The Truly Remarkable John Whiscombe

The editor pays a personal tribute to an airgun icon

John Whiscombe was a genuine one-off. A unique blend of engineer, artisan, scientist, philosopher, rebel, environmentalist, … and style icon. John absolutely invented the term ‘shabby chic’ and no one, but no one, rocked a pair of baggy khaki shorts like John Whiscombe.

John didn’t suffer fools gladly, but he made an exception for me when, back in 1987, I tipped up at his bungalow on my first proper assignment for Airgun World magazine to interview him about his groundbreaking recoilless, spring-piston rifle, the Whiscombe JW50 MKII.

TECHNICAL KINDNESS

There we stood in John’s workshop. He was already a full-on genius, and I was a clod with a brand-new reporter’s notepad, a freshly sharpened pencil, and a borrowed camera that I didn’t know how to use. He could have slaughtered me.

Instead, John wound back his technical explanations to ‘yellow crayon’ level, cranked up his patience, and by the end of that first meeting, I actually understood how that incredible rifle did what it did. From that first meeting, and entirely due to John’s kindness and help, I managed to construct a credible feature that pleased not only my editor but John himself. Praise, indeed.

That feature also saw the birth of a monster. Inspired by a high-profile advertising campaign at the time, and John’s ingenuity in creating a hi-tech rifle driven by, not one, but four internal springs, I came up with the title … ‘FOURSPRUNG DURCH TECHNIC’, and aided and abetted by John’s approval, I’ve been committing similar crimes against the English language ever since.

PROFOUND EFFECT