A 1913 MYRA Trophy

Trophy-front Trophy-back

 

A little while ago eBay, that box of delights, produced the offer of a medal awarded to one of the competitors in the 12-metre championship of the Southern Branch of the Model Yacht Racing Association run in 1913. Having warned off colleagues in the Vintage Group who might have bid against me, I secured it against slight opposition for a relatively modest sum. I suppose that technically this might be regarded as rigging the auction by the formation of a ‘ring’, but it seemed important that this item should not be left to fall into the possession of outsiders who might not understand the importance of this unique artefact.

It is unique in the sense that it is the only direct link that we have with MYRA, the direct predecessor of the MYA. No records have survived and until this medal turned up, we didn’t even know that MYRA had had a flag. It is possible that some of the oldest trophies, such as the Scrutton Cup, may date from the days of MYRA, but I think this may not be the case.

The medal looks silvery and is solid metal, not plate, but it isn’t hall marked and I am not sure that that it is silver. It won’t make a mark on paper like an old silver coin, so it may be some sort of nickel or nickel-silver. It is circular and about 29 mm in diameter and 1 mm thick. It is composed of two separate pieces, a flat disc which carries the engraving, front and back, and a smaller central disc, about 19 mm in diameter, which carries an enamelled representation of the MYRA flag.

The front (or obverse, if we are being technical) carries the circular inscription ’12 metre Southern Branch Championship’ and the date ‘1913’ set centrally at the bottom. The style of the ‘1913 is slightly larger and slightly different from the rest of the engraving. The ’12 metre’ part of the circular inscription is also slightly different from the main text, perhaps suggesting that there was a batch of medals with standard inscriptions waiting for the appropriate class and date to be inserted.  The reverse reads simply

 Merry Widow
Gordon Minns
Solent MYC

What do we know about the Southern Branch, or about the Solent club, of which Gordon Minns was a member? Very little, though The Model Engineer carries a number of reports from the club during 1913, they don’t tell us much. The club had been founded only at the end of 1912 or very early in 1913 and sailed on the Canoe Lake at Southsea, water which they shared with the Portsmouth MYC, which, from reports in ME, had been formed a little earlier.  Certainly, Portsmouth were active during the 1912 season, when a number of club races for significant trophies are reported.

They also shared the water with a fleet of hire rowboats, which meant that access to to the water for models was limited. The Portsmouth club seem to have sailed mainly on Wednesday afternoons and it may be that The Solent was formed to cater to those who couldn’t sail on a weekday. There is some overlap of membership between the two clubs, but Portsmouth seem to have been rather more up market. Their President was the local MP, while the Solent club had to make do with the Mayor of Portsmouth. He was no minor figure, having being mayor on three separate occasions and having been Knighted at the start of his third term. The Commodore was a Lieutenant Colonel F Burgess, who was also a member of the Portsmouth club. Gordon Minns was Treasurer and the Secretary was a man called W E Crago. The ME gave his address in Telephone Road Southsea. Google map reveals this to be a modest two up, two down terrace house which further research on the net reveals to be worth about £177,000 at current values.

There are a number of reports from the Solent club during 1913. They held their inaugural club regatta on 5th March in which five 12-metres took part, one of them owned by Frank Behenna, a naval Paymaster who was active in model yachting for the first thirty years of the 20th century. They sailed inter club matches with Cowes, Gosport and Southampton and a match with Portsmouth in which four 12-m a side took part. Rather surprisingly, in all this reported activity, there is no report of the Southern Branch championship, which must have been the most important event of their season.
This is all rather frustrating and another example of how dependent we are on the accidents of what gets reported in permanent form. As mentioned above, there are no extant MYRA records of any sort, nor have any records survived of clubs that were affiliated to MYRA.

 

 

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