Skip to main content

Ken Baily

Ken Baily was the England football and rugby cheerleader for three decades and Bournemouth Football Club mascot from the 1950s.

An eccentric character and lifelong bachelor, he had a love of trifle and in his spare time could be seen riding his bicycle around the town dressed as either Winston Churchill or the Emperor of Ethiopia, Haile Selassie. As a cheerleader, he was recognisable in his trademark costume of Union Jack waistcoat, scarlet tails, white gloves and top hat. When meeting royalty, Prince Charles is said to have once remarked ‘where did you escape from?’ He is also the only man to become both a Freeman of Bournemouth and a Subbuteo figure.

Ken Baily was a keen runner and swimmer and maintained his fitness by regular sea bathing. This included regular dips in the Bournemouth briny on Christmas Day and on New Year’s Eve. He worked as a clerical assistant in a Bournemouth telephone exchange and also wrote a gossip column for a local newspaper using the pen name Genevieve. He was able to finance his cheerleader travelling after the receipt of an inheritance. In 1937, he had run from Bournemouth to Paris in 36 hours. Baily ran the 32 miles to Southampton where he boarded an ocean liner for Cherbourg. Throughout the crossing, he kept running around the deck. Then he ran the 213 miles onto Paris. Asked why he had done this, he replied ‘just to prove it could be done.’

In 1939, he ran non-stop across the Atlantic Ocean on the deck of the SS Bremen as a member of a four man team. They carried a message to US President Roosevelt requesting his support should war break out between Britain and Germany. In 1948, he was one of the torchbearers at the London Olympics. Ken Baily would regularly join up with carnival processions across Dorset and one year he dressed up as a Rubik’s cube.

In 1982, he tried to cover up the ample cleavage of streaker, Erica Roe with a union jack when she ran topless across the Twickenham rugby pitch. He was an ardent royalist and would follow the queen around the country to be present at formal engagements. In support of the England football team, it is reckoned he travelled almost 200,000 miles and visited 40 countries.

Ken Henry Baily was born in Burnham on Sea in Somerset on the 8th August 1911 and died in a Bournemouth nursing home on the 10th December 1993.

(Illustration: Ken Baily  & Erica Roe at Twickenham in 1982.)

 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Chimney Sweep Tragedy

Crown Hotel, Blandford is reckoned to be one of Dorset’s oldest hostelries. Yet its most tragic day, during a long history, must surely be when a young chimney sweep lost his life. The chimney sweep, who was just a child, suffocated and was burnt to death in a Crown Hotel chimney which had been alight a little while before. ‘His cries were dreadful and no-one could give assistance. Part of the chimney was taken down before he was got out.’ (Salisbury & Winchester Gazette 27th March 1780) The lad had gone up one chimney and attempting to go down another had become stuck. At the time children were used to climb up chimneys to clean out soot deposits. With hands and knees, they would shimmy up narrow dark flue spaces packed thick with soot and debris. After the 1731 Great Fire of Blandford it was realised that it was important to sweep chimneys regularly while many rebuilt houses had narrower ones. Smaller chimneys and complicated flues were a potential death trap for children. The sw
2 comments
Read more

True Lovers Knot - a Tragic Tale

True Lovers Knot public house describes itself as a traditional  inn set in a picturesque Dorset valley in Tarrant Keynston. Yet, this historical hostelry is said to have gained its name from a particularly tragic tale and still to be haunted by a distressed former publican. This publican’s son met and fell in love with the daughter of the local squire. Because the young lad was not from the gentry they decided to keep their relationship secret from her father. Unfortunately, a stable hand saw the two young lovers together and told her father. Set firmly against this friendship the squire made plans to send his daughter away from the district. Not able to face up to life without her boyfriend, the young girl decided to commit suicide and hanged herself from a tree in the village. So upset was the publican’s son of hearing of his girlfriend’s death he too hanged himself from the same tree. The Tarrant Keynston publican had, himself lost his wife at child birth and now losing his son b
3 comments
Read more

Tarrant Rushton's Nuclear Secret

Tarrant Rushton was a large RAF base used for glider operations during World War II. It was then taken over by Flight Refuelling for the conversion of aircraft for the development of aircraft in-flight refuelling. However, between 1958 & 1965, the Tarrant Rushton airfield had a much more secretive and less publicised role. This was in support of the nation’s nuclear bomber deterrent, as Tarrant Rushton airfield became a QRA (Quick Reaction Alert) dispersal unit.   During 1958, contractors Costain reinforced the main runway and carried out other work to ensure the giant bomber aircraft could be accommodated. At times just a few miles from Blandford, there would have been up to four RAF Vickers Valiant bombers at Tarrant Rushton ready to become airborne in minutes charged with nuclear weapons. The bombers were from 148 Squadron at RAF Marham in Norfolk. As there was no suitable accommodation at the airfield, an old US Air Force Hospital building at Martin was used. At the time, the
8 comments
Read more