- 1945-08-CHESS-alfred-hirsch-.jpg (200.26 KiB) Viewed 2335 times
At first I was puzzled by the reference to him winning the "Major Tournament in the Eastern Congress of 1940"* but then figured it was a misprint for Easter; and A Hirsch did indeed win the London Major Tournament, played at the National Chess Centre in March 1940. It was the third in ranking order of ten all-play-alls which were held during the London Easter Congress. BCM, May 1940, p157, tells us that A Hirsch scored 8/9 ahead of (2) J Hobbs 7.5; (3-4) A J Duke, H R S Heath 5.5; (5-6) Capt. E A Beamish, A F Stammwitz 4.5; (7) A D Whyte 4; (8) S H Brocklesby 3; (9) J A Stewart 2; (10) H Fitzerman 0.5.
Then the gratitude expressed to "Mr J Jackson of Wigton and Mr A White of Bristol". Buckinghamshire, Wigton and Bristol could hardly be further apart so it looks like Hirsch has been all over the country, perhaps when interned as an alien shortly after coming to the UK. But perhaps Messrs. Jackson and White's services were conducted by post (e.g. letters of introduction to help him with his employment, etc).
I've looked into this myself but am no further forward as regards identifying the A Hirsch (Finchley) of the 1956 Grading List (incidentally, he's also in the 1961 list, once again as A Hirsch (Finchley) but having descended to the 4b grading category). There are two Bucks-resident candidates, however: one is Alfred Hirsch, residing in High Wycombe, Bucks, at the 1939 Census, occupation given as "private means - refugee". However, his d.o.b. was 23 June 1888 (single) so he falls outside the age parameters. (Not relevant to our search but a quite extraordinary, almost Plaskettian, coincidence here: the next person on the census list after this Alfred Hirsch, lodging in the same property, was my 1963/64 form master at High Wycombe Royal Grammar School, Mervyn M Davies, a delightful man of whom I have the fondest memories.) The second Bucks-resident A Hirsch (found in the internment records) was Alfred Hirsch, d.o.b. 22 April 1904, Vienna, living in Beaconsfield, Bucks, in 1939, current occupation = domestic servant, normal occupation = traveller - corn. That last detail is the problem this time, but maybe CHESS got it wrong, or else Hirsch found a new trade after the war. This Alfred Hirsch died in Newmarket, Cambridgeshire, in 1981.
The name Hirsch is more common than one might think in the UK. I've found another candidate, Albert Hirsch, who took part in the Irish Correspondence Chess Championship in 1945/46; one report of this event gave his place of residence as London. A game of his appeared in the Belfast Newsletter for 29 August 1945, losing to WJ Allen.
* edited to add the info about A Hirsch winning the 1940 London Major
