I’ve posted this dog before. His name was Eng. CH. Ind. Dual CH. Flight Of Kentford. He was born in 1921, and his breeder was the “Honourable Mrs. E. Grigg.” Her line, Kentford, was among the early kennels in the breed.
The part of his name that gets my attention is the “Ind. Dual Ch.”
“Ind.” means “India.”
India was part of the British Empire in the 1920s, and British India included Pakistan and Bangladesh.
This dog managed to earn a championship and a field championship in India, which tells us that there were enough retriever trials during the Raj in India to merit giving such a title. I don’t know how common these trials were. My guess is they were put on by members of the colonial administration, who wanted to bring a bit of Britain to this part of the Empire.
Flight of Kentford is like a “Bizarro Afghan hound.” Afghan hounds often came from what is now Pakistan, and some of them did quite well in Britain as show dogs. This dog was born in England, and he did well in India– exact opposite of what one might expect.
I don’t know if Mrs. Grigg had any relationship to India. I don’t know if her husband or any members of her family were part of the colonial service in India, but this dog wound up in India somehow, where he was used as a working retriever and show dog.
Knowing what we know about how goldens suffer in the heat, I wonder how this dog managed to perform in such conditions. My guess is that he was largely worked nearly the Himalayan foothills or the Western Ghats, where the climate would have been a bit suitable for a British retriever with a thick double coat.
If anyone knows the full story about Flight of Kentford, I’d love to hear it. I cannot find it in any of my golden retriever history books.
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The only other golden retriever story from colonial India that I’ve heard is this rather bizarre one:
In Mary Elizabeth Thurston’s The Lost History of the Canine Race: Our 15,000-Year Love Affair With Dogs, there is an Indian noble had a wedding ceremony for his golden retriever, which was married off to another noble’s bull terrier. There was no photo of the golden retriever, but the bull terrier groom was featured in the book. He was of the old type– solid white with floppy ears.
I don’t know why they arranged this marriage.
Perhaps they thought that the only partner suitable for a highly bred Western dog was another highly bred Western dog.
Never mind that the two breeds really didn’t have that much in common.
What?
You want that golden marrying a Mudhol hound?
I don’t know the exact story about Mrs. Grigg’s Kentford kennel. Anyway, thanks to the Cruft’s catalogues (see: http://www.thekennelclub.org.uk) we know a few things. Flight of Kentford was bred, not by mrs. Grigg, but by mr. Collins and mr. Cowel (b. 1921, june 13th). She lived with her husband Major Grigg at Regal Lodge in Kentford from 1920. In the twenties she was active at Cruft’s. In 1929 she was the Judge for the Golden Retrievers. From that moment she disappears from the Cruft’s catalogues. We can only guess what happened. But it seems probable to assume that she left with her husband for India. Flight of Kentford was about 8 years old and could have won the Ind. Championship in 1930 or 1931.
Her husband was a major.
8 is kind of old for a dog of that time, but it is possible.
But then there was Gilder, who was unusually long-lived.
He was born in 1929 and saw the end of the Second World War…
Maybe the competition wasn’t that strong at Indian retriever trials or dog shows that an 8-year-old could master things.
BTW, it is very hard to determine who bred which dog using the breed books.
Gilder sired the litter containing Gilick of Yelme and Quilder of Yelme in 1942..when he was 13. The dam was Quick of Yelme. Because they were “war babies”, Gilick and Quilder never had a chance to earn titles; but their descendants did well both at shows and at field trials.
Flight of Kentford’s later owner was the Maharajah of Patiala, who was a member of the Golden Retriever Club at that time, and also owned a number of other dogs. He also donated the famous (to British Golden folks) Patiala Cup, a challenge trophy still in the possession of the GRC.
I think there were late breeding up till 10 years of age at Guisachen.