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Mansions, Victoria Stree,
London, on 4th April 1873. This meeting marked the founding of the
Kennel Club.
Original Founder
Shortly after the Kennel Club
had been founded, the Committee must have ecome aware of the
activities
of a certain Mr Charles Cruft,
the original founder of the
world's greatest dog show.
After
graduating from college in 1876, three years after the Kennel Club
had been founded. Charles Cruft
turned his back on this
father's jewellery business much to the dismay of his parents,
deciding that the dog game was for him. He initially took employment
with James Spratt in Holborn, London selling dog cakes where his
vision and entrepreneurial talents were quickly put to use.
Crufts at Earls Court
His travels
took him all over the country, where he utilised his exceptional
selling skills to convince large estates, sporting kennels, breeders
and owners that these dog products were for them! James Spratt,
realising his new protégé's talent and ambition sent Cruft to Europe
to further endorse the company. It was
in France in 1878 that French
dog breeders, impressed with his obvious skills, invited Cruft to
organise the promotion of the canine section of the Paris Exhibition.
He was just two
years out of college.
Cruft
continued to develop his knowledge in the world of 'dogdom' and it
was apparent that his greatest passion was thee organisation and
management of canine exhibitions.
When reporting on the success
of Crufts 1930 show, A Croxton Smith OBE, Chairman of the Kennel
Club from 1937-1948 stated: 'Mr Cruft is the Napoleon of the dog
world'.
In 1886 he
took up the
management of the Allied
Terrier Club Show at Westminster in London and the first seeds of
the world's greatest dog show's history were sown in |
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Islington in 1891, when
Charles
booked the Royal Agricultural
Hall
and put his own to the event.
Under New Management
After a very long and
succesful
career in the world of
organising dog shows and serving on committees, Charles Cruft died
in 1938 and his widow ran the 1939 show. Three years later Mrs Cruft
felt the resonsibility of runing the show too demanding as a show of
this calibre would centainly be a full-time occupation and certainly
not for the faint hearted. In order to perpetuate the name of the
show her husband had already made famous,
she asked the Kennel Club to
take up the reins on the understanding that
the founders name remained.
Venues
The first show under the
Kennel Club auspices was held in 1948 at olympia and proved an
immediate success.
The foundations had been laid
for the Kennel Club to take the show
onwards to the phenomenal
success that it enjoys today.
In
1979 it was decided to change the venue from Olympia to Earls Court
to cope with demand, as the ever-
increasing numbers of
exhibitors and visitors had the show bursting at the seams. Here it
remained until 1991, when it at to be moved to an even bigger venue,
due to the popularity of the event. In 1991 the Crufts Centenary
Show was held at The National Exhibition Centre.
Birmingham, therefore 2007 is
the eighteenth year that the show has
been staged at the NEC. |
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Charles Cruft
Today, Crufts provides
visitors with a
unique opportunity to see over
22.000
top pedigree dogs compete in
over
3.000 individual classes,
building up
to the coveted Best in Show
title -
the greatest achievement in
the
world of dogs!
The
event provides visitors with
a varied and interesting
canine
programme, incorporating
demostrations, breed judging,
displays, competitions,
agility,
flyball and gundog
competitions to
name but a few. And they all
lead up
to the renowned Best in Show
finale
on Sunday.
It is fair
to say that if Charles Cruft were alive today, he would be
extremely proud of how his
legacy
has developed. |
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