The League committee felt it might be good to arrange a breed lunch at the Kennel Club, open to members, plus one guest if they wish.

The date will be Tuesday July 29, 2025.

The details are as follows: “As part of your visit, your group will be taken on a tour of our unique library and art collections, with a talk by our knowledgeable heritage team, specially tailored to your breed. This is an opportunity for us to share our collections with you and for you to consider how you can contribute to our canine heritage as well.

“Schedule: 11:30 Tea/coffee upon arrival at the Royal Kennel Club, 10 Clarges Street London W1J8AB.

11:45 Library talk/Gallery tour - tailored to the respective breed or activity.

12.30 Pre-lunch drink in the bar.

13:00 Lunch in the dining room (Those choosing not to take the tour should arrive for 12:30).

“Dress code: Club rules apply; gentlemen are required to wear a suit or jacket, trousers and tie, similar standards of dress are expected of ladies (smart trouser suits are acceptable). Jeans, leggings and trainers are not acceptable.

“The cost of the event will be £55.00 to include a glass of bubbles, a three-course set lunch with a glass of wine, followed by tea/coffee and petit fours. Reservations and payments can be made by phone by contacting the KC team on 0207 518 1017. Unfortunately, they cannot accept bank transfers for individual payments.

“Please let the Club Team know if you have any dietary requirements or food allergies. At least two weeks prior to your event we will need a full list of attendees.

“Note our cancellation notice period is 48 hours. The full amount will be incurred for no-shows. All cancellations need to be confirmed via email.”

If you would like to go, please contact both the KC team on the number above to reserve your place and make payment, and Simon Parsons (via Messenger or email) who will keep a list of those attending. First come, first served! Maximum 50 people.

It’s been a sad year for the families of a number of Corgi enthusiasts and even more so this week.

So very sorry to learn of the death, peacefully at home, after several weeks’ ill health of our senior Pembroke person Sue Harrison, and all our thoughts are with John and the family.

Sue had been part of the Corgi community since the 1940s when her father Fred Hooke bred and showed under the Roseleigh affix. The best known dog he was connected with was a CC winner called BelleFavourite who can be found in the female line behind some of the most famous Pembrokes.

Young Sue went to work at the famous Wey kennel of Nan and Ken Butler, an ideal apprenticeship in all aspects of breeding and showing at this busy and beautifully managed establishment.

In the late ‘50s Sylvia Watts-Russell, whose Banhaw kennel had its first champion pre-war, was seeking to extend her Pembroke activities. The two families had known each other for many years and Sue went to live at magnificent Biggin Hall near Oundle to manage the kennel and handle the dogs. Chs Banhaw Dawn and Chaffinch were made up, and Renard and Golden Prince became champions for other exhibitors. Two of these were sired by Banhaw Bendigo of Corgay, bred by Sue’s sister Mo. There were many more winners until Mrs Watts-Russell died in the late ‘60s and the kennel was dispersed, Sue taking on Ch Chaffinch.

In due course Sue married John and they ran a farm in Leicestershire. She bred Bearded Collies for a while and her current Pembroke line began with Fitzdown Frolic from Jessie Fitzwilliams.

Sue’s best known dog was the smart rich red sable Ch Haresfoot Isaac and there were many other winners down the generations, plus champions overseas. In latter years Sue was one of the breeders who was keen to retain the bobtail in the breed and bred with this in mind. She was always concerned to keep the Pembroke workmanlike and fit for function.

I’m sure that the successes this year of new exhibitor Anjie Cutts with Haresfoot Fates Align will have given her great pleasure.

Sue had been a popular judge for many years, officiating at Crufts and other leading shows. She knew her own mind and one could always rely on a fair and totally unbiased opinion.

She served the League loyally, including as chairman and president, and in recent years she and John had run the merchandise stand, no mean feat especially at Crufts where lugging all the material into the show on dark, cold mornings was quite a task.

The Pembroke world, and the League in particular, has lost one of its best friends.

The funeral will be private.

For the people of the United Kingdom, and for many others overseas, the news of the death of Queen Elizabeth II is hard to take in. For all or most of our lives she had been our figurehead and her sense of duty was an extraordinary example to us all.

But for Pembroke Corgi enthusiasts in the UK and beyond, her loss carries a special resonance. It was her family’s purchase of two Pembrokes, Dookie and Jane, in the mid 1930s that was to a large extent responsible for a previously little known Welsh farm dog becoming familiar to everybody and reaching remarkable levels of popularity.

Some years later Susan joined the family and founded the Windsor dynasty of Pembrokes which continued for some 70 years. The Queen’s loyalty to, and obvious love for, her favourite breed must have convinced countless members of the public of the qualities we all know the Pembroke possesses.

Although she never chose to exhibit her own Pembrokes, she took a deep and serious interest in the breed’s progress and selected stud dogs carefully, a number of breeders over the years being asked to travel to Windsor with the chosen males.

She enjoyed meeting other Pembroke enthusiasts, and taking a Corgi with you was a surefire way of drawing Her Majesty’s attention during her ‘walkabouts’ on her tours at home and abroad. In recent years there were a number of Corgi walks on royal estates and when members of the East Anglian Sub-Section visited Sandringham a few years ago, she spent a happy hour chatting to them and admiring their dogs. Nor should we forget that she, her mother and sister spent some time at one of the League’s first championship shows back in 1946.

I know that all League members will want to pay their own tributes to the breed’s longest-standing supporter and will send sympathy to all the Royal Family.

SIMON PARSONS, Welsh Corgi League president