Bramwell Hirst the problemist.

[MJMcCready]

Hi there, having difficulties with this one. All help appreciated. The problemist in the title frequently had his problems posted in the various newspapers circulating in Bedfordshire but I do not know if they were published in national newspapers or the BCM. I also don't know what his stature was a problemist. Could anyone help here? Ever heard of him? Where did you see his problems?

[John Upham]

Hi there, having difficulties with this one. All help appreciated. The problemist in the title frequently had his problems posted in the various newspapers circulating in Bedfordshire but I do not know if they were published in national newspapers or the BCM. I also don't know what his stature was a problemist. Could anyone help here? Ever heard of him? Where did you see his problems?

I'd contact Brian Stephenson at the BCPS if I were you.

[MJMcCready]

Thanks.

[Gerard Killoran]

perhaps Leonard Barden could be of help...

From the Luton News and Bedfordshire Chronicle - Wednesday 29 August 1990 p.23

The composer was Bram Hirst of Dunstable, referred to by Leonard Barden, chess correspondent of The Guardian, Financial Times, Standard and The Field, as “a warm and friendly man; many of his problems were brilliant and original. His name and reputation will be remembered”. Diagrams of problems are printed in millions in the press of the world; from Barden this is indeed high praise.

[Richard James]

If you're searching for problems, Brian Stephenson's MESON chess problem database is a good place to start.

He has two Hirst problems. You'll notice that the second of them is cooked: there is an unwanted second solution.

http://www.bstephen.me.uk/meson/gen_sea ... rce=&quot=

I also checked YACPDB, but that only had the cooked Guardian #3.

[Richard James]

Full name: Walter Bramwell Hirst born 15-09-1913 Nuneaton died 07-1989 Dunstable. I'd guess from his name that the family were involved with the Salvation Army.

Also worth looking at the Problemist website, selecting the publications and then drilling down to the indexes. I've looked at a few but haven't found anything yet.

[Gerard Killoran]

From Luton News and Bedfordshire Chronicle - Wednesday 26 July 1989 p.23

Chess By T. W. Sweby

IN a chess magazine dated 1947 a page of cartoons showed nine stalwarts of the Bedfordshire v Hertfordshire match of that year. All were signed “Hugo”. Few linked the artist with Walter Bramwell Hirst, a Dunstable player who had memorised attitudes at the board and conveyed them later to paper. Bram Hirst, the quiet, reserved retired teacher whose funeral took place last Friday at Dunstable Priory, was a man of 'many talents. Chess problems composed by him have appeared here and in Australia and Canada and he was equally at home with painting and with the creation of wall pictures of minute mosaic artistry.
Born in Yorkshire, he went to Canada as a child and in recent years wrote a book of his life there. On his return he trained as a teacher at Orpington and joined the staff at Beechwood Junior School, Luton. We met in the fire service in war-torn London, where Bram won the first Divisional Championship and when peace came he won the 1945 Blackpool First Class Tourney. At Beechwood, Bram taught a stream of young enthusiasts who later went on to represent their senior schools in the Luton League.
He also taught French at Challney Evening Institute and in 50 years of friendship I never ceased to marvel at the ability with which he dealt with abstruse mathematical problems, though he was as happy at the snooker table as he was with mental activity. His chess problems were often done on scraps of paper or even on the backs of old envelopes and it can only be hoped that somewhere will be found copies of them to add to those we have printed through the years.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

That is a lovely find by Gerard. And being interested in who T. W. Sweby was, I ended up at this 2015 article by MJMcCready:

https://mccreadyandchess.co.uk/tag/tom-sweby/

(Some of the memories in the recent comments from 2022 and 2023 are great!)

Not to detract from Bramwell Hirst, but do we have full name and dates for Sweby? It is lovely to read that they were friends for five decades.

[Roger de Coverly]

https://mccreadyandchess.co.uk/tag/tom-sweby/

It features a manic game by Roger Parry against myself. In it he offers to sacrifice a Bishop for a phantom pawn. Engine analysis suggests Black could have defended until somewhat later in the game. I later used the idea of the phantom pawn grab/sac for myself as a weapon in Bg5 Najdorfs. The opening play is somewhat derivative of the then recently published Fischer's 60 Memmorable Games.

[SetUp "1"] [FEN "2b1k2r/2q3pp/p2ppbP1/1Bn5/1r1NP3/2N2Q2/1PP4P/2KR2R1 b k - 2 19"]
[Event "County match"] [Site ""] [Date "1971.??.??"] [Round "?"] [White "Parry,RA"] [Black "de Coverly,RD"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "B99"] 1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 a6 6.Bg5 e6 7.f4 Be7 8.Qf3 Qc7 9.O-O-O Nbd7 10.g4 b5 11.Bxf6 Nxf6 12.g5 Nd7 13.a3 Rb8 14.f5 Nc5 15.Rg1 b4 16.axb4 Rxb4 17.fxe6 fxe6 18.g6 Bf6 19.Bb5+ Bd7 20.e5 Bxe5 21.Nc6 Bxc6 22.Bxc6+ Kd8 23.gxh7 Rf4 24.Qe3 Ke7 25.Nd5+ exd5 26.Rxg7+ Rf7 27.Qg5+ Bf6 28.Re1+ Ne4 29.Rxf7+ Kxf7 30.Bxd5+ Kf8 31.Qg8+ Ke7 32.Rxe4+ 1-0

[Gerard Killoran]

That is a lovely find by Gerard. And being interested in who T. W. Sweby was, I ended up at this 2015 article by MJMcCready:

https://mccreadyandchess.co.uk/tag/tom-sweby/

(Some of the memories in the recent comments from 2022 and 2023 are great!)

