FIRS LOFT - KIRKPATRICK’S

HISTORY OF THE LOFT

The Kirkpatrick’s arrived here at FIRS LOFT in 1962 and are based on, and are very closely related the late John Kirkpatrick’s collection of birds from which the name KIRKPATRICK is derived from.

John Kirkpatrick’s entire clearance sale took place in December 1954, for which there was a significant interest, generally due to the huge amount of success he had had during his time. A good indication of this can be provided by looking in to the first few pigeons listed in his entire clearance sale.

His sale started off with LOT 01 – “GALABANK PRINCE”1st Open SNFC Nantes, 40th Open SNFC Rennes, winning two bird averages on his own. LOT 02 – “GALABANK DUKE” 2nd SNFC Nantes (Dukes nest mate, 3rd SNFC Nantes) LOT 03 – “GALABANK QUEEN” 3rd Open SNFC Nantes, LOT 04 – “GALABANK REMEMBRANCE” 3rd SNFC Rennes.

Of all his pigeons John Kirkpatrick said that his “Ace of Aces” was “GALABANK SUPREME” who was bred in 1939. Due to this, this bird did not appear in his clearance sale.

Here at FIRS LOFT it can be said that a great emphasis has been placed on ensuring that this winning blood line is maintained. And as a result we still to this day have Breading Stock Birds that have John Kirkpatrick’s ring on their pedigrees “SURP525443” son of Lot 01 - “GALABANK PRINCE” and “SURP5454278”direct son of “GALABANK SUPREME”.

We have even more stock birds that are only one generation away from having John Kirkpatrick’s ring numbers on their pedigrees.

As a result of this and with the other top quality birds we have acquired over the years FIRS LOFT have been responsible for pigeons in the top 10 positions in the Scottish, Irish, English, and BICC Nationals from 250 miles to nearly 700 miles.