Keeshonds of the 1950's
1950
1951
1952
1953
1955
1954
1950's date uncertain
1956
Mrs. Fry used to spin the Kees wool that was sent to her from across the UK, and post it back to the Keeshond owner for knitting into mittens and woolly hats.
1957
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It was also Mrs. Fry who took in the two poor lost dogs whose story is such a testament to the Keeshond character. Andy and Ferdy were placed in kennels during World War II, while their army officer owner was away on service. Their kennel was bombed and they escaped. They made their way from Dover to London on their own, (some 80 miles) evading the many attempts of kind-hearted and concerned people to capture them. They found their former apartment, only to find new people there, so they went on to where close friends had lived. Again, no-one they knew was there. During an air-raid a lady who kept a watch for lost dogs saw them and managed to bring the two terrified dogs into her house.
She nursed them back to health, and then set about trying to find somewhere well away from the bombing for them to regain their confidence. Mrs. Fry came forward and she and her husband looked after the two dogs with devotion until their deaths. Mrs. Fry and the lady in London who took the dogs in gradually pieced together their story from a disc round the neck of Andy.
She nursed them back to health, and then set about trying to find somewhere well away from the bombing for them to regain their confidence. Mrs. Fry came forward and she and her husband looked after the two dogs with devotion until their deaths. Mrs. Fry and the lady in London who took the dogs in gradually pieced together their story from a disc round the neck of Andy.
Andy and Ferdy had made their mark on a number of people as they made the journey from Dover, and the most remarkable thing of all is that by pure chance, many years later, Mrs. Fry was to meet one of them. A man visiting a Keeshond-owner friend of Mrs. Fry had kept a kennel of greyhounds on the Dover - London road during the war and had managed to catch the dogs, and taken them to the police station, from where they had escaped and continued on their way. He told this story to Mrs. Fry, and she realised that the two dogs could have been none other than Andy and Ferdy.
Their original owner never came back, presumably missing in action.
Their original owner never came back, presumably missing in action.
1959
1958
The photo on the right shows Mrs Wingfield Digby judging at Bournemouth Show in 1958. On the left is Doreen Le Gallienne with Huzaar of Windywhistle and on the right stands Fred Greenwood with Winzari of Wistonia.
With thanks to Gwendolen Wingfield Digby's book "My Life with Keeshonden"
