2026 Recipient: Stock Illoway
Ardrossan Beagles
Quite literally, I grew up with beagles. During the 2nd World War, the Treweryn Beagles were kenneled at my grandparent’s farm – where I grew up. My mother and grandmother took care of the beagles and an uncle hunted them and was acting Master during the War. My family was very involved in foxhunting and beagling.
Bun Sharp, Master of the Treweryn, awarded me my colors in 1959 and asked me to be a whipper-in. We were hunting Kansas Jack Rabbits in those days and I could run. In 1961 Treweryn split into a private pack and a subscription pack, named Ardrossan Beagles. In 1974, Julian Marshall, chairman of our Ardrossan’s hunt committee, called to tell me I had been named Joint Master and Huntsman for the Ardrossan Beagles. I was totally surprised. I took up the horn and hunted for the next 15 years. During that time, I was asked to join the National Beagle Club Board – I was the youngest person on the Board by at least 30 years. I became President of the NBC in 1982 and could see that the grounds and the building needed a lot of work. We set about improving the grounds and involving more people by having work weekends. I also could see that we really needed to do some fund raising and got a group together to start our 501c(3) organization, The Loudoun Agricultural and Chemical Institute Foundation, Inc. That was one of my best ideas and the Foundation has done great things for the National Beagle Club grounds and its headquarters.
I decided to step back from hunting in 1989 and Julian Marshall’s son John took up the horn for a few years until he had to move for business reasons. Jeff Groff followed for a few years, but in 2001 Jeff felt that – due to time constraints – he could no longer be Huntsman, and the Chairman of the Hunt Committee asked me to carry the horn for a few years -I guess you could define 25 years as a few years! I have been assisted by various Joint Masters or Joint Huntsman during this time.
In 2003, at the request of Terry Griffin, MFH Radnor (and later President of the Hound Show) we moved the kennels from Ardrossan Farm to the Radnor Hunt. Terry asked me to join the Hound Show Board, and after a few years I became its President – a position I relinquished last year.
I have been privileged to lead several organizations having to do with hounds and have been fortunate to have a number of people to help shoulder the work at Ardrossan, the National Beagle Club and the Bryn Mawr Hound Show. I have also figured out that it was good to retire from leadership positions and pass the job on to someone else. I am now winding down my time as the Huntsman for the Ardrossan Beagles and know that I have three people who will ably lead the organization, two of them will share hunting responsibilities. I look forward to my senior status.
