Back to “Home”    Back to "Preface to Kerry & Dexter Herd Book, Vol 1, 1890"

"Correspondence about the Royal Dexter Herds of Queen Victoria and Edward, Prince of Wales"

In March 2005, when I was putting on this website the Dexter entries in the 1890 Irish Kerry-Dexter Herd Book, I came across the names of the Queen (Queen Victoria) and the Prince of Wales (Prince Edward, later King Edward VII) as Dexter owners. I was surprised that I could not recall reading about this before. It is well recorded that members of the English gentry owned Dexters in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries - in his book "The Life and Times of Dexters", Ted Neal has photos of Dexters owned by the Duchess of Devonshire (1904) and the Earl of Sefton (1910) as well as an account of the Duchess of Devonshire's Compton Place herd. Lady Loder owned the well-known Grinsted herd, started in 1911, and is referred to in such articles as Andrew Sheppy's paper to the First World Dexter Congress (see elsewhere on this website). Lady Loder also held the office of President of the UK Dexter Cattle Society for three terms, 1923-24, 1924-25 and 1947-48 (the list of Past Presidents of the UK DCS  are to be found at the front of its Herd Books, four or five of which I managed to obtain when visiting the UK).

However, in checking again recently for Royal connections to Dexters, I realised that Ted Neal's book also contains a photo of a steer bred by the Prince of Wales, and the second President of the UK DCS, in 1901-02, was "His Most Gracious Majesty the King", the same gentleman now ascended to the throne as King Edward VII. 

My wife Heather said to me that I should write to the present Queen to see if I could find out more about the Royal Dexters. So I did. And I have just received the reply.

~~ My Letter to the Queen ~~

Her Majesty the Queen
Buckingham Palace
London SW1A 1AA
England

31 March 2005

Your Majesty

I am a social scientist at the University of Waikato here in New Zealand, and am also a breeder of Dexter cattle, the smallest of the traditional British breeds. I have discovered that Queen Victoria owned some Dexter cattle, and I am wondering if you might be able to provide me with information about her herd, its size, for how long she bred them, and the reasons why she decided to raise Dexters.

The Dexter breed comes from Southwest Ireland, from the ancient Celtic mountain cattle. For many years, they were the ideal cow for the poorest of the rural inhabitants of this part of Ireland – a hardy breed, they provided milk and meat under difficult conditions. Then at the end of the nineteenth century, Dexters were discovered by some of the more wealthy farmers of England and within a couple of decades, very few were left in Ireland. From being the poor family’s cow in Ireland, they became the rich gentry’s cow in England. Then Dexter numbers declined in the face of the popularity of more specialist and larger breeds so that by the 1970s they had become an endangered breed. But Dexters have survived, in the UK and a number of other countries, because of efforts to preserve rare breeds and because of their suitability for rural smallholdings. I have also noted the significance of women breeders for Dexters, in both historical and contemporary times.

I have developed a website www.dex-info.net which assists people to identify information and resources on the Internet concerning this interesting breed. I am also adding to it documents and stories about the history of Dexters. A veterinarian in Scotland, also a Dexter breeder, has sent me the first Dexter herdbook, produced in Ireland in 1890. I have been typing it out to add to my website.

It turns out that Her Majesty Queen Victoria is listed as owner of the Dexter bulls, Knight of Kerry (Herdbook Number 9) and Rioter (No.19), as well as of the Dexter cows, Dinah (No. 73), Milkmaid (No. 140) and Topsy (No. 197). Furthermore, the then Prince of Wales is recorded as owner of the Dexter bull Moonlighter (No. 16) and of the Dexter cows, Arum (No. 22), Savoy (No. 186) and Thyme (No. 194). On the next page is a copy of page 141 of the 1890 Herdbook showing the entry for Knight of Kerry.

I would be grateful for any information you could pass on to me regarding this part of the history of this breed.

With best wishes,

John L. Paterson
 

~~ Reply from the Royal Archives ~~

26 May 2005

Dear Dr. Paterson,
 

I have been asked by Her Majesty The Queen to reply to your letter of 31 March enquiring about royal ownership of Dexter cattle, and I am very sorry that you have had to wait so long for a response.

Unfortunately, we have very little information concerning the running of the royal farms in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. I have, however, managed to find some annual valuations of the stock on Shaw Farm in the 1890s. None of these lists any Dexter cattle, but between 1890 and 1896 a few Kerry cattle are listed, and I can only presume that these are actually the Dexters. These are the details of the Kerry cattle given in these valuations:
 

1890  2 3-year old heifers, 1 yearling steer and 1 2-year old bull
1894  3 cows
1895  2 cows and 2 calves
1896  3 cows
 

In addition, a letter accompanying the 1892 valuation (which does not indicate the breeds of the cattle in stock) notes that a young bull is to be bought from Mr. Talbot Crosbie's herd in County Kerry. From 1897 onwards the valuations do not list any Kerry cattle.
 

As for the Prince of Wales's Dexter cattle, Ralph Whitlock, in his book Royal Farmers, notes that the Prince founded a Dexter-Kerry herd at Sandringham in 1887, with imports from Ireland, but that the herd was replaced by Lincoln Red Shorthorns in 1915. He does not give any source for these details, nor is there any relevant material in the Royal
Archives.
 

I hope you will find this information of interest, and I am sorry that I cannot be more helpful.

Yours sincerely,
 

Miss Pamela Clark
Registrar
 

To Extracts from Whitlock's "Royal Farmers"

To "Preface to Kerry & Dexter Herd Book, Vol 1, 1890"

To "Dexter Bull Entries in 1890 Kerry & Dexter Herd Book"

To "Dexter Cow Entries in 1890 Kerry & Dexter Herd Book"

To Top of Page