Remembrance

 
Harold Vincent “Hal” Barry, MFH of the Bear Creek Hounds (GA), passed away at age eighty-two on May 31, 2022, at Piedmont Hospital in Newnan, Georgia.

His passing came on the day after the Virginia Foxhound Show, which had resumed after two years of cancellations due to the Covid pandemic. Hal was able to catch up with many of his foxhunting friends after the long separation, but sadly for the last time.

Martin Letts, MFH  /    photo courtesy of Daphne Wood, MFH

John Martin Letts died February 28, 2022, at the age of eighty-eight, still fulfilling his position as a Master of the College Valley/North Northumberland Foxhounds (UK). Appointed Master in 1964, he held the position for fifty-eight seasons.

His hounds hunt the hill country of the English/Scottish Border. A highly regarded hound breeder, the bloodlines of his Fell/Modern English crosses are to be found in many hunt kennels today in Britain, Ireland, and America. He was formerly huntsman of the pack, which he skillfully bred and assembled. Martin Letts was well-known in North America and frequently judged the major hound shows here.

James Barclay, MFH, hunting the Fitzwilliam hounds, 1993

We are deeply saddened to report the passing of Maurice James Barclay, ex-MFH, at age sixty-two. His death is attributed to heart failure.

After serving as Master of five British foxhound packs, his response to Britain’s Hunting Act of 2004 was to devote himself to educating and persuading everyone he could reach―whether pro-hunting or anti-hunting, adult or child, wealthy countryman or underprivileged child of the city―of foxhunting’s intrinsic value to England’s story-book countryside. To James, nothing was more important than saving the countryside.

Douglas Lees photo

Mildred Gulick Riddell, MFH of the Old Dominion Hounds (VA) from 1982 to 1992, died on December 4, 2021, at the age of 97. Born in 1924 at the Columbia Hospital for Women in Washington D.C., she lived most of her life at Redwood in Casanova, Virginia, the farm bought for her mother as a wedding gift by her grandfather, James Strother of Carrington in Delaplane.

Catherine Power photo

The recent passing of Lady Melissa Brooke has been recognised with obituaries in both the local and sporting press, but her main passion in life warranted only a passing mention. She was a dyed-in-the-wool foxhunter with a life-long connection to the County Limerick Foxhounds.

She had spent the war years in New York where her American-born mother had taken the children―Melissa, Caroline (now the Marchioness of Waterford), and Thady (later the Earl of Dunraven) during hostilities.

Douglas Lees photo

The loss of John “Jake” Carle on Sunday, February 28, 2021, was a blow to the North American foxhunting community. A former Master and huntsman, Jake continued to be active and immensely valuable as a foxhound judge, reporter, photographer, and statesman. He was eighty-two.

Masters Ken and Arle Adams, Palm Beach Hounds in the 1980s

Wellington, Florida pioneer and a founder of the Palm Beach Hounds, Kenneth Adams, died after a prolonged illness on Wednesday, November 11, 2020. He was ninety.

Ken served with his late wife, Arle, as the first Masters of the Palm Beach Hounds from its inception in 1980 to 1990. He was huntsman for most of that period.

A retired U.S. Air Force Major, Ken sold his chain of True Value Hardware stores in upstate New York to settle with Arle in Palm Beach County, Florida. The couple made their home in the Little Ranches neighborhood in 1978, where they kept horses and foxhounds. Ken started the first foxhunt in Wellington with the help of fellow Wellington pioneer A.W. “Bink” Glisson in the then-undeveloped area that came to be known as Bink’s Forest.

 Douglas Lees photo

Larry Leon LeHew, ex-MFH of the Rappahannock Hunt (VA) and later the Thornton Hill Hounds (VA), passed away at his home, Bel Air, in Front Royal, Virginia, on Friday, October 23, 2020. He was eighty-three.

Born February 14, 1937 in Front Royal, Larry was a direct descendant of Peter LeHew, accredited with the founding of LeHewtown, which later became Front Royal. The LeHew family at one time owned much of the land which includes modern Front Royal.

Oakleigh B. Thorne, sportsman, philanthropist, and businessman, known for his quick wit and irreverent personality, died on October 7, 2020 at his home in Millbrook, New York. He was 88 years old.

“Oakleigh came from the family that, more than any other, was instrumental in establishing the Millbrook Hunt as we know it today,” said Farnham F. Collins, ex-MFH.

Douglas Lees photoRobert Allen Kinsley, MFH of the Elkridge-Harford Hunt (MD), passed away peacefully at his Pennsylvania home on Wednesday morning, June 10, 2020. He was surrounded by his wife Anne (Whalen) Kinsley and his family.

Bob loved his time in the hunting field and on the wooded trails of his farms—riding, fishing, and hunting. He will be remembered for his unfailing love for animals. He created an amazingly successful business, was a hunting member of the Elkridge-Harford Hunt for thirty years, served as Joint-Master for sixteen years, and he ran steeplechase horses.