Shooting Times & Country Magazine
Gamekeepers old and new rewarded for their work
Gamekeepers at the start and the end of their careers were celebrated for their commitment to the profession with awards at the Midland Game Fair this month
Trainee keeper Jack Depledge from North Yorkshire has won the National Gamekeepers’ Organisation (NGO) Frank Jenkins Memorial Trophy.
The award is given to the best gamekeeping student or apprentice of the year and is named for the late Frank Jenkins, a respected gamekeeper.
NGO chairman Liam Bell presented the award to 18-yearold Jack at the Midland Game Fair earlier this month.
Described as a “model student” by his lecturers, Jack completed his full-time studies this summer at Newton Rigg College in Cumbria. He has now been employed as a trainee keeper in the Angus Glens.
“I am overjoyed to have won the 2017 NGO Frank Jenkins Memorial Trophy,” he said. “The award will stand me in good stead on my career path. I am not from a keepering family; I started beating at about five years old when my dad joined a small syndicate in North Yorkshire. It led to me becoming a regular beater on a commercial shoot, and helping them at weekends.
“I love the grouse moors in Scotland where I’m working as a trainee keeper, and hope to be a headkeeper one day.”
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Jack was not the only keeper honoured at the Midland Game Fair this year, as the NGO unveiled its new Long Service Award.
There were six recipients of the accolade, recognising full-time gamekeepers, stalkers and gillies with 40 or more years of employment. They were:
Ian Garfoot, 61, headkeeper at Westwick estate in Norfolk; Steven Hamar, 56, headkeeper on the Bulland shoot, near Taunton; Kevin Hubbard, 64, who is retired after a career including three decades spent at the Lower Lodge shoot in West Sussex; Godfrey Pitman, 59, who retired after many years at Druids Lodge estate in Wiltshire; Alec Throup, 57, from Bolton Abbey in North Yorkshire; and Michael Warren, 67, who is also retired but spent many years working at Sandling Park in Kent.
Mr Bell shared his admiration for the winners: “As a working keeper with significantly fewer than 40 years’ service, I feel honoured to have been able to present the NGO Long Service Award to my peers, as I know the tremendous commitment that these individuals have made to keepering and to managing our countryside, which would be a far poorer place without them.”