SEALYHAM TERRIER CLUB
EST.1908
Origins of the club
In the smoking room at the Sealyham Mansion during January 1908, a quartet of Terrier enthusiasts Mrs Victor Higgon (formerly Miss Edwardes), her husband Victor James Higgon, Captain Jack H. Howell (the Master of Foxhounds) and Mr. Adrian Howell, met to discuss the potential of building a foundation for the club of the Sealyham Terriers.
After-which, they sent notices to local newspapers in attempts to find interested parties to join. Originally, the club was known as the Sealyham Terrier Club of Haverfordwest. The four enthusiasts decided the standard for the breed at this time, and the Right Honourable Lord Kensington was elected as president and Mr. Fred Lewis as Honorary Secretary.
On the 8th March, 1911, Lord Kensington succeeded in getting recognition of the Sealyham Terriers to the Kennel Club.
However, as time went on, the breed gradually gathered a number of stalwart’s adherents, who in 1908 formed the Sealyham terrier Club, the president of which was the Right Honourable Lord Kensington, and the hon. secretary Mr Fred Lewis, to whose efforts, and that of their coadjutors, the Sealyham terrier of today owes much.
The devotees of the breed who had founded the club evolved a standard description and points for the breed and set to work to improve the dog and bring him more in keeping in size, coat, character, and conformation, with his requirements as under-ground worker, which is his specific avocation.
On application of Lord Kensington, the Clubs president, the kennel Club recognised the breed and gave it a place on its register of the breed, on March 8th, 1911.
The die of the Sealyham was now effectually cast, and its future progress assured. The breed received more public attention, and gradually increased the number of its followers, in proportion to the general improvement and uniformity of type which were affected by breeders and exhibitors as time went on, until today it is, as we have already stated, one of the most popular and most rational of the terrier varieties.
The Kennel Club Challenge certificates were first offered for the Sealyham Terrier at the Great Joint Terrier Show held in Regents Park on June 10th, 1911. Lord Kensington was the judge, and Mr W Baker’s Chawston Bess Bach bred by Mr Fred Lewis, won the first challenge prize.
After this other institutions started to form. In 1913, the American Sealyham Terrier Club was established, the Midland Sealyham Terrier Club formed in 1923. The Sealyham Terrier Breeders Association was created in 1928.