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Behold, here is the very picture of beekeeping success: Charles Frederick Gee, who won the Hamlin Cup at the National Honey Show in 1932. Though he emigrated to New Zealand, where this picture was taken, he originated from Dover, as his DDBKA exam certificate from 1916 proves!
To this day, the Hamlin cup is one of the most sought after and prestigious awards. There were 243 classes in this year’s National Honey Show and the Hamlin Cup goes to the winner of class 1 - twenty four jars of honey which may consist of one, two, three or four kinds. It is a very difficult thing to do well.
In the year prior to C.F. Gee, the recipient of the cup was R O B Manley, a highly important early 20th century beekeeper.
Hopefully this will inspire you all and someone will take up the challenge and bring home the cup to the DDBKA once again in the near future.
This story comes to us courtesy of Bob Maurer's correspondence with C.F. Gee's granddaughter Ana, who still resides in New Zealand and the kind help of top honey judge Mike Duffin, who searched his archives for confirmations.
Thank you for putting my grandfather's photo showing the Hamlin Cup that he won in 1932 despite living in New Zealand on your website which I have just found. Unfortunately we seem to have lost the medal which he would have kept. He obviously learnt his stuff from the Dover group as he lived in the Mill house, Whitfield. He swapped his hand made dining room set of a table and chairs for bee hives in New Zealand after arriving in 1921 in the Bay of Plenty. I had no idea he was so clever as to get a major award for honey but I feel very proud of him. Our thanks go to Bob Maurer and Mike Duffin for finding the details. Yours sincerely, Mrs Ana Squire
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