George Roach is a well known and highly respected falconer who has been flying hawks the better part of sixty years. He has several different claims to fame in the falconry world each one of which would be sufficient to single him out from the crowd. George, along with the great Hungarian falconer Lorant De Bastyai, was one of the very first to give public flying demonstrations with birds of prey in Britain. Not just the run of the mill falcon to a lure demonstrations either. George stepped, or rather rode, into the arena as Saladin, astride Blizzard his Arab horse and flew falcons with tremendous style and panache. Later, in conjunction with his good friend Gary Balchin, George founded The British Hawking Association and steered it towards establishing itself as a major club in Britain. The BHA was the first falconry club in the UK to have a proper apprenticeship scheme in place. Also as a hood maker George has very few equals and his work is considered amongst the finest available. The one thing that singles George out probably more than anything else is that everyone you ever talk to about him considers him a true gentleman in every sense of the word.
I have been fortunate enough to Know George for some considerable time and he very kindly agreed to tell me a little about his early life in falconry and those who had been of help and encouragement to him. So George chatted and I took notes which I hope will help reflect some of the interesting events that George encountered on the way to becoming a very well respected falconer. I apologise in advance for the quality of some of the illustration that accompany this article but they are scanned from photos that are in many cases more than forty years old and taken originally on non digital equipment. Others are taken from faded press clippings that have lain in drawers untouched for an equally long time. It was felt that their quality was outweighed by their importance and therefore they are included.
“I left school in 1949 and went to work at a racing stables in Nottingham as an apprentice jockey. In September 1950, with a little help from my grandfather who was well known throughout the racing world, I transferred my papers to a major John Heddel and went to work at the Buckatema Horse Racing Club in Singapore. My job there required that I go to the track at 4am for five days each week to ride and work there. On the site there were actually 14 different tracks and I used to travel from one to another so as to ride for different owners”.
“One day I saw two Malayan boys with hooded and belled hawks on their fists as we passed them on the road. Before I had an opportunity to talk with them they turned off at the next rubber plantation. I thought it unlikely I would ever see them again but two days later I met them by chance and spoke with them. For the next eighteen months, once my work was finished I would spend my free time with them and this is where my life as a falconer started”.
“In May of 1952 I returned to the UK and because I had grown too much my chances of race riding had disappeared. I did, however, manage to find a job working with horses. I would often think about the two Malayan lads, Abdul and Nigia, in Singapore and all that I had learned about falcons. Around this time I happened to see a falcon advertised for sale in the Birmingham Post and as accordingly paid a visit to Tysley pet store. The result was that I brought my first falcon, a female Lanner, and I was extremely happy about it. I began to train her as I had so carefully been instructed by Abdul and Nigia”.
“In 1955 I got married and we moved to Nottingham. Some years later a friend told me about a man flying falcons for demonstration at Twycross Zoo. That man was none other than Lorant De Bastyai and I made arrangements to meet him. I went to see Lorant at Twycross and we became very good friends. The day I met Lorant he was giving a couple of flying displays and on seeing my Lanner Falcon “Wendy” he asked if I would fly her in one of the displays that day. I did and continued to do so for the rest of that summer. At the time Lorant was flying his two famous Sakers “Sally” and “Kisci” as part of his display team”.
“Watching Lorant fly his Sakers made me want to acquire a female so I wrote to one of the well known hawk dealers of the day, a Mr. Chaudri Mohammed Din at 27 Railway Sidings, Lahore, Pakistan. I had been given his name and address by my good friend Doctor Supeamarmiam, head pathologist at Singapore general hospital. The doctor was one of the owners of the Buckatema race track where I had previously worked. Through his good services I finally managed to purchase a pair of Sakers Falcons from Mohammed Din”.
“It was about this time that I started to teach and give displays with Jousting and Falconry and through this work got involved with a TV unit from the BBC. Bob, the man responsible for supplying the horses for the TV and jousting unit asked me if I would be interested in flying falcons for him. He was in the process of setting up a team for weekend shows and I agreed to join him using one of his horses for my display for the first season. Due to the success of the display work it was to be continued and accordingly I brought my own horses, two beautiful Arabs. One was a young colt and the other a four year old bay gelding. So it was that Saladin, riding his full blooded Arab “Blizzard” and flying a team of falcons, came before the public. A year later I met an agent who was involved in outside shows at Country Fairs, Fetes etc and from that point on I had considerably more than twenty very enjoyable years doing display work throughout the season”.
“One winter Lorant and I had made arrangements to meet two other falconers and we duly set off to Salisbury. Here we met with Jack Mavrogordato and Dr. Del Maestro Calvetti. Jack Mavro was famous for having written “A Hawk for the Bush” and was to go on to write “A Falcon for the Field” two all time classic works on falconry. At the time Jack was flying a female Black Sparrowhawk and Dr. Calvetti two Red Naped Shaheen Falcons. We spent some very happy times together with their hawks and my Pointers”.
“In 1961 I brought a female Goshawk from a dealer at Matlock in Derbyshire due to the fact that I had access to plenty of extremely good land around the Nottingham area which had plenty of rabbits on it. From a falconer’s point of view it was ideal country with an abundance of quarry for a Goshawk. One day I went to Mansfield Cattle Market to see what was for sale in the way of horses and quite by chance I met someone else who, as it turned out, also had a Goshawk. Back in those days it was very rare to meet someone who was also interested in falconry. His name was Jack Lee and we became firm friends as falconers up until his death two years ago. In those days I was a member of the British Falconers Club but Jack would not join a clubs, he was always one of a kind. God bless you Jack”.
