Louis Janssen has passed away...

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Tuesday morning April 16th Louis Janssen died at the ripe old age of 100 years old. On August 5th, 2013, he would have become 101 years old. The funeral will take place on Monday, April 22nd at 11 am in the Church of Our Lady in Arendonk.

Arendonk, Schoolstraat number 6... it is like asking a Parisian about the Eiffel Tower! No name in the world was more spoken about in the sport with such awe as the Janssen Brothers from Arendonk. The pigeons of these simple cigar makers from the Antwerp Kempen conquered the world. The unmatched class of the Janssen pigeon has undoubtedly left its mark on the evolution of the modern racing pigeon.
Henri Janssen, popularly known as Driekske De Pauw, and his sons Fons, Adriaan, Charel and Louis were crazy about pigeons.
Adriaan had from childhood been involved with everything that happened within the loft and took over the bulk of the care for the birds over all of those years for the family. He never dealt with the “commerce” and his only intention was breeding good pigeons.
His death in 1981 dealt the pigeon family Janssen a very great loss.
Charel also had a lifelong passion for the pigeons and together with Adrian, he was the devil-does-all in the lofts. After the death of Adrian in 1981, he was all alone, Louis helped where he could.
Louis had in fact never interfered with the day to day happenings within the loft. How they were coupled, raced, pooled was the business of Adriaan and Charel. Louis was the man of accounting and administration. With his graceful handwriting he was over the years the pedigree writer of the pigeons descent, at first written on the back of the ownership card and later with equal grace he filled out a limited pedigree card. Louis was the last survivor of a family that breathed the pigeon sport.

The Janssen brothers had always raced to simple boxes and during the very successful years they had four boxes in the attic and a small loft in the garden, all under the Boom Pan tile roof. The brothers always could count on the condition of the pigeons under the loose open Pan Tiles.
In Arendonk the main successes were won racing to the nest, although widowhood was making rapid strides within the sport.  But Adrian and Charel were such talented racers that they prepared the nest pigeons to many successful victories against widowers.

Toppers of the Janssen’s include:

  • The “Bange van ’51”: a cock that left his mark like no other on the Janssen-colony.
  • The “Bange van ’59”: He was the grandfather of the “Merckx” of ’67
  • The “Schouwman”: he won several first prizes and his father is a brother of “019”.
  • The “019”: He graced his record with 18 first prizes and was almost unbeatable.
  • The “Chantilly”: He won the Belgium – Holland match and was one of the figureheads of the latter year Janssens.

It may be said, the simple cigar makers from Arendonk did not need ‘hyperbole’ to advertise their pigeons... their pigeons advertised themselves with their exceptional racing and breeding qualities!

Louis Janssen was the last survivor of this great pigeon family and the sports magazine “De Duif” will always remember him with a warm heart. He was a subscriber to “De Duif” from the 1920’s and it was only a few weeks ago that we received a subscription payment from Louis Janssen, Arendonk. It was also the sports magazine “De Duif” that in the past organised two public auctions for Gebr. Janssen, and with great success.
With the greatest respect the sports magazine “De Duif” offers its deepest condolences to the mourning of this honourable family.

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