A TRIBUTE TO RON LACEY OF HIGH WYCOMBE.
I was very sad to receive a phone call from Matt Wallace yesterday to let me know that his grandfather and my dear friend, Ron Lacey had passed away. Our Ron was a gentleman and a lovely man, and was most certainly one the greatest worker in our sport, having dedicated his whole ‘hobby’ life to pigeons. Ron was a great friend and I always enjoyed our meet ups at the annual winter shows and receiving their annual Christmas card from Ron and Mary. He is going to be greatly missed by us all!
Matt told me on our telephone conversation, ‘granddad passed away yesterday evening (24th March) at Stoke Mandeville hospital, following an admission for pneumonia. He was 94 years old, due to turn 95 on 29th May. He loved everything about the pigeon sport and the people in it, and it's fair to say he knew a few. I reckon he could tell you a story about nearly every club, RPRA Region, Federation and liberation point in the country, from his 80 plus years of racing his beloved pigeons. He was a real stickler for the rules. And so he should be too, with the late Laurie Butler having worked hard to teach ‘Gramp’ everything he knew. For granddad there was only one way to run a club, Federation, RPRA Region, or Show.....and that was the right way. ‘Gramp’ always spoke fondly of you, Keith! He'd always chuck the latest copy of the BHW at me when we sat down for a coffee, telling me "Good write up from Motty in there boy." Ron's wife Mary passed away in 2022 and he is survived by his three children, Pauline, Gary and Phil, along with Grandsons Matt, Rich and George, and Great Granddaughters Violet and Ivy’. Our sincere condolences, from the pigeon racing and showing fraternity to the Lacey family at this very sad time.
Ron Lacey did so much good work in his 80 years in the sport, mostly for the Royal Pigeon Racing Association, BBO Federation and his own club High Wycombe Columbarian Society. I personally think one of the best things that our Ron achieved was setting up and running the wonderful annual RPRA Southern Region Show with the late Bob Arnold, which ran successfully for 40 years. The month of November saw us make our annual drive up the M40 to High Wycombe for the RPRA Southern Region Show, which was one of the high lights of the show calendar in the South of England every winter. Show secretary, Ron Lacey and his band of helpers work hard every winter and put on one of the best shows I visited!
I had been associated with the Southern Region Show from day one and have derived great pleasure judging at this great annual event through the years. This great event was one of my favourite one day shows, which in later years was held at the Hazelmere Community Centre, near High Wycombe. My good friend, Ron Lacey, former President of the R.P.R.A. Southern Region, had run the show for most of those years and Val and Tony Viccars were the show secretaries for a few years, with Ron overseeing the show set up. I had attended the show most years, since it started at Ascot Racecourse over 40 years ago and in later seasons I booked the judges for the racing classes for Ron. I judged many times and had the great honour of judging ‘Best in Show’ several times for Ron. Years ago I used to show and won many firsts with my racing pigeons, which I always considered a good achievement, with the ‘red hot’ competition at the Region show. After Ascot the show moved briefly into Basingstoke and then went to Slough for ten years, being run by Ron Lacey and the late great Bob Arnold. I always remember Bob telling me that he had been in pigeons all his life, being taken tenderly into a pigeon loft at the age of ten days old, by his father, in 1920. Bob was a wonderful man and put a lot of hard work into the Southern Region Show with Ron, through his early years as show secretary.
When I say that Ron Lacey was one of the sport’s great workers, it is an under statement, he had spent a life time working for the RPRA and the sport of pigeon racing in general. Ron told me he was President of the R.P.R.A. Southern Region for 14 years until he had to pack up through ill health. He has been in the sport for 80 years and liked only long distance racing. Ron had 13 natural pairs of mainly Hartog and Vandy pigeons, which he told me, were never parted, with the nest boxes being closed to stop them breeding in the winter months. The old bird racers were lightly trained up to 30 miles and were fed a good mixture, which includes 50% beans. He had raced north road all his life until turning south road with the club in later years and has won 1st Federation Lerwick, with the bird on the day. Ron’s 30 youngsters were raced natural to the perch and had won the Young Bird Average several times in past seasons. The young birds were trained up to 30 miles, the same as the old birds, and race the whole programme. Ron said he was a small team fancier and kept no stock birds. He maintained that he would cut out all the big money in pigeon racing and the sport looked like it’s falling because there weren’t so many fanciers, but he thought it’s as good as it’s ever been! The great Ron Lacey RIP.
KEITH MOTT (26th March 2026)
