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HISTORY OF THE NCCC
The Northern Counties Chihuahua Club was founded in 1958 and Mrs Olga Frei-Denver was one of the founder members. She is now our much treasured Patron and President, and writes the following:
The Early Days of Chihuahuas in UK
I was originally going to write the days prior to the formation of the Northern Counties Chihuahua Club, but felt I should give news going way back to 1947. Through Mrs Marjory Fearfields OBE love of this tiny breed, she advertised in the dog papers at this time to enquire if anyone else was interested in this Mexican Tiny. To her delight she received genuine interested replies. In her own words “What fun I thought to be a pioneer of a breed” she discovered however there had already been one. She discovered that in the Daily Mail of 1897 the LKA held a show at Regent’s Park where a Chihuahua was exhibited. In Modern Dogs by Rawdon B Lee published by Horace Cox in 1899, the author gives a write-up in which he says “…but I do not think they will ever be popular in England. Most of the few I have seen when at a dog show, sit shivering in their pens looking extremely unhappy”.
In 1910 Cassell’s New Book Of The Dog was published by Waverley Book Co. Robert Leighten, the author, gives this interesting detail of the breed “In the British Museum, some years ago there was a stuffed skin of a bitch, very little, if anything larger than a rat, and as if to prove her of mature growth, beside her were her 2 pups about as big as mice”. Mentioned in this book is the colour of the Chihuahua given in a bouquet to Madam Adelina Patti (this story has been told many times). He was black & tan called Bonito, and her later dog was fawn called Rigi.
There is so much more that I could write of these early days.
In 1949, 9 Chihuahua enthusiasts met at Marshall & Snellgrove’s Tea Room in London. There, the British Chihuahua Club was formed. There were only 20 dogs registered at the KC.
Now onto 1957, I joined the BCC having just returned from the USA where I had been living and bred my Chi’s. I was pleased to meet Diane-Russell-Allan and her sisters. They were interested in my Longcoat Chihuahua. When they discovered I had a home in the North, they asked if I felt a Northern Club was needed. I replied Yes, because the BCC was completely run by Southerners for Southerners. Having just left my home in Texas where the races were integrating, here I was involved with separating the North & South in the UK.
In 1958, I became a member of the BCC Committee, along with Lady Margaret Drummond-Hay. We were elected mostly by Northern members whom had recently joined the BCC to make sure we, Lady M & I, were voted on. We both had London homes, so actually we were Southerners with a home in the North and Northerners with a home in the South. We held secret meetings at shows and Lady M’s St John’s Wood House. It was all cloak-and-dagger. I think Guy Fawkes could have learnt from us. The KC had been approached by Northerners with an intention of forming a separate club, but the BCC objected. Lady M & I were able to talk to other BCC members vis-à-vis Mrs Busson & Beryl Mason. Their sympathies were with us. We proposed them for the Committee and they were voted on. Now when the question of another club came up at BCC Committee meetings, we were able to vote in favour, but believe me, we conspirators never showed our alliance at the meetings. It was a very exciting era.
1958 the Scottish & Northern Counties Chihuahua Club SNCC was formed. We needed 25 names willing to be founder members as stipulated by the KC. We could have had more but not less. Each Founder Member had to pay £2 founder membership under KC rules. This was to make sure the new club was financially stable. We registered our names, those of our husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, children, kennel maids etc in order to make up the numbers. Ted Hutchinson, who apart from being our Club Secretary, was an excellent dog handler. He and his partner at this time, Denis Cady, worked hard for the SNCC. Denis was a great help being Secretary of the BCC. Dr. Stephen Young of the KC & Scottish KC Committee was also a great help in getting the KC to grant our club. Those were the days when members would travel up to Scotland or down to England to attend AGMS. Gordon & Doreen Taylor arranged coaches. There were so many members keen to hear what was happening and coming with their own suggestions. We held dinner dances, outdoor get-togethers, fancy dress dog competitions etc. Our AGMs and shows were held in Scotland one year, England the next. Then we tried using just Carlisle for AGMs. As time went on Chihuahuas became very popular in Scotland so the Scots needed their own club. We agreed, the KC agreed, so we dropped the prefix and became NCCC. The real pioneer of the breed was the late Mrs Powell, SW4, who exhibited as early as 1930 and had built up a strong team. The end of her dogs was most tragic. She was living in town at the outbreak of war and took herself into the country to escape the bombing. A short time after her house received a direct hit. Every dog was killed and she, so stricken, went into a nursing home where she died a few years later.
