(Afghan Hound Database and Breed Information Exchange)
"Kaf" Afghan Hounds UK Page 2 (Author Lyall Payne, Bletchley Hall Afghan hounds New Zealand) October 2013 With some additional photographs from Steve T
This is the story of Miss Evelyn Denyer who bred the ‘of Kaf’ Afghan hounds. A staunch supporter of the Bell-Murray Afghan hounds. Her dogs were to have an enormous impact on the breed. Evelyn Denyer was born in Staines, London, England to Edmund Denyer (who ran a saddlery business in Gresham St just as his father had in the High St) and Lillian Woodhouse (daughter of a wealthy corn merchant in Essex). According to advertising, Evelyn had kennels in Sutton Courtney in Berkshire. Sutton Courtney was the family seat of Lord Asquith and it was here in his role of Prime Minister that he signed Britain into World War 1. He was buried there in 1922. George Orwell was also buried in Sutton Courtney (in 1950).
It is not clear if Miss Denyer’s kennels were separate from the residence of Captain Thomas Sydney Waterlow-Fox who ran a school in a three storied Georgian mansion in Church St, Sutton Courtney. He later moved the school to Maiden Erlegh where he remained for some years. Captain Waterlow-Fox bred the ‘of Wyke’ Afghan hounds. He took over Miss Denyer’s dogs when she married and left the country and therefore became the owner of the beautiful Ch Taj Mahip of Kaf. Miss Denyer had added her ‘of Kaf’ affix to him and he is found as the dam’s sire to the famous champions Badshah and Tufan of Ainsdart – and through his ‘of Wyke’ progeny numerous outstanding Geufron Afghan hounds (bred by Mrs ‘Paddy’ Drinkwater) also descend from Taj Mahip.
The Fish (a pub in Appleford Rd, Sutton Courtney) is where Asra of Ghazni was born in 1928. Mrs Taylor and her husband raised this Ghazni litter (and had other Ghazni hounds there) – and I am in no doubt that when the Ghazni dogs at the pub howled in earnest – that the Bell-Murray hounds of Captain Waterlow-Fox (and probably those previously owned by Miss Denyer) howled in return with equal gusto. They were after all – pretty much straight across the fence from each other!
Evelyn Denyer left the furore of the Ghazni versus Bell-Murray debate behind her when she married John Arnold (Jack) Barton and sailed from England on the SS Magnolia on 13 January 1927 for the Malay States. Jack was a rubber plantation manager and Evelyn spent much of the rest of her life living in the East. They maintained a home in London (26 Lytton Grove, Putney Hill). Barton managed the Dusun Durun Estate in Banting (Selangor). They returned to England for some months in mid 1935 and then on 19 May 1939 Evelyn returned for the last time. She disembarked in Plymouth and went to Gaybanks, Woolbrook, Sidmouth, in Devonshire. This was her parents property and her father had passed away there on 31 December 1935. Jack went on to London to their own home in Putney Hill. Evelyn died