Queen’s Honour for club stalwart
We talk to Harry Lodge, recently awarded the BEM
HE APPOINTED angling’s most successful international manager, coached Fish O’Mania champions and introduced thousands of youngsters to the sport… Harry Lodge is one of angling’s unsung heroes.
The 82-year-old Yorkshireman was recently awarded a British Empire Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours as a reward for his services to angling, so this week Angling Times caught up with the Wakefield Angling Club chairman to find out more.
Q: Why have you been awarded the BEM? A: I run fortnightly sessions for disadvantaged children and anglers with learning difficulties, and have been teaching kids the art of fishing for over 40 years. I also worked in the Competition Committee of the National Federation of Anglers for many years, helping to organise and run hundreds of events.
Q: How did you feel when you found out you’d been honoured by the Queen? A: Extremely proud. My neighbour put me forward for the award. I never expected anything like this and I have never done anything to get anything back. I just love fishing.
Q: What famous anglers have you worked with in your time? A: In a coaching sense I have helped Andy Jennings, who has won Fish O’Mania, and John Dunhill, current captain of Drennan Barnsley Blacks. Working for the NFA and fishing in big events, I have met and fished against lots of World Champions and famous people from outside fishing.
Q: What has been your best-ever decision? A: As chairman of the NFA Competition Committee I was part of a small group who appointed Dick Clegg as England manager back in the 1984.
Q: As well as teaching thousands of kids, what other things have you done for the sport? A: In the 42 years I have been Wakefield chairman I have helped turn the club from a dwindling society to a 1000-plus strong group with hundreds of thousands of pounds’ worth of assets, including some fantastic waters which we own outright. I’ve also done a lot of work with the community and raised thousands of pounds to improve the habitat on several venues.
Q: What was your most memorable fishing match? A: I would have to say when I was refereeing an Enniskillen Festival event in Northern Ireland back in
1984, but for the wrong reasons. An IRA terrorist bomb killed four soldiers who were fishing in the match, and being First Aid trained I had to help dozens of others who were injured in the blast.
Q: Do you do much fishing yourself? A: Of course. I have fished matches for years, including appearing in more than 30 National Angling
Champs for Wakefield and as a guest for Thornhill AC – but I don’t fish as much now.
Q: What don’t you like about angling today? A: There is a lot of negativity on social media these days and it’s not good for the sport. People find it easy to sit behind a computer screen and leave nasty comments, and that’s not good.
“My neighbour put me forward for the award. I never expected anything like this”