English Chess Forum

Kevin Thurlow wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 03, 2017 10:46 am

I think DJ and Jean Rogers are no longer with us. I would be happy to be proved wrong of course.

We discussed earlier that DJ died in 2015 but this was only communicated to chess circles late in 2016.
We had no contact with his widow but If you look back to my posting of Tuesday you will see that she has recently been in touch with the BCCA.

Brian and I (when I get back from the World Seniors) will try to find out what Jean Rogers actually has in terms of a MS (computerised or not? how many words?), how many games, primary source info from the Thomas family, photos etc.

I am not in a position to contact the other person, Stephen Jackson, who has been researching Thomas to see what exactly he has and whether he is willing to cooperate with the Rogers project. There is also the question of whether Roger Paige (who self-published a book on Thomas several years ago, which was deficient in many respects) has collected anything further that he may be willing to contribute.

Making contact with Mr Jackson and possibly Mr Paige (who may still be a member of Edinburgh Chess Club) looks like the next step. As I am about to leave for Italy, there is no more I can contribute at this stage. So can other forum members please try to help in this regard?

"We had no contact with his widow but If you look back to my posting of Tuesday "

So you did, sorry, must have missed that one.

If you are reading this, Tim, from the World Seniors event, I am afraid that I have not had any success. My letter to Stephen Jackson has been returned as 'not at this address' and I have not had any reply to the email that I sent to the quoted address of Russell Sherwood. If you want to pursue this further, it might be best to try to contact Jean Rogers directly.

Brian Denman wrote: ↑

Fri Nov 17, 2017 11:51 am

If you are reading this, Tim, from the World Seniors event, I am afraid that I have not had any success. My letter to Stephen Jackson has been returned as 'not at this address' and I have not had any reply to the email that I sent to the quoted address of Russell Sherwood. If you want to pursue this further, it might be best to try to contact Jean Rogers directly.

I did write to Sherwood but I told him no hurry to reply as I would be away. I will try him again next week.
He is probably just sounding out Jean Rogers on what we told him, or of course he could be away on business or holiday.

I knew Stephen Jackson well. His work on George Thomas was immense but when he moved to Sussex we eventually lost touch. I told him Roger Paige had written a book on his hero and that the Rogers Family had also expressed an interest. In the end, he declared he'd publish nothing. A number of his contacts would now be dead and I read here that Stephen has moved, possibly triggered by the passing of his parents who lived with him at Bexhill. If hear from him again I'll shout but his interest in chess had zeroed.

The name Wisker crops up here. Hans Renette has, I believe, a manuscript prepared on him, but is unable to find a publisher.

I have found no evidence that Jean Rogers (née Craker) has left us. According to BT/192 she lived at 90 Park Drive, Acton, London W3 until 2019. I would be very grateful to anyone who can offer information on Jean's current whereabouts.

Sad that there will, probably, be no bio on, Sir George Thomas.

Anyway, I have a Q about him: Did he have something against C.O.H´D Alexander? In the qualification to the interzonal in Saltsjöbaden 1948, each member of the Qualification committee had 20 sets of points (from 20 to 1) to distribute among 34 candidates. Not surprisingly, a number of the delegates backed their fellow citizens and gave them more points . Hugh Alexander was an odd exception to this rule, as the British Qualification committee member, Sir George Thomas, did not award Alexander a single point.

Henrik Malm Lindberg wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 16, 2024 4:22 pm

Sad that there will, probably, be no bio on, Sir George Thomas.

I received a message from Jon Manley in October 2023 saying that he had been invited to co-write a book on Thomas (he didn't say who the other author(s) are/were). He had been touch with Paige, who had nothing further to add, and had also found out that the manuscript of John Rogers's book is in the National Badminton Museum. In response to Jon Manley''s request I supplied him with my own personal memories of Thomas, and provided him with a couple more possible contacts.

So it seems likely that there will be a bio of Thomas some time in the next few years.




S

Leonard Barden wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 16, 2024 8:38 pm

Henrik Malm Lindberg wrote: ↑

Fri Feb 16, 2024 4:22 pm

Sad that there will, probably, be no bio on, Sir George Thomas.

I received a message from Jon Manley in October 2023 saying that he had been invited to co-write a book on Thomas (he didn't say who the other author(s) are/were). He had been touch with Paige, who had nothing further to add, and had also found out that the manuscript of John Rogers's book is in the National Badminton Museum. In response to Jon Manley''s request I supplied him with my own personal memories of Thomas, and provided him with a couple more possible contacts.

So it seems likely that there will be a bio of Thomas some time in the next few years.

One would expect a book on Thomas to deal with much more than his chess prowess and, with that in mind, I would expect any competent publisher to rope in as co-authors authorities from - at the very least - the worlds of tennis and badminton.

The Paige book on Thomas has been out for ages. It is nothing special.

The Thomas book by Paige contains 1,041 games and was published in 2005.

I have the SIr George Thomas cigarette card.

Geoff Chandler wrote: ↑

Sat Feb 17, 2024 11:57 am

I have the SIr George Thomas cigarette card.

Wow!. I want one of those!

Great to hear about the coming bio on Thomas! Anybody here that also have a clue if he had something against C.O.H´D Alexander, not giving him a single point before Saltsjöbaden 1948?