Orkney Image Library

I've responded separately to Mr Twiname's email request, with the little I remember about the Birkenhead Boys' Club team above. They certainly visited Orkney, but a year or two later than 1948 I'd say - as a Stromness Shopping week attraction probably. Their trainer/coach (extreme left) was an Orkneyman I believe; unforgivably I've forgotten his name. During our very brief acquaintanceship he showed me how to go from a seated position to a handstand on a kitchen chair, which became my 'party trick' (on appropriate occasions - mostly) until my 60th birthday.
I don't recognise the location in the photo.

I'm sure the trainer, on the left, is John Mowat born and raised in Kirkwall. He left here after being in the forces and marrying a girl from the Wirral, and settled there. Much later, his sister, Brenda, became Modern Languages teacher at KGS in the '50s.

I have since learnt the trainer was Jock Mowat from Kirkwall.

I'm sure the instructor here is John Mowat, born and brought up in Kirkwall. After serving in the RAF during the war, he moved to Cheshire where he worked firstly with a cobbler, hence mending everybody's shoes for years!! Later he changed course and entered teaching, doing Maths and PE. He taught in Birkenhead, I think, and later in different parts of the Wirral. He married there and had two daughters who both still live in or near Hoylake.

I've had one or two enquiries - not very serious I suspect - about the 'trick' or 'secret' imparted by Jock Mowat that could enable someone like me to perform handstands on chairs. So I've decided to share it with the world in a fresh post, and wait for the thunderous sound of people crashing from kitchen chairs up and down the land.