In 1966 I met a man called Martin Lacey and he wanted to start a Zoo at Hucknall which eventually became the Sherwood Zoo. Martin was very good with big cats. He came to see me to enquire as to whether or not I would be interested in constructing all the cages and enclosures for the Zoo, which I finally did. I also flew my falcons at weekends there and it was about this time that I started to get quite a bit more TV work. I was already doing work as “Saladin and the Arabian Falcons” which lasted over twenty five years in all. In fact in 1971 I became a full member of equity due to my regular TV appearances”.
“I have been fortunate enough to meet a lot of falconers, both in this country and abroad, and have seen a lot of changes in the world of falconry. Not all of them for the best. Over the years I have taught and helped a number of people to become falconers and it gives me great pleasure to see them working their hawks and falcons”.
“I left school in 1949 and went to work at a racing stables in Nottingham as an apprentice jockey. In September 1950, with a little help from my grandfather who was well known throughout the racing world, I transferred my papers to a major John Heddel and went to work at the Buckatema Horse Racing Club in Singapore. My job there required that I go to the track at 4am for five days each week to ride and work there. On the site there were actually 14 different tracks and I used to travel from one to another so as to ride for different owners”.
“One day I saw two Malayan boys with hooded and belled hawks on their fists as we passed them on the road. Before I had an opportunity to talk with them they turned off at the next rubber plantation. I thought it unlikely I would ever see them again but two days later I met them by chance and spoke with them. For the next eighteen months, once my work was finished I would spend my free time with them and this is where my life as a falconer started”.
“In May of 1952 I returned to the UK and because I had grown too much my chances of race riding had disappeared. I did, however, manage to find a job working with horses. I would often think about the two Malayan lads, Abdul and Nigia, in Singapore and all that I had learned about falcons. Around this time I happened to see a falcon advertised for sale in the Birmingham Post and as accordingly paid a visit to Tysley pet store. The result was that I brought my first falcon, a female Lanner, and I was extremely happy about it. I began to train her as I had so carefully been instructed by Abdul and Nigia”.
“In 1955 I got married and we moved to Nottingham. Some years later a friend told me about a man flying falcons for demonstration at Twycross Zoo. That man was none other than Lorant De Bastyai and I made arrangements to meet him. I went to see Lorant at Twycross and we became very good friends. The day I met Lorant he was giving a couple of flying displays and on seeing my Lanner Falcon “Wendy” he asked if I would fly her in one of the displays that day. I did and continued to do so for the rest of that summer. At the time Lorant was flying his two famous Sakers “Sally” and “Kisci” as part of his display team”.
“Watching Lorant fly his Sakers made me want to acquire a female so I wrote to one of the well known hawk dealers of the day, a Mr. Chaudri Mohammed Din at 27 Railway Sidings, Lahore, Pakistan. I had been given his name and address by my good friend Doctor Supeamarmiam, head pathologist at Singapore general hospital. The doctor was one of the owners of the Buckatema race track where I had previously worked. Through his good services I finally managed to purchase a pair of Sakers Falcons from Mohammed Din”.
“It was about this time that I started to teach and give displays with Jousting and Falconry and through this work got involved with a TV unit from the BBC. Bob, the man responsible for supplying the horses for the TV and jousting unit asked me if I would be interested in flying falcons for him. He was in the process of setting up a team for weekend shows and I agreed to join him using one of his horses for my display for the first season. Due to the success of the display work it was to be continued and accordingly I brought my own horses, two beautiful Arabs. One was a young colt and the other a four year old bay gelding. So it was that Saladin, riding his full blooded Arab “Blizzard” and flying a team of falcons, came before the public. A year later I met an agent who was involved in outside shows at Country Fairs, Fetes etc and from that point on I had considerably more than twenty very enjoyable years doing display work throughout the season”.
“One winter Lorant and I had made arrangements to meet two other falconers and we duly set off to Salisbury. Here we met with Jack Mavrogordato and Dr. Del Maestro Calvetti. Jack Mavro was famous for having written “A Hawk for the Bush” and was to go on to write “A Falcon for the Field” two all time classic works on falconry. At the time Jack was flying a female Black Sparrowhawk and Dr. Calvetti two Red Naped Shaheen Falcons. We spent some very happy times together with their hawks and my Pointers”.
“In 1961 I brought a female Goshawk from a dealer at Matlock in Derbyshire due to the fact that I had access to plenty of extremely good land around the Nottingham area which had plenty of rabbits on it. From a falconer’s point of view it was ideal country with an abundance of quarry for a Goshawk. One day I went to Mansfield Cattle Market to see what was for sale in the way of horses and quite by chance I met someone else who, as it turned out, also had a Goshawk. Back in those days it was very rare to meet someone who was also interested in falconry. His name was Jack Lee and we became firm friends as falconers up until his death two years ago. In those days I was a member of the British Falconers Club but Jack would not join a clubs, he was always one of a kind. God bless you Jack”.
In 1966 I met a man called Martin Lacey and he wanted to start a Zoo at Hucknall which eventually became the Sherwood Zoo. Martin was very good with big cats. He came to see me to enquire as to whether or not I would be interested in constructing all the cages and enclosures for the Zoo, which I finally did. I also flew my falcons at weekends there and it was about this time that I started to get quite a bit more TV work. I was already doing work as “Saladin and the Arabian Falcons” which lasted over twenty five years in all. In fact in 1971 I became a full member of equity due to my regular TV appearances”.
“I have been fortunate enough to meet a lot of falconers, both in this country and abroad, and have seen a lot of changes in the world of falconry. Not all of them for the best. Over the years I have taught and helped a number of people to become falconers and it gives me great pleasure to see them working their hawks and falcons”.