PHOTOGRAPH BY GEOFFREY BY SHAKERLEY/ PHOTOGRAPH CAMERA PRESS/REDUX Her Most Lo yal Subjects It’s hard to imagine Britain’s monarch without her corgis, but Queen Elizabeth’s canine phalanx has dwindled to two—Holly and Willow—and the Palace is facing the end of an era. From the very first puppy, which so delighted a young Lilibet in 1933, through the Queen’s decades as a shrewd and sophisticated corgi breeder, MICHAEL JOSEPH GROSS reveals the private history of Her Majesty’s kennels and the essential role the pups have played in her reign 102 VANITY FAIR www.vanityfair.com AUGUST 2015 CORGIS AND BESS The royal corgis, gathered around their royal mistress, are nearly as synonymous with continuity as the Queen herself. Her Most Lo yal Subjects It’s hard to imagine Britain’s monarch without her corgis, but Queen Elizabeth’s canine phalanx has dwindled to two—Holly and Willow—and the Palace is facing the end of an era. From the very first puppy, which so delighted a young Lilibet in 1933, through the Queen’s decades as a shrewd and sophisticated corgi breeder, MICHAEL JOSEPH GROSS reveals the private history of Her Majesty’s kennels and the essential role the pups have played in her reign www.vanityfair.com VANITY FAIR 103 I. “A Private Matter” brated breeders such as Bunny Thornycroft. of the corgis that have been the personal With these dogs, Moore built “an easily companions of the Queen, as well as her recognizable line of a type which she would public hallmark, since she was a young girl. stick to,” involving “a clean cut outline, level topline, true and strong hindquarters,” and nglish royals since at least the rich red color of the coat on her first Queen Victoria have been de- great champion, Mist, who became her ken- voted to their dogs. Victoria’s nel’s foundation bitch. early passion for German In the history of Moore’s Kaytop kennel, dachshunds gave way to a the stature of one dog towered far above the mania for Scottish collies lat- rest. Champion Kaytop Marshall, born in Eer in life. She repeatedly gave her collies the 1967, was “a charismatic showman of the name of Noble, and historians distinguish richest possible red colour and amazing among them with Roman numerals: Noble presence” who “sired four U.K. champions” I through Noble V. and won awards at 12 of the 13 dog shows In living memory, no world leader has where he appeared. The obituary in Dog been as widely identifed with a particular an- World went on to note that “among those imal as Elizabeth II with her corgis. Symbols who used him at stud was the Queen,” to of friendliness, they are shrewdly deployed produce a puppy registered as Windsor for publicity purposes, lending warmth to her Loyal Subject. public image. In a skit for the opening cere- Leila Moore’s association with Her Majes- mony of the 2012 London Olympics, corgis ty Queen Elizabeth II was left without elabo- led James Bond into Buckingham Palace. At ration. Yet the whelping of Windsor Loyal Christmastime last year, the frst thing seen Subject (born in 1971) was not the only time by visitors to the palace gift shop was a giant t the these two women would cross paths. Moore’s mound of stufed-animal corgis. Wessex Vale Crematorium, on Bubb Lane, legacy, even now, shapes Her Majesty’s day- The corgis are more than symbols, though. in the Southampton suburb of West End, to-day existence in a way that fortifes a defn- In a life ruled by protocol, they provide an mourners gathered on Friday, September 5, ing quality of her reign. easy way for the Queen to break the ice with 2014, for a memorial service in honor of Lei- For many years, the fates of Queen Eliza- strangers. In what can be an isolating posi- la Kathleen Moore. She had died the previ- beth, Leila Moore, and several of Moore’s tion, she gets from them unlimited amounts ous month, at the age of 87. The cover of the peers have been knit together in a complex of love and physical affection, uncompro- program for the service bore Moore’s picture, tale. Its plot concerns the breeding and care mised by the knowledge that she is the mon- a faded color snapshot that shows arch. Whenever possible, the Queen feeds her in middle age. There is a beam- the corgis herself and leads them on daily ing smile on her face, but she is not walks, which also serve as a kind of thera- looking at the camera. She is looking py. Her husband, Prince Philip, the Duke down upon the pair of tawny-eared, of Edinburgh, has referred to this form of white-pawed Pembroke Welsh corgi therapy as his