BRIAN Young made this great model of a World War I mobile pigeon loft. Brian is a prolific modeller and leading light in the Guild of Model Wheelwrights. Brian and the Guild regularly display their work at exhibitions around the country. It is a fascinating branch of the model engineering hobby. Much of Bryan’s work is of agricultural machinery, while others specialize in vehicles. Lots of drawings are available and many, like Brian, do their own research clambering around fields to inspect, photograph and measure derelict equipment to preserve in model form what may otherwise be lost. For originals already lost to the world, models are re-created from photos or occasionally drawings. See also http://www.guildofmodelwheelwrights.org/ for details of this absorbing hobby which requires skills in working both wood and metal.

Pigeons were used to carry messages from Roman times up to the 1950s. Pigeons played a vital part in World War I and more than 100,000 were used in that war with an astonishing success rate of 95% getting back from the front to their loft with their message. Pigeons were used just about everywhere on the Western Front. At the Battle of the Marne in 1914,  the French had 72 pigeon lofts. As they

advanced, the lofts advanced with them - but many of the pigeons were away from base, and could never have known where their loft had moved to. Incredibly, all the pigeons at the Marne found and returned to their lofts.

In October 1918, as the war neared its end, 194 American soldiers found themselves trapped by German soldiers. They were cut off from other Allied soldiers and had no working radios. Their only chance of alerting anybody about their desperate situation was to send a pigeon with the co-ordinates attached to its leg. The pigeon's name was Cher Ami. When released it flew 25 miles from behind German lines to the American HQ, covering the distance in just 25 minutes. Although shot through the chest it continued to fly home. The men were saved and Cher Ami was awarded the Croix de Guerre with Palm for its astonishing feat. During World War II about 250,000 homing pigeons were used, bred for the purpose by racing pigeon fanciers. In the UK more pigeons than other animals have won the Dickin Medal the highest animal gallantry award.

Brian’s model is of a typical loft use early in World War I. Later modified double decker buses were used.