09.05.2024 | The Crowning Glory of South Africa Dogdom

THE THOMAS McQUEEN MEMORIAL TROPHY

With the closing date for the shows comprising The KUSA Classic in KwaZulu-Natal looming, it is an appropriate time to remind exhibitors of the pinnacle event of this prestigious cluster – the KUSA National Awards – which, in Breed, will see the magnificent Thomas McQueen Memorial Trophy awarded to the KUSA National Dog, 2024.

This trophy is the most treasured possession of the Kennel Union – resplendent, majestic, and steeped in history. Being handed this showpiece in acknowledgement of Breed excellence to be featured in photographs celebrating the bestowal of the ultimate honour in South African dogdom, is surely the abiding fantasy of every serious exhibitor! 

Following the death of the Secretary of the South African Kennel Club (as it was then known), Mr Thomas McQueen, in December 1958, after 28 years’ service, a letter from a Mr HS Clarkson of Salisbury (later Harare), in the former Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, received in April 1959, was read out to the Federal Council. In this letter, Mr Clarkson suggested the acquisition of a memorial trophy in honour of the late Mr McQueen.

The Federal Council referred the matter to the Executive Committee which, in August 1959, reported its support for the proposal with the recommendation that the trophy should take the form of a large shield, to be presented to the winner of the Grand Challenge at the Annual Conference and S.A.K.U. (South African Kennel Union) Show, with miniature replicas given to the winners for the next ten years. Following this recommendation, an appeal was launched through all Affiliated Clubs and individual members to raise funds for the purchase of the trophy.

The Federal Council Minutes record no further developments until a year later, when it is minuted, “A letter was read from the firm supplying the fabulous trophy chosen by the Committee appointed to select the memorial, and the Trophy itself was placed on view, having been sent to the meeting for the occasion. The members of the Federal Council were astounded that such a unique and fitting memorial could have been made available to them”.  It was indeed an appropriate memorial to a man who had devoted so much of his life to Southern African dogdom and had laid the foundations on which the Kennel Union of Southern Africa stands today. From information provided, the solid silver trophy “weighing 230 ounces (7.5kg) and standing 32 inches (70 cm) high” was executed to the order of The Lord Derby in 1877. Far from the shield originally envisaged by the Executive Committee, the memorial on offer was a magnificently crafted and intricately embellished two-handled cup. At the time of purchase, it cost R420.00 and its current value is incalculable.

Unfortunately, research into the history of the cup has not yielded much information. It is, for instance, not known for what purpose it was originally commissioned and from which purveyor it had been acquired. What is known is that the two-handled cup was manufactured by the firm of Robert Hennell of Bond Street, London, in 1871. At that time, the Hennell family had been silversmiths for four generations. Enquiries to the company yielded no results, as their records had been destroyed in World War II. Letters to The Lord Derby and the Goldsmiths and Silversmiths Company also drew a blank, with the unfortunate result that the provenance of this piece will probably never be known.

The Thomas McQueen Memorial Trophy was first illustrated in the August 1961 Kennel Union Gazette, at which time it was stated that it would be for competition at alternate Congress and Conference Shows and was first awarded in the former Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland (later briefly called Southern Rhodesia, then Rhodesia) at the Umtali (now Mutare) and District Kennel Club Championship Show, held on 25 August 1962, when it was won by Ch. Kinkell Cresthigh Criterion, a Sealyham Terrier owned by Dr The Hon W Alexander of Odzi, a few kilometres west of Umtali; the dog’s breeder being Mrs I Swallow of Rondebosch, Cape Town. In September of the same year, the Federal Council received a further letter from Mr Clarkson, in which he suggested that the winner of the trophy should be given a statuette of the breed, as a memento of the occasion. This was agreed and some months later Dr Alexander was sent a statuette of a Sealyham Terrier. It would appear that this practice fell into disuse shortly afterwards as, in 1964, there was a comment, and obviously some correspondence, that the statuette of the German Shepherd Dog commissioned for that year’s winner failed to meet the description in the Breed Standard! It was presumably rejected.

In 1963, 1964 and 1965 the trophy was awarded annually and from then on, until 1980, intermittently. At that time, it was decided that the Thomas McQueen Memorial Trophy should be awarded every two years at the KUSA Championship Show, then held every second year. This practice endured till 1986, when it was decided to leave a three-year gap until 1989, so that it could be awarded at the KUSA Championship Show in the KUSA Centenary Year, 1991. In 1987 the then Chairman of the Federal Council, Mr GR Eva, championed the idea that, instead of the trophy being automatically awarded to the winner of Best in Show at an All-breeds Club’s Annual Championship Show, held in conjunction with the KUSA Championship Show, a Special Event should be created for Breed and Dogsport at which eligible dogs would compete for top honours. This Special Event, which covered Breed and all forms of Dogsport was named the KUSA National Awards and the Thomas McQueen Memorial Trophy was earmarked for presentation to the winner of the Breed section. The KUSA National Awards event was first held in 1989 and, since 1997, has been presented annually. More recently, the KUSA Championship Show and the KUSA National Awards were incorporated into an annual cluster of shows and events collectively called The KUSA Classic, now also comprising the KUSA Winners Show and the KUSA FCI (Africa) International Championship Show.

Of particular historical interest is the fact that, since 1962, dogs in the Federation of Rhodesia and Nyasaland, then Southern Rhodesia, then Rhodesia, had won the Thomas McQueen Memorial Trophy three times. This bears testimony to the important role the former Rhodesia in all its guises had played in the historical development and administration of KUSA when, under the aegis of KUSA, shows were held in all the major cities of South Africa and Rhodesia. This collaboration under the administration of KUSA came to an end when the Zimbabwe Kennel Club was founded in 1985.