wife’s “dog mechanism.” puppies cradled in her arms. “My corgis are family,” the Queen The London newspapers made no has said. Family, as she of all people mention of her death, but the weekly knows, requires serious work, no mat- Dog World, out of Ashford, in Kent, ter how impeccable the pedigree. Since published a substantial obituary— the 1950s, with considerable help from IMAGE WORKS EVANS/THE /MARY a sensitive and detailed account of others, the Queen has personally over- Leila Moore’s six-decade-long career seen a program of corgi breeding that as a breeder of corgis. Though she is based on the grounds of Windsor lacked certain advantages (“Wid- Castle. Purebred puppies from her owed sadly young, Leila was always kennel are registered under the affix limited in the number of shows she of Windsor. The Queen has never LONDON NEWS ILLUSTRATED could attend … ”), Moore acquired allowed her own corgis—there have good stock in the 1950s from cele- been scores of them over the years—to PHOTOGRAPHS: © RIGHT, LEFT, BY LISA SHERIDAN/STUDIO LISA/GETTY IMAGES; “MY CORGIS ARE FAMILY,” THE QUEEN HAS SAID. FAMILY REQUIRES WORK, NO MATTER HOW IMPECCABLE THE PEDIGREE. 104 VANITY FAIR www.vanityfair.com AUGUST 2015 YOUNG PUPS Princess Elizabeth (right) and her sister, Margaret, at Windsor, 1940, with Jane at their feet. Opposite, Elizabeth and her father, the future King George VI, in London with Dookie and Jane, 1936. www.vanityfair.com VANITY FAIR 105 5 6 1 4 7 LIFE AND LITTERS (1) King George and his wife, Queen Elizabeth (far right), with Princesses Elizabeth and Margaret at the Royal Lodge, Windsor, 1946. (2) The Queen and Prince Philip at Balmoral, in Scotland, 1994. (3) At Heathrow, Elizabeth greets her pack. (4) The Queen and Prince Philip arrive with companions at Liverpool Street station, London, 1968. (5) An influential 1952 book by one of the great corgi breeders, long associated with the Windsor kennel. (6) The epitaph composed by the Queen for the “foundation bitch” of the royal line of corgis. (7) Elizabeth and the dogs during a summer holiday at PHOTOGRAPHS © BETTMANN/CORBIS (9); BY MILTON GENDEL (7), © HULTON-DEUTSCH COLLECTION/ GENDEL © (7), BETTMANN/CORBIS (9); PHOTOGRAPHS MILTON © BY HULTON-DEUTSCH CORBIS (1); FROM THE ROYAL COLLECTION TRUST/© HER MAJESTY QUEEN ELIZABETH II, 2015 (3); BY Balmoral, 1976. (8) Two of the Queen Mother’s corgis at the celebration marking her 100th birthday, in 2000. (9) Elizabeth in her garden, 1953. AUGUST 2015 2 8 3 MARK STEWART/CAMERA (4) NEWSPAPERS/REX MIRROR/MIRRORPIX/ALAMY (2); GEOFFREY BY WHITE/ASSOCIATED PRESS/REDUX (6); JOHN STILLWELL/PA PHOTOS/LANDOV (8); © TRINITY 9 www.vanityfair.com VANITY FAIR 107 THE DOGS GIVE HER UNLIMITED LOVE AND AFFECTION, UNCOMPROMISED BY THE KNOWLEDGE THAT SHE IS THE MONARCH. compete at dog shows, and she has never sold ents, ofering to give the family a new dog. to the Viscount Weymouth, whose children one, though she has given many away as gifts. Yet, “because the grief of the small Thel - invited their friends the little Princesses Eliz- All this is now coming to an end. Bucking- ma over her pet’s death had been so great, abeth and Margaret over to play. The girls, ham Palace will not comment ofcially on re- her parents thanked the Duke and said they too, fell in love with the dogs. ports that breeding has ceased. “The corgis are thought it would be wiser not to have another That is how, in 1933, Thelma Evans and a private matter,” goes the rote demurral from dog.” This is according to the most detailed the Duke of York fnally met each other face- the Queen’s press secretary (who, apparently, account of the accident and its consequences to-face. She was summoned to bring some exists in a diferent dimension from the Palace (published more than 35 years after the events corgi puppies to show the family—they chose gift shop). One by one, the corgis have died of. that it describes), which goes on as follows: a dog with a deep chestnut red coat, and The Queen, at age 89, is now left with only two. they called him “Dookie”—but she did not The surviving royal corgis are named Holly They told Thelma of their letter—and once tell the duke of their earlier encounter. She— and Willow. They were born a dozen years she had recovered from her frst grief, she de- Thelma Gray after her marriage—never told cided to act herself. ago this month, and on this birthday they Without telling her parents about it, she him, not even when he was King and she had will cross the threshold into canine twilight.