A TRIBUTE TO ALLEN PALMER OF ESHER.
I was very saddened to hear of the passing Allen Palmer of the Esher & District RPC on 31st August after a period of ill health. Allen was a lovely man and probably one of the best workers for the sport of pigeon racing I’ve ever had the pressure to meet. It’s always great to see one of the sport’s really outstanding workers do well racing their pigeons! I joined the Esher & District RPC in the mid 1980’s and in all my time the main ‘spearhead’ in the club was the secretary, Allen Palmer. He had been club secretary and President for most of that time and had pretty much guided it through the years into the great organization it is today. In all my time in the club, Allen with a lot of help from his wife Jackie, had organized the Esher club’s annual prize presentation evenings, which have always been a great occasions. Both Allen and Jackie are from pigeon racing families, with both their late fathers, Bill Palmer and Dennis Nightingale, being outstanding fanciers and founder members of the Esher club. Allen had worked in the building trade most of his life and in recent years his firm re-build the new West End Sports & Social Club complex where the Esher pigeon club has been based for many years. He has also done a lot of work in the Boy Scout movement over the years and was a first class cricketer.
Allen Palmer was a natural ‘Channel’ racing man through and through, and had won his fair share over the years with his pigeons, including firsts in the Federation. One of his best seasons racing was in 2008, when he won the Three Borders Federation twice, from Yelverton and West Bay, with his two natural cocks, ‘Billy Blue’ and ‘West Ender’. The 2016 racing season was a particularly good one for the Allen Palmer loft at West End, with him winning several premier positions, including 1st Three Borders Federation Alencon (203 miles) on a really hard racing day. At the end of the season he lifted a lot of silverware in the Federation, including: Cooper Challenge Trophy (winner longest OB race), Longest OB Race Trophy (second Combine race winner), Gazzette Perpetual Trophy (best average two longest OB races), Fred Mott Memorial Cup (best average longest OB & YB races), Late A. Knight Trophy (continental average winner) and was runner up for two other Federation trophies. It was well done to the Palmer family! The photo accompanying this tribute show Allen with his trophies and his granddaughter, Ottilie Palmer Davis, who won the OB & YB ‘Novice Trophies’ in the Esher club in the 2016 season. When Allen Palmer passed way, the sport of pigeon racing lost one of its greatest fanciers and will never been forgotten in the Surrey pigeon racing fraternity. Our sincere condolences to Jackie and the Palmer family at this very sad time. Allen Palmer RIP.
KEITH MOTT (1st September 2025)
