TO SOME they were considered a pest, but to one Southampton man, the town’s pigeons were some of his best friends.

People who popped off to enjoy a spot of lunch at St Michael’s Square in Southampton in January, 1953 would nearly always encounter William Dear.

When Mr Dear arrived at St Michael’s Square it would invariably be empty, but within a minute of his arrival the air would be full of fluttering, wheeling pigeons, all diving at the bird man and his bicycle.

To the pigeons, the entrance of Mr Dear meant just one thing—lunch.

It all started some months earlier when Mr Dear, 42-year-old dock worker and a pigeon-fancier from boyhood, went to the square seeking a missing bird.

Not only did he find his own but a few more with racing markings from places all over the country.

From that moment on Mr Dear, who confessed to an Echo reporter at the time that, “I’ve always got a bit of corn and bread to spare”, continued to pay regular lunchtime visits to the Square.

He found many birds with identity rings and traced the owners through the National Homing Union. When owners wanted the birds back Mr Dear obliged, and often at his own expense.

If any of the contacted owners were disinterested, the birds would find their way to Mr Dear’s own loft along with many other re-homed pigeons, including birds from France and Holland.

Daily Echo:

Mr Dear, who lived at 28, Richmond-street, Southampton, also kept a notebook containing details of his visits to the square.

Every day he would spend a large part of his lunch-hour devoting his time to feeding his feathered friends, which was quite a sacrifice – even for a pigeon fancier, but the birds seemed to appreciate it.

The rapturous greeting of the birds as they scrambled over his arms, shoulders and bicycle was quite an experience.

When asked why so many pigeons had flocked to greet him Mr Dear revealed that the pigeons had also been enticed to the square by men from the nearby lodging house who had also been feeding them regularly.

Over the years many other pigeons had joined the original flock and now there was more than one colony in the town.

The life expectancy of the pigeons was also considerably longer than previously estimated, according to Mr Dear shortly after he was reunited with one of his feathered favourites.

He said: “I always thought that a bird could not possibly live for more than two or three years outside.’ The other day, though, I found a six-year-old bird – and it had been lost when a few months old.”