When the late Croxton-Smith wrote his last book, he briefly mentioned the Chihuahuas and Mrs Powell and said there were none in the country now. Once the BCC had been informed and the breed was catching on Mrs Fearfield wrote to Mr Croxton-Smith telling him of the BCC efforts and in his reply he said “I respected her (Mrs Powell) very much because if she bred anything that did not satisfy her critical eye, she gave them away on the understanding that they should neither be bred from nor exhibited”.
How things have changed. Now commercialism has reared its ugly head with a lot of inferior Chihuahuas being sold for large sums of money both here and abroad. Breeders do not state that the dogs should not be bred from nor exhibited. I hate to think how the breed quality may drop. I am mentioning here a few names whom present day members of the NCCC should remember and thank not only for their club but for the dedicated breeding programmes they followed:
Lady Margaret Drummond Hay (Segiden)
Kai & Tony Stewart (Kaitonia)
Russell Allans (Dallhabboch)
Mrs Mooney (Winterlea)
Mrs Mitchel Benvie (Bendorwyn)
Mr Turner & Miss Massey (Glaenjoy)
Doreen Hollows (Dorrow)
Dorothy Garlick (Chitina)
Sally Jones (Pentre Bach)
Mrs Fearfield (Bowerhinton)
Ann Ellis- Hughes (Wytchend)
………..and of course my own Pequeno
Regards,
Olga Frei Denver
NCCC
26/04/05
The Early Days of Chihuahuas in UK
I was originally going to write the days prior to the formation of the Northern Counties Chihuahua Club, but felt I should give news going way back to 1947. Through Mrs Marjory Fearfields OBE love of this tiny breed, she advertised in the dog papers at this time to enquire if anyone else was interested in this Mexican Tiny. To her delight she received genuine interested replies. In her own words “What fun I thought to be a pioneer of a breed” she discovered however there had already been one. She discovered that in the Daily Mail of 1897 the LKA held a show at Regent’s Park where a Chihuahua was exhibited. In Modern Dogs by Rawdon B Lee published by Horace Cox in 1899, the author gives a write-up in which he says “…but I do not think they will ever be popular in England. Most of the few I have seen when at a dog show, sit shivering in their pens looking extremely unhappy”.
In 1910 Cassell’s New Book Of The Dog was published by Waverley Book Co. Robert Leighten, the author, gives this interesting detail of the breed “In the British Museum, some years ago there was a stuffed skin of a bitch, very little, if anything larger than a rat, and as if to prove her of mature growth, beside her were her 2 pups about as big as mice”. Mentioned in this book is the colour of the Chihuahua given in a bouquet to Madam Adelina Patti (this story has been told many times). He was black & tan called Bonito, and her later dog was fawn called Rigi.
There is so much more that I could write of these early days.
In 1949, 9 Chihuahua enthusiasts met at Marshall & Snellgrove’s Tea Room in London. There, the British Chihuahua Club was formed. There were only 20 dogs registered at the KC.
Now onto 1957, I joined the BCC having just returned from the USA where I had been living and bred my Chi’s. I was pleased to meet Diane-Russell-Allan and her sisters. They were interested in my Longcoat Chihuahua. When they discovered I had a home in the North, they asked if I felt a Northern Club was needed. I replied Yes, because the BCC was completely run by Southerners for Southerners. Having just left my home in Texas where the races were integrating, here I was involved with separating the North & South in the UK.
