Bannerman Cup and Wycombe nurses: Readers respond to questions in our recent nostalgia pages

Initially this was under the heading of Dewey-Eyed Years and then as pages with the title Nostalgia.

The greatest satisfaction I get from doing this is when readers respond, normally providing further information relevant to an article. Just occasionally the response is to comment on the accuracy of something I have written!

The response has not declined during the “Lockdown” the country is now facing.

If anything it has increased, no doubt reflecting the fact that many people have a bit more time to write or email their information.

This week I will describe some of this feedback I have received to recent articles.

The Bannerman Cup

As described in articles in the Nostalgia page on March 20 and April 3 this cup was donated to the Wycombe Phoenix Harriers athletics club by Walter Bannerman.

He was one of two brothers who were both doctors and whose surgery was in Oxford Rd, High Wycombe. The Bannerman cup was to be awarded annually to the winner of a 10 mile handicap road race for men who worked in the town’s factories. The article ended with an appeal for further information about the cup, those who won it, and its present whereabouts.

Several readers have responded to that appeal. Steve Baskerville, who was a member of the Harriers, took part in a race for the Bannerman Cup as recently as 1975.

A flu epidemic restricted the number of entries in that year to just seven and the race was won by Peter Thompson, whose handicap was 14 minutes.

The Bucks Free Press featured a picture of the contestants as they approached the finishing line. They are left to right in the picture Mike Taylor, Peter Thompson, Steve Baskerville himself and Mike Moss.

Reader Roger Smith remembered that the cup was last competed for about 20 years ago, but the cup he remembers is different to the one shown in the Nostalgia article on March 3.

Therefore there were presumably two Bannerman Cups, for different competitions. Roger remembered that the course for the 10 mile race began from the Harrier’s clubhouse in Keep Hill Road, along to Loudwater via Kingsmead Rd, and back to the clubhouse via the A40 London Rd.

That distance is 5 miles, so the race was twice round this circuit.

Another reader rang in to say that his father Eric Simmons won the Gold Medal and the Bannerman Cup in 1922 and received prizes of a watch and chain.

Eric also won the Gold Medal in the 1923 Berks, Bucks & Oxon cross country, and in the 1924 North of the Thames cross country, races. Eric’s brother Cecil was a member of the Wycombe Wanderers team who won the Amateur Cup in 1931.

It is believed that the Bannerman cup(s) remain in existence but the location is still unknown. If any reader has further information I would be grateful if they would contact me on 01628 525207 or email deweymiked@aol.com.

Nurses at Wycombe Hospital

In the picture montage page on April 3 we showed five pictures taken at different locations of nurses who worked locally. The caption for one of these explained that the location was unknown.

Reader Liz Johncock has responded to say that the group of nurses in the picture were in the third year of their training, as can be judged by the type of cap they are wearing. The picture was taken at Wycombe General Hospital in the early 1970s.

Liz believes that the West Indies lady centre front could be Nurse Daniels who later became Ward sister on Ward 5A, Women’s Surgical. Liz started working as a staff nurse in 1976 on night duty on ward 5A.

Liz continues “It was said that she sent half her salary to assist her family back home from day one of her training. She was an excellent role model for her student nurses and expected very high standards from both the students and trained nurses.

She was much liked and admired by both patients and staff. Sister Daniels retired from Wycombe General Hospital and went back to her home in the West Indies, I believe in the early 1990s.”