Duxford's Deryck Chambers is the pin king... with 10,000 badges
Many of us like to collect things – stamps, train tickets, porcelain figurines – but Duxford resident Deryck Chambers has taken his pin badge collection to impressive lengths, amassing around 10,000 over the past four decades.
Born in Great Chesterford in 1930, Deryck has had an interesting life, piloting fighter planes during his national service in the early 1950s and almost making it as a professional goalkeeper for Crystal Palace before he was called up. He now lives in Duxford with his wife of 66 years, Mollie.
A member of the Lions for 46 years, Deryck did have a few Lions pin badges in his possession but didn’t start collecting them seriously until 1981.
“It was when I was at an international Lions convention in Phoenix,” he said. “This Texan Lion came up to me and said: ‘I like your umbrella’ – we had umbrellas for the big parade through the city. Then he asked: ‘Have you got a pin?’ and we exchanged. He gave me a set of three of his longhorn cattle pins – a big one, a medium one and a little one.
“Since then I’ve been to 21 international conventions and I’ve picked up quite a collection over the years. I met a chap from New York in ’98 at the Birmingham convention who wanted to get a pin collecting club started in Europe so, on January 1, 2000, I started the Lions British Isles Pin Trading Club.
“Pin trading clubs are very popular in America.”
Deryck added: “Over the years, I’ve collected thousands and I have them in my study and elsewhere. Some years back now, a magazine called Collectibles, I think it was, did a four-page article on me.”
Deryck Chambers has now collected over 10,000 pin badges, seen here at home in Duxford. Picture: Keith Heppell. (8125369)
The Lions British Isles Trading Pin Club meets once a year at the annual UK Lions convention. This year it’s taking place in Swansea on the May Bank Holiday weekend.
“So that gives us the opportunity to have our annual general meeting, and for the pin traders in the UK to turn up,” said Deryck. “The club in the UK has a board of directors, and we also meet up in October.”
Deryck, who worked for the Co-operative Permanent Building Society – which later became Nationwide – for 32 years, said the UK Lions started producing pin badges in 1962. “I’ve got five sets of those complete, right the way up to date, so they’re worth a bit.
“But we produce other ones during the course of the year. We’ve just produced three pins in a series which is going on worldwide on anything to do with water – we’ve just had pins done of a swan, a frog and an otter.”
Does Deryck have a favourite among his vast collection? “Not really, there are so many that I consider favourites that I put them on a separate display panel. They mean something to me because of the people who have traded with me.
“I’ve got a personal pin which shows my pilot’s wings at the top and, dangling on the main pin, are four aircraft which I flew. That pin was an award-winner in a competition, so I was pleased about that.”
Deryck may have 10,000 pins, but he has a list of badges he still wants to add to his collection. But not at any price.
“They become so valuable, and if they’re going to ask $1,200 for one pin, I think no,” he said. “I’ll go to the swaps.”
lionspinclub.org.uk