Not to detract from Bramwell Hirst, but do we have full name and dates for Sweby? It is lovely to read that they were friends for five decades.

From Luton News and Bedfordshire Chronicle - Wednesday 30 December 1998 p.2

2024-11-24 02_17_25-Master Of Chess Tom Sweby Dies _ Luton News and Bedfordshire Chronicle.png (474.79 KiB) Viewed 989 times

[MJMcCready]

Yes many thanks for all this? I am focusing on who within Bedfordshire reached a national audience presently, and although Bramwell Hirst had his problems published by Tom Sweby regularly I dont know if they were published beyond our county borders, and this is what I am trying to establish. Ive never been a fan of chess problems, so it's tougher than I thought.

[MJMcCready]

Full name: Walter Bramwell Hirst born 15-09-1913 Nuneaton died 07-1989 Dunstable. I'd guess from his name that the family were involved with the Salvation Army.

Also worth looking at the Problemist website, selecting the publications and then drilling down to the indexes. I've looked at a few but haven't found anything yet.

How so that the salvation army may be in play?

[Richard James]

Full name: Walter Bramwell Hirst born 15-09-1913 Nuneaton died 07-1989 Dunstable. I'd guess from his name that the family were involved with the Salvation Army.

Also worth looking at the Problemist website, selecting the publications and then drilling down to the indexes. I've looked at a few but haven't found anything yet.

How so that the salvation army may be in play?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bramwell_Booth

The name Bramwell was often used by parents in the Salvation Army for their sons in honour of Bramwell Booth.

[John Townsend]

I would have thought the forename "Bramwell" is common enough that there is no need to associate it with the Salvation Army, unless Richard knows of a specific link in this instance.

I assume the forename is derived from the surname Bramall (variants Bramhall, Brammall, Brameld, Bramah, etc.) which has been used in England since medieval times. Prof. P.H. Reaney in A Dictionary of British Surnames notes that some of these variants are common in Sheffield, which has a Bramall Lane.

The problemist under consideration went to school in Huddersfield (was it under H.E. Atkins?), where there seems to be another concentration, though I note that Richard says he was born in Nuneaton.

Incidentally, I would be interested to know Richard's source for "Full name: Walter Bramwell Hirst born 15-09-1913 Nuneaton". Free BMD (acknowledged with thanks) gives the 1989 entry in the death index with d.o.b. as 10 September 1913, while the birth indexes for Richard's 1913 Nuneaton birth (Walter B. Hirst) place the registration in the December quarter of 1913.

[Richard James]

I would have thought the forename "Bramwell" is common enough that there is no need to associate it with the Salvation Army, unless Richard knows of a specific link in this instance.

I assume the forename is derived from the surname Bramall (variants Bramhall, Brammall, Brameld, Bramah, etc.) which has been used in England since medieval times. Prof. P.H. Reaney in A Dictionary of British Surnames notes that some of these variants are common in Sheffield, which has a Bramall Lane.

The problemist under consideration went to school in Huddersfield (was it under H.E. Atkins?), where there seems to be another concentration, though I note that Richard says he was born in Nuneaton.

Incidentally, I would be interested to know Richard's source for "Full name: Walter Bramwell Hirst born 15-09-1913 Nuneaton". Free BMD (acknowledged with thanks) gives the 1989 entry in the death index with d.o.b. as 10 September 1913, while the birth indexes for Richard's 1913 Nuneaton birth (Walter B. Hirst) place the registration in the December quarter of 1913.

My guess about the Salvation Army was correct: the 1911 census confirms that his father, also Walter, was a Salvation Army Captain. He was born in Longwood, now a suburb of Huddersfield, not surprisingly as Hirst was originally a name particularly associated with that part of Yorkshire. In 1911 he and his wife were living in Cottenham, near Cambridge.

His d.o.b. is indeed given as 10 September 1913 on his death certificate, but in the 1939 Register, when he was living in Dunstable and working as a sales clerk for a rubber company, it's clearly printed at 15 September 1913. I don't know for certain which is correct. Births were often registered several weeks after the actual birth. For example, my mother was born on 29 November 1921 but her birth was registered in Q1 1922. It wouldn't be at all unusual for a birth on 10 September to be registered in Q4.

Walter senior would no doubt have moved around quite a lot as part of his job. It seems he was briefly near Cambridge, then near Nuneaton. By the time of the 1921 census he was in Fleetwood, Lancashire, but Bramwell wasn't at home with him, nor does he show up anywhere else very obvious. He died back in Huddersfield in 1931.

Intriguingly, I've found a ship's passenger record from 1933, with a 19-year-old Bramwell Hirst, from Huddersfield, travelling from Calcutta back to England, described as a stowaway being repatriated to the UK. I can't find any other Bramwell Hirsts of the right age, so it seems highly likely that this was him.

(Another rather later example of a Bramwell is the folk singer Bramwell (known as Bram) Taylor, born in 1951 of Salvation Army parents. For many years it was, and, for all I know, may still be, a popular given name for SA families.)