A presentation was made to equestrian photographer Jim Meads at the Festival of Hunting to mark his 70th year of photographing the Peterborough Royal Foxhound Show.
Sir Philip Naylor-Leyland MFH, chairman of the show committee, presented Jim with a bronze fox on 20 July, in recognition of his commitment to the show, to applause from the crowd gathered around the show ring.
Lord Annaly, a former master and ring steward at Peterborough for many years, who made the announcements during the presentation, said: “Both myself and many of those around this ring hope you will continue to return for a number of years to come.”
Jim, who recently celebrated his 86th birthday, told H&H: “My first visit to the show was in 1946, the first show after the war.
“In 1948, 1949 and 1950, I had to get a special 24-hour pass out from the Royal Air Force in order to attend.
“I’ve only missed one show since 1946 and that was in 1969 when I was playing cricket for the Queen Mother’s cricket team. National Hunt jockey David Nicholson had a fall the day before the foxhound show and broke his leg so I had to captain the team on a tour to the Isle of Wight, and missed the show.”
Jim, who has written a number of books and photographed more than 500 packs of hounds, has visited America 186 times where he enjoys a great relationship with many masters of hounds. According to Jim he has “loved every visit” to the country.
Married to Pauline for over 60 years, Jim was once H&H’s in-house photographer. He fondly recalls receiving a call from Michael Clayton in 1973, explaining that he was to become the editor and asking Jim to be his photographer.
“I’ve been lucky enough to have several images featured on the front cover, the first back in 1958,” Jim said.
“Also, it was on the cover of an issue featuring one of my images that the first ever bar code was printed.”
