31/01/2015 - Rest In Peace Pete Thomas 1924-2015

On hearing the news today at the passing of Peter Thomas it hit me hard, I felt I’d lost a favourite Uncle, I passed over lunch, then sat quietly looking back to the past, thinking how I would like to write as Churchill in this sad time, but the following is the best I can do written from the heart. As a teenager I looked up to the likes of Thomas, Ingham, Taylor, Venables and BB enjoying every written and spoken word from these Giants of Angling. Walker the King the other his Princes. While I and thousands of others were the Disciples.Pete Thomas was not only a great angler but a keen and excellent wildfowler, who during World War 2 served in the Fleet Air Arm as a fighter pilot. Born in 1924 he lived in Hitchin Hertfordshire a boyhood friend of Walker from a very young age, Peter caught a 14lb carp as a young teenager. It was Thomas who on the morning of June 23rd 1952 caught the second largest carp ever caught at 28lb 10 ounces. Thomas was beside Walker on that Historic morning in September 13th 1952 when Walker hooked a huge carp. I shall never forget reading the conversation between Dick Walker and Pete Thomas published in Still Water Angling and the Fishing Gazette, during the epic fight Pete said” Take it easy. Wait and see if he’ll move. Walker did. Nothing happened. He said I’ll try hand-lining’ Pete said “All right, but take it easy. That’s a big fish, you don’t want to lose it.’ Without Pete’s assistance I doubt if the carp would have been landed. In my opinion the Giants of carp angling in the early have passed on, This coming September when I visit Redmire, I will walk slow in the footsteps of those Giants from the past, it will be a special visit, probably my last to this hallowed place, using my old Mitchell 300 cane rod with silver paper or a quill float to indicate a bite. Rest in peace Peter Thomas I will never forget you.

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