science

The King of Rome

The King of Rome is a science topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand The King of Rome rather than just read about it. In short: The King of Rome was a successful racing pigeon, winning a 1,001-mile (1,611 km) race from Rome, Italy, to England, in 1913. Bred and trained in England, it was owned by Charlie Hudson of Derby.

Key takeaways

The King of Rome belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect The King of Rome to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of The King of Rome from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

The King of Rome was a successful racing pigeon, winning a 1,001-mile (1,611 km) race from Rome, Italy, to England, in 1913. Bred and trained in England, it was owned by Charlie Hudson of Derby. It set a new long-distance record for a racing pigeon of England. The King of Rome is the subject of a 1988 song and a 2010 children's book, both by Dave Sudbury. The best-known of the several recordings of the song is by June Tabor. In 2013 a radio play by Anthony Atkin and Allison Glossop was broadcast to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the pigeon's record-breaking flight.

The bird The King of Rome was a racing pigeon that in 1913 won a 1,001-mile (1,611 km) race from Rome, Italy to England. The bird, a blue cock, ring number NU1907DY168, was owned, bred and trained by Charlie Hudson (born early 1870s, died 13 March 1958, aged 84), of 56 Brook Street, Derby (now demolished, 52.9265°N 1.4855°W / 52.9265; -1.4855). He reportedly started pigeon racing in 1904. At the time of the race, he was president and treasurer of Derby Town Flying Club. He also wrote on pigeon-racing matters for the Derby Evening Telegraph. On the bird's death, Hudson presented its body to Derby Museum and Art Gallery, where its taxidermied skin is preserved (accession number DBYMU.1946/48). As of 2012, it is on display there. The preserved pigeon has previously been exhibited on loan elsewhere, including Walsall Museum and Wollaton Hall in Nottingham.

The race report The 2 August 1913 edition of The Racing Pigeon reported:

Mr C. H. Hudson, of Derby, is to be congratulated on having notified an arrival in Rome race Tuesday last. The bird has proved itself capable of great endurances and of suffering much fatigue, and possessing wonderful staying power to make its way back from Rome to Derby. Up till Tuesday evening out of the 1200 birds sent by Belgian fanciers, 62 birds had been notified. The percentage as a rule that get back of birds sent to Rome by Belgian fanciers works out on average at 7 per cent, so that there are hopes yet that there will be some more English birds home. At any rate, the distance has been accomplished, eclipsing all past long-distance records in the United Kingdom. When it was sent to Rome it was rung as NU1907DY168.

Representation in other media

Dave Sudbury (born Derby, 1943) wrote a song in the 1980s about the King of Rome and its owner, Charlie Hudson. It tells how:

On the day of the big race a storm blew in A thousand birds were swept away and never seen again indicating the dangers related to the pigeons' races. The song was most notably recorded by June Tabor in 1988. She had heard Sudbury perform the song at the Northern Arts Council's 'Songsearch' contest in the late 1980s, where she was a judge. Sudbury came in fourth. Brian McNeill, another finalist at the event, has said: "'The King of Rome' was head and shoulders above every other song sung on the night, and should have won." Tabor then recorded it for her 1988 album Aqaba. McNeill also has performed the song. He made a live recording included on his 2000 album with Iain MacKintosh, Live and Kicking. American folksinger Vance Gilbert recorded the song for his 1994 album Edgewise, and Canadian folk musician Garnet Rogers recorded it for his album Small Victories (1990), and again on his live album Summer Lightning (2004). The band Half Man Half Biscuit also recorded a version of the song for a BBC radio session, though it remains unreleased. At the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2012, The Unthanks performed the song, with accompaniment from the Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band. It appears on the 2012 album The Unthanks with Brighouse and Rastrick Brass Band. Sudbury's song was also published as a 32-page children's book (2010), with illustrations by Hans Saefkow. Anthony Atkin and Allison Glossop wrote a radio drama, The King of Rome (2013), to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the bird's win. The production starred Wayne Russell as Charlie Hudson, and a recording is available online.

Other tributes On 29 October 2022 a plaque was unveiled inside the Maypole Inn, Brook Street, Derby, in tribute to Charles Hudson, The King of Rome and Dave Sudbury, after a campaign initiated by historian and former teacher Kalwinder Singh Dhindsa. On 5 July 2023 the plaque was relocated to Dubrek Studios on Bridge Street.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with The King of Rome

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what The King of Rome claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to The King of Rome before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about The King of Rome ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of The King of Rome

In research: The King of Rome appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses The King of Rome in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: The King of Rome is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 1913 in Europe, Collection of Derby Museum and Art Gallery, English folk songs, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for The King of Rome outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study The King of Rome in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what The King of Rome means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain The King of Rome out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is The King of Rome in simple terms?

The King of Rome was a successful racing pigeon, winning a 1,001-mile (1,611 km) race from Rome, Italy, to England, in 1913. Bred and trained in England, it was owned by Charlie Hudson of Derby.

Why does The King of Rome matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study The King of Rome?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on The King of Rome.