In 1958, I became a member of the BCC Committee, along with Lady Margaret Drummond-Hay. We were elected mostly by Northern members whom had recently joined the BCC to make sure we, Lady M & I, were voted on. We both had London homes, so actually we were Southerners with a home in the North and Northerners with a home in the South. We held secret meetings at shows and Lady M’s St John’s Wood House. It was all cloak-and-dagger. I think Guy Fawkes could have learnt from us. The KC had been approached by Northerners with an intention of forming a separate club, but the BCC objected. Lady M & I were able to talk to other BCC members vis-à-vis Mrs Busson & Beryl Mason. Their sympathies were with us. We proposed them for the Committee and they were voted on. Now when the question of another club came up at BCC Committee meetings, we were able to vote in favour, but believe me, we conspirators never showed our alliance at the meetings. It was a very exciting era.
1958 the Scottish & Northern Counties Chihuahua Club SNCC was formed. We needed 25 names willing to be founder members as stipulated by the KC. We could have had more but not less. Each Founder Member had to pay £2 founder membership under KC rules. This was to make sure the new club was financially stable. We registered our names, those of our husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, children, kennel maids etc in order to make up the numbers. Ted Hutchinson, who apart from being our Club Secretary, was an excellent dog handler. He and his partner at this time, Denis Cady, worked hard for the SNCC. Denis was a great help being Secretary of the BCC. Dr. Stephen Young of the KC & Scottish KC Committee was also a great help in getting the KC to grant our club. Those were the days when members would travel up to Scotland or down to England to attend AGMS. Gordon & Doreen Taylor arranged coaches. There were so many members keen to hear what was happening and coming with their own suggestions. We held dinner dances, outdoor get-togethers, fancy dress dog competitions etc. Our AGMs and shows were held in Scotland one year, England the next. Then we tried using just Carlisle for AGMs. As time went on Chihuahuas became very popular in Scotland so the Scots needed their own club. We agreed, the KC agreed, so we dropped the prefix and became NCCC. The real pioneer of the breed was the late Mrs Powell, SW4, who exhibited as early as 1930 and had built up a strong team. The end of her dogs was most tragic. She was living in town at the outbreak of war and took herself into the country to escape the bombing. A short time after her house received a direct hit. Every dog was killed and she, so stricken, went into a nursing home where she died a few years later.
When the late Croxton-Smith wrote his last book, he briefly mentioned the Chihuahuas and Mrs Powell and said there were none in the country now. Once the BCC had been informed and the breed was catching on Mrs Fearfield wrote to Mr Croxton-Smith telling him of the BCC efforts and in his reply he said “I respected her (Mrs Powell) very much because if she bred anything that did not satisfy her critical eye, she gave them away on the understanding that they should neither be bred from nor exhibited”.
How things have changed. Now commercialism has reared its ugly head with a lot of inferior Chihuahuas being sold for large sums of money both here and abroad. Breeders do not state that the dogs should not be bred from nor exhibited. I hate to think how the breed quality may drop. I am mentioning here a few names whom present day members of the NCCC should remember and thank not only for their club but for the dedicated breeding programmes they followed:
Lady Margaret Drummond Hay (Segiden)
Kai & Tony Stewart (Kaitonia)
Russell Allans (Dallhabboch)
Mrs Mooney (Winterlea)
Mrs Mitchel Benvie (Bendorwyn)
Mr Turner & Miss Massey (Glaenjoy)
Doreen Hollows (Dorrow)
Dorothy Garlick (Chitina)
Sally Jones (Pentre Bach)
Mrs Fearfield (Bowerhinton)
Ann Ellis- Hughes (Wytchend)
………..and of course my own Pequeno
Regards,
Olga Frei Denver
NCCC
26/04/05
