Donald Featherstone Passes

[DoctorPete]

A giant in the hobby.  God bless him. 

[rob_the_robgoblin]

Rest in peace, we owe you one Don!

What a great fellow, truly remarkable what he did for this community.

[juergen c. olk]

 atrue Gentleman,he visited our group in Omaha/Nebraska in the mid ninties telling us of his time int he royal tank corps in WW2.i am glad i got to meet him,lest we forget.....

[FifteensAway]

Bezzo,

I like your thought.  

Mr. Featherstone and Jack Scruby, the two men who gave us the modern hobby.  Much more deserving of credit than Wells, though he deserves a nod, of course.   And let us not forget that Don's son, also a gamer, predeceased him and he had the sad duty of eulogizing his own son within the hobby press.  I'm not sure but I believe he was 95 years old, the father, not the son.

I think what we can best do in his honor is to hold ourselves to a higher standard and introduce others to the hobby.  While I never met the man and came late to his books - long after I started in the hobby, I believe he'd find that a fitting memorial.

And thus passes the Captain General of The Old Guard.

[LawnRanger]

Hi lads
 very sad news about Donald Featherstone 

Looks like are club Wessex Wargames  Society club will be honouring the great man by having a trophy done in his name for best  game man ship/ round member chap  award ...

we have a EGM next week so more will come out then but are club will DO something to honour this great man ..

happy gaming LR

[LawnRanger]

Bezzo

  He was one of are founder members of are club and started  it all off 40+ years ago( we have now over 50 members that would not be gaming if it was not for him and people like him ) some of the old guard at the club will miss his 

Happy gaming all LR

[Wirelizard]

Like a lot of people, my first introduction to this oddball hobby of ours was with Mr. Featherstone's books in the public library - I believe the first I found was his prehistoric thru medieval (3000BC to 1500AD, I think?) book. Having just checked our online library catalog, I see the only Featherstone book in circulation is "Bowmen of England", which is straight history, not actually a wargaming book.

A life very well lived.

[Conquistador]

Sadly, it is a sign of the times that our library consortium has cleaned out all but one Donald Featherstone book - Featherstone's complete wargaming / Donald Featherstone - and if you search Featherstone you get Lisa book,) Charlotte (book,) and Jane (book, 2 DVDs,) and only 1 book for Donald Featherstone.  Not all that long a go there were about 7 or more books scattered throughout the consortium's libraries.

     

Gracias,

Glenn

Edit:

Here is what you get with "war game" which includes Mr. Featherstone.

   
The complete wargames handbook : how to play, design, and find them / James F. Dunnigan.
by Dunnigan, James F.
1992.
     
 2.   

Featherstone's complete wargaming / Donald Featherstone.
by Featherstone, Donald F.
c1988.
 
 3.   

Beginners' guide to wargaming / Bruce Quarrie.
by Quarrie, Bruce.
1987.

 
     
 4.   

War games : the secret world of the creators, players, and policy makers rehearsing World War III today / Thomas B. Allen.
by Allen, Thomas B.
c1987.

     
 5.   

The complete wargames handbook : how to play, design, and find them / James F. Dunnigan.
by Dunnigan, James F.
1980.

 
     
 6.   
 
Lead soldiers and figurines. With foreword by Peter J. Blum. Translated by E. Stanton Russell.
by Baldet, Marcel.
[c1961]

 

[The_Beast]

It's embarrassing to come to the this discussion so late, but that's what I get for not following EVERY forum. 

While I'd seen a number of his books before, so he didn't introduce the hobby to me, his Naval Wargaming taught me that I really wanted to see campaigns, reasons for what happened.

Alas, as I said on a Yahoo! group:

That IS a shock!

His Naval Wargaming was an inspiration for numerous campaigns written but never
played out when I really didn't have others to push ships across a table with.
If he'd ever done a Space Wargaming book, I'd have made them happen, for
certains.

Every once in awhile, in someone else's writing, you see a mention or
attribution, and begin to understand his impact on the hobby.

Doug