Horace Batchelor

Horace Batchelor (1898-1977) was famous in the UK during the late 1950s and early 1960s as an advertiser on Radio Luxembourg.

The "Famous Infra-Draw Method"

The product Batchelor was selling was his "famous Infra-Draw Method", which was a system supposed to increase significantly the chances of winning large sums of money on the football pools. In the days before the National Lottery started in 1994, the "Pools" was the only means available for winning very large sums of money for very small stakes. The scheme worked by persuading listeners to submit their pools stakes to Batchelor, whose "method" was then used to determine how the stake was placed. Batchelor only received payment in the case of the bet winning, which seemed fair, but led to his effectively receiving a large number of free stakes. It was thus not dependent on his predictive abilities for its financial success.

Advertising on Radio Luxembourg

Radio Luxembourg was primarily a music station, playing the current single releases, focusing on the charts and the records currently being promoted by the record companies. The advertisers were allowed to buy a chunk of "air time", usually fifteen minutes in duration, or multiples of that. This was in contrast to commercial television in the UK, where advertisers had no influence over programme content, they had to pay for an advertisement to be aired during the programming organised by the television company. Horace Batchelor's programme segment usually featured the Deep River Boys, who were a gospel/barbershop group performing seemingly live, and not records. His advertisements were spoken, the voice purported to be that of the man himself. He invited listeners to write in for details of his "amazing Infra-Draw Method" which he promised was able to predict drawn games which were otherwise unpredictable.

The address was always read out as follows: "Horace Batchelor, Department One, Keynsham (spelt K-E-Y-N-S-H-A-M) Keynsham, Bristol". This was because the name of his base, the town of Keynsham (between Bristol and Bath) was not pronounced as spelt (it is cane - sham, not keen - sham).

Influence on popular culture

Horace Batchelor's Radio Luxembourg programme led to Keynsham being regarded as something of a joke town for British people who used to listen to Radio Luxembourg at the time, and this reputation lingered. It was the reason why the Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band named an album "Keynsham". Batchelor's voice is also imitated at the start of the Bonzos' song "You Done My Brain In", saying "I have personally won over..."; and his is one of the names listed as spoof band members in "The Intro and the Outro", the complex opening track on the second side of the album "Gorilla".

To this day, announcers on the radio seldom mention Keynsham, for example if a request or dedication originates there, without spelling out the name.

A real person?

There was some question in certain quarters (popular press, radio/television documentaries) about the identity of Horace Batchelor and whether he was in fact a real person, as he lived out of the spotlight. However, he was well-known to his neighbours, and following his death in 1977, "The Times" published a notice concerning his will on 3 March of that year, showing he left just under £150,000. A former hotel (Longreach) newly converted into apartments in the neighbouring village of Saltford boasts Batchelor as a previous owner.

External links

* [http://weldgen.tripod.com/horace-batchelor/ A local newspaper feature on Horace Batchelor]
* [http://www.whirligig-tv.co.uk/tv/memories/snippets/snippets16.htm A recording of Batchelor's famous advertisement]