Pic: Ken Keane presents Bill Lockhart the Dr. Hunter Cup for Outstanding and Devoted Service to Instonians
At this year’s Instonians Club AGM, Bill Lockhart was awarded the Dr Hunter Cup for outstanding and Devoted Service to Instonians.
Unfortunately Bill was away on business and the Cup was later presented to Bill by Ken Keane, Chairman of Instonians Rugby Committee.
Well done Bill, very well deserved.
To give some background to this event we now give more information on:
(1) What is the history of the Dr Hunter Cup?
(2) Who is Bill Lockhart and why was he awarded the Dr Hunter Cup?
(3) Who were the previous recipients of the Dr Hunter Cup?
What is the history of the Dr Hunter Cup?
The Dr Hunter Cup was presented to the Instonians Club in 1948 by Dr JM Hunter as a trophy to be given each year to someone who had given “outstanding and Devoted Service to Instonians”, not playing but in the area of club support. This could be coaching, team management, club administration or fundraising.
Dr JM Hunter also wanted the cup to be in memory of his father Dr JA Hunter who was the person who launched the formation of the Instonians Club in 1919, a place where old boys of the Royal Belfast Academical Institution could continue to play their sports.
Since then the Instonians club has expanded from an “old boys” Institution to a club which welcomes players of all ages and backgrounds whose common interest is their sport and putting something back into the local community.
Incidentally last year’s Instonians President was Michael Hunter, grandson of Dr JA Hunter and nephew of Dr JM Hunter.
Who is Bill Lockhart?
Bill Lockhart, or Lockhart WH as he was known then, attend RBAI just after it had done away with gas lighting. Well actually from 1959-1967. At Inst he surpassed all academic expectations of him and learned to read. This sufficed to get him into Queens to study psychology and philosophy. He spent most of the mid-1970s working with delinquent youth in west Belfast and learned most of his rugby tricks from them. Actually he helped found the Shankill YMCA rugby club and was delighted when some years later they met an Instonians team in a final at Ravenhill. On that day he was shouting for the YMCA………… CLICK HERE for more
