| The
McAlpines of Scotland
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The McAlpines were one of the most feared
strains in the history of pigeon racing
in Britain. John McAlpine started in the
sport in the early 1890’s and his
base derived from the Stanhopes of Barrett,
Baker, Whitmore and Toft. In the 1912
Scottish National from Rennes a distance
of 545 miles the McAlpines took 7th place.
In the disastrous race of 1913, with only
14 birds timed on the day, Johns birds
were 3rd and 6th National. In the 1914
race, the McAlpine loft clocked 3 birds
in the first 30 out of only 6 birds sent.
In that smash of 1914 it was a black chequer
hen that took 3rd place. The same hen
took 19th place again and her ring number
was 6638 and she was inbred to J. L. Bakers,
'Little Wonder', a pigeon that was destined
to play a crucial part in the forming
of the McAlpine strain..
Then,
the to be well known Dr. Anderson bought
John McAlpine’s complete team of
birds with McAlpine as his loft manager
who looked after birds during Andersons
war time service. There were races during
the war from inland race points but after
the war the S.N.F.C. returned to the European
mainland and once again held the national
from Rennes where in a race when only
2 birds were timed on the day, Andersons
birds were1st, 5th, 11th, 16th, 19th and
23rd.
Anderson
was to make many trips to Belgium and
on these trips John McAlpines son, Willie,
accompanied him where they often visited
the famous Dr. Bricoux of Jolimont and
across the border in France visited another
champion, the great Paul Sion . Many of
the best racers and breeders from these
masters found their way back to Scotland
to enhance the quality of Andersons lofts.
Using
the best of the imported pigeons as crosses
into the lofts the Anderson family was
formed. Alas after innumerable successes
and because of bad health Dr. Anderson
retired in 1948 but before he left he
gave the McAlpines the pick of his loft.
They carefully selected from the old Stanhope
family and only the best of the Sion,
Bricoux and Le Fijnen bloodlines. Out
of these bloodlines came great Surp 50
13315, the Barcelona Blue who flew 7 times
over 500 miles then as an 8 year old sent
to Barcelona 1036 miles, breaking the
British 1000 mile record in 1958.Even
a grandson of this great pigeon flew Barcelona
confirming that blood will tell. And when
we think of other outstanding marathon
flights into Scotland by others for example
Jim Moffat and D Forsyth the the records
show the influence of the blood from the
Armadale lofts.In fact all of the Forsyth
pigeons came from the McAlpines.
There were many other great pigeons and
great triumphs over the decades under
the expert know how of both John and Willie
McAlpine and the strains achievements
was honoured in 1992 when Willie McAlpine
became Scotlands Fancier of the Year.
Many Scottish national winners contain
their bloodlines. Sadly on the 7th December
1994 at the age of 86 Willie McAlpine
passed away but the legend continues for
the birds of the unique partnership of
father and son McAlpine are still talked
about wherever fanciers congregate and
there are those who claim a continuity
of bloodlines. If so, then they possess
a goldmine in pigeon stock terms.
by: Liam O Comain
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