Ruislip & Eastcote & Northwood Gazette
Royal pet projects
MARION McMULLEN looks back at some of the animals who have won the hearts of the Queen and her family
QUEEN ELIZABETH may be socially distancing herself at Windsor Castle amid the coronavirus pandemic, but she made sure her two four-legged friends joined her when she left Buckingham Palace.
The 93-year-old monarch is known for her love of both horses and dogs.
She has owned more than 30 corgis over the years – many of them direct descendants of her first one, Susan. She was given Susan as an 18th birthday present by her parents in 1944. Susan was so loved by her royal owner that she even came along on Princess Elizabeth’s honeymoon with Lt Philip Mountbatten in Romsey in 1947. Susan the Corgi had a reputation for taking a nip at unsuspecting ankles and her grandson Whisky is said to have torn the seat out of a Guard’s officer’s trousers.
The love of dogs began at an early age. The Queen’s father, George VI, had a Pembrokeshire corgi called Dookie and the princess fell in love with the royal pet when she was a teenager. While opening Wolferton’s new pumping station recently, the Queen recalled how he father used to walk his corgis on the Sandringham estate.
The animal-loving ruler currently has two dorgis – a cross between a corgi and a dachshund – called Candy and Vulcan who are keeping her company in Windsor.
The royal pets even featured alongside their owner in the James Bond short film special for the London Olympics with 007 actor Daniel Craig, which ended with the Queen apparently paragliding into the stadium during the opening ceremony.
Britain’s longest-reigning monarch is also known for her extensive knowledge of horse breeding and bloodlines.
Her horses have won every classic, except the Derby, and her race winnings are estimated to be more than £7.7 million over the last 30 years. She had her first riding lesson when she was three and still rides now she is in her 90s.
The Queen has also kept racing pigeons. One had to be rescued in 2016 by the Scottish SPCA after it was found lost in East Lothian near Edinburgh. It was returned to the royal loft at Sandringham estate in Norfolk.
Animal rescue officer Connie O’Neill said: “I was really excited when I found out it was one of the Queen’s racing pigeons. The poor bird was exhausted and arrangements were made for it to be collected.”
Queen Victoria was also a dog lover and had a Cavalier King Charles spaniel called Dash when she ascended the throne.
Dash was laid to rest in the grounds of Windsor Castle when he passed away in 1840 at the age of nine. The gravestone reads: “His attachment was without selfishness. His playfulness without malice/His fidelity without deceit/Reader, if you would live beloved and die regretted, profit by the example of Dash.”
Prince Albert brought his favourite greyhound Eos to Britain with him when he married Victoria and the hound was painted by famous artist Sir Edwin Landseer.
Albert wrote about Eos in his letters to Victoria saying; ‘You ask after my faithful, but not disinterested Eos. She is very well, looks after herself as much as she can, sleeps by the stove, is friendly if there is plum cake in the room, very much put out when she has to jump over the stick, keen on hunting, sleepy after it, always proud and contemptuous of other dogs.”
The Duke and Duchess of Windsor lived in Paris with their dogs Trooper and Disry following his abdication, while the Queen Mother was often pictured with her corgis Geordie and Blackie.
Members of the present royal family are also known for their love of animals. Prince Charles, currently in isolation himself at Balmoral having this week tested positive for Covid-19 – although he ‘remains in good health’ – likes Jack Russells and had his beloved pet Tigga for 18 years.
His wife, Camilla, who took over from the Queen as the patron of the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, has two adopted Jack Russells called Beth and Bluebell.
Princess Anne’s love of horses has seen her compete on Olympic level and race at Ascot and the royal was awarded the BBC Sports Personality Of The Year in 1971.
She once said: “When I’m approaching a water jump with dozens of photographers waiting for me to fall in and hundred of spectators wondering what’s going to happen next, the horse is just about the only one who doesn’t know I am royal.”
Her daughter, Zara, followed in her footsteps and won a silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics and also won the BBC Sports Personality trophy the same year.
William and Kate, the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, have a pet cocker spaniel called Lupo, who was a wedding present from Kate’s brother, James Middleton. Lupo has been pictured with Prince George several times, including when he was a newborn baby.
He and Princess Charlotte added to the family pets in 2016 with a hamster called Marvin and Prince George even had a bilby, a desertdwelling marsupial, named after him when on a Royal Tour in Australia.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are also animal lovers and within days of their move to Canada, Meghan was spotted out and about in Vancouver walking their black Labrador Oz and beagle Guy.