Jim Meads, eighty-six, was honored upon his seventy years of photographing the Peterborough Royal Foxhound Show (UK). It is surely a stunning achievement, considering that Jim first photographed the show in 1946, the year it was resumed after the end of World War II.
Jim was presented with a bronze fox in the Peterborough ring by Sir Philip Naylor-Leyland MFH, chairman of the show committee on July 20. Lord Annaly, ex-MFH and ring steward for many years at Peterborough made the announcement to the crowd during the ceremony.
The running photographer, familiar in his knee sox and loose green raincoat, who is often seen by astonished riders to be already photographing hounds at the earth as they arrive with steaming horses at the end of a long run, has been a popular figure in North America. He’s visited 186 times! In 2010, Foxhunting Life carried the story as Jim celebrated a personal (and probably a world) record by photographing his 500th hunt, this at the Loudoun Hunt West (VA).
In an interview with Horse and Hound, Jim admits to missing one show at Peterborough when, in 1969, he captained the Queen Mother’s Cricket Team on a tour of the Isle of Wight. He was substituting for National Hunt jockey David Nicholson, who had fallen and broken his leg the day before the Peterborough Show. In 1948, 1949, and 1950, he had to get special twenty-four-hour passes from the Royal Air Force in order to attend.
For photos of the presentation and more details, click to read Polly Portwin’s article in Horse and Hound.
Posted July 25, 2016
