan, a picturesque town on the Cherbourg Peninsula of Normandy. The Mayor of Carentan, Jean Pierre L’Honnuer, was delighted to receive the magnificent and lasting memorial to the humble racing pigeon, often aptly described as the ‘Bird of Peace’ which certainly played their part in helping to end the two wars. The Mayor also sent a message of good wishes back to the MNFC’s most famed member Her Majesty the Queen attached to the leg of one of her birds, which was released in the race from Carentan that morning along with over 4,000 young pigeons. We are pleased to report that the following message was delivered by the bird back to the Royal Lofts in Sandringham which read: ‘Best Wishes to Her Majesty and The Royal Family, Remembering the gallant pigeons that delivered Secret Messages during WW1 and WW2’. 

The permanent home for the plaque, which was the work of Master Stonemason Neville Welbridge, will be outside the civic offices in Carentan, the Hotel Ville, on a purpose built granite plinth alongside a memorial to the soldiers who fought in the Second World War. Surely a fitting residence to acknowledge the fact that more than thirty birds and several horses, dogs and a cat received the animal VC, the Dickin Medal, for their many brave achievements to remind us all, as is inscribed on the medal, ‘For Gallantry’,  ‘We also serve’.

The Mayor writing the good will message to Her Majesty

Ian French of the MNFC shows how to attach the message to two very interested children

The canister containing the message is fitted to one of the Queen's own birds

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Elimar - October 2014