Monday 19 October 2009

All Roads Lead To....


Donald Featherstone (at least as far as post-war UK wargaming is concerned).

I was one of probably many who were drawn into the hobby during the 1970s and 80s by pictures of Peter Gilder's wargames, and, as PG himself told us, he was introduced to wargaming by Featherstone - so in the end we are all children of The Don, so to speak....

The above scan comes from Wargamers Newsletter 146 May 1974 and i suspect the two photos will be known to you already having been published in various books and magazines over the years. They were taken during one of Don Featherstone's visits to Peter Gilder's home in Norfolk in the early months of 1964. The game depicted is ACW - and this is before Airfix released their ACW range, so most of the 20mm figures will be conversions.

Again this comes to us via Clive - who has contributed so much content recently that i may have to start paying him a salary... BTW, i welcome any and all relevant content (pictures, scans, anecdotes..whatever) as inevitably your stuff will be far more interesting than my stuff. I can be contacted via the email address in my Blogger Profile.

2 comments:

Steve-the-Wargamer said...

I'm not sure - but I believe the story goes that on a visit to PG's, Don had admired the piece of scenery he's holding in the top picture. After the game PG gave it him... I think that's why it then appears in the bottom picture which is at Don's house?

DC said...

Steve,
The same picture was printed in Miniature Wargames 17 (and Don's Wargames Campaigns) and the caption tells us it was taken during Don's first visit to PG at Scredington Suffolk - confusingly the article text implies Norfolk, and the only Scredington i am aware of is in Lincs....i think we can be sure it was taken at PG's though. Cheers.