A brief obituary – Douglas Pirie former Clerk of the Course at Northaw
We have all been saddened by the recent passing of Douglas Pirie, who for many, epitomised the whole essence of point-to-point racing.
Douglas passionately lived and breathed the sport and with his sister Gillian was involved with Northaw races from 1968 and they both took over the running of the meetings after the death of their father, John, in 2000.
A former jockey himself, as depicted in the accompanying photo that was used on the front cover of the racecard for the ‘50th Anniversary of Racing at Northaw’ meeting held on May 1st 2017. Douglas is seen winning the Adjacent Hunt’s Maiden at the first meeting in May 1968.
Douglas was Chairman of the Northaw Committee and Clerk of the Course at the course, latterly sharing duties with Simon Andrews who has many memories of Douglas. “ He put so much into Northaw and always manged to rally round plenty of the Hunt community to come and help with the running of the meetings.” Simon recalls “The Northaw course had a small pond available for irrigation but one year, once all the pond facilities had been used, Douglas cheekily “tapped into” a nearby roadside water hydrant to boost the watering requirements ! “ In Simon’s opinion , Douglas had the watering of the course, when necessary, down to tee.
Former EA Area Chairman Stephen Howlett, who enjoyed many days stewarding with Douglas, described him as “ a lovely, wise man, passionate about point-to-pointing and had a great presence at meetings. A more genuine man you could not wish to know.”
Simon Marriage always enjoyed stewarding with Douglas and remembers him “for his immaculate manners and dress sense. A wise man and very generous with the disposal of course equipment after the closing Northaw, which we were able to make use of at High Easter.”
Other comments posted on Facebook echo similar sentiments:-
“lovely man” “very kind gentleman” “lovely character”
“a true gentleman and absolute pleasure to have known him”
“such a gentleman and a great supporter of our sport”
Douglas will be sorely missed at future meetings but will be remembered fondly for his contribution to the East Anglian point-to-point scene.
Douglas’ funeral will take place at Waveney Crematorium, Beccles on Monday August 17th at 12pm.
