THE FLYING PIEMAN.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXXIV, Issue LXXIV, 1 April 1918, Page 2

THE FLYING PIEMAN.

(By One Who Has Seen Him.) Sydney (New South Wales) has beea 'the arena of the doings of many eccenitric folks, most of whom are now for- . gotten, though the memory of «one td their number is still kept, green, chiefly, no doubt, on account of his being a "sport." Reference is made to the Flying Pieman, who more than, likely earned hifi sobriquet by once peddling i the ' 'pasty delicacies." It was about the year 1853 when the writer, then a boy at school, was sent on an errand, and in Parramatta street, about ifche vicinity of that old Sydney landmark, "Hancock's,■Castle" (long since removed) saw an athletic, middle-aged man, .walking briskly, carrying a Union Jack, and followed by the übiquitous crowd /Of small boys; and on relating this adventure at home was informed that he had seen the "Flying Pieman." His real name was "William Francis King, eldest son of Mr Francis King, at one time Paymaster of Accounts in the Treasury at Whitehall. The subject of this notice was born in London in March, ISCCj, .and was clerk in the Treasury Office, Tower of London. He arrived in New South Wales in 1839 3 and was a schoolmaster at- Sutton Forest, then tutor to the children of Mr W. Kern, and then a barman. In the.prime ( of his manhood he did some remarkable feats 'of pedestrianism, upon, which questions are often asked through the columns of the sporting press. He was no doubt the first man in the colony to undertake long distance walking in a. given time, and had wonderful endurance. Among his pedestrian feats ■were: From the obelisk in Macquarie Place, Sydney, to the 16-mile stone at Parramatta and back again, He walked in six hours; beat the coach from Windsor to Sydney, arriving seven minutes before it; walked from Sydney to Parramatta and back twice a day for six consecutive days. On one occasion he undertook to carry a dog I weighing 701b from Campbelltown to Sydney between 12.30 a.m. and 8.40 the next morning, which he, did with 20 minutes to spare; was backed to carry a live goat weighing 921b, with I2lb dead weight besides, from tne -old Talbot Inn on Brickfield Hill, Sydney, to Mr Nash's, at Parramatta, in seven hours, which he did with, 12 minutes to spare; walked from the Parramatta Church to the church at "Windsor and back, a distance considered to.be 43 i miles, for three consecutive days. The first day he Occupiedl 8 hours !in going to and fro, the second 7} hours^ anl the third 7 hours 25 minutes; walked 48 hours in Maitland" in 1843, doing something like 160 miles. The first time he attempted it he failed, the conditions being very hard, he having to complete the time without leaving the track for any time over 10 irimuutes*; but .in the second attempt he won easily, and in describing $he last lap of the distance Bell's. Life in Syd- ; ney says: The excitement was very, great, A band which was on- the ; ground and all the spectators followed (closely behind the plucky -walker, but ..: the latter put on such a. tremendous ,' spurt that he left them all a long way behind. The match came off on the i racecourse. His record for Wheeling- a T>arrow one mile has only been broken I in October last year by a Mr F. Jennings at Bathurst, New' Sou* Wales, ■who succeeded in breaking tb& record of the ''Flying Pieman" by wheeling v, barrow one mile, in 13min 3*380. as against 14min occupied by the "Pieman." He (the "Flying Pieman"), after undergoing many vicisewbadee, died at the Liverpool Asylum, Now South Wales, on August 12 187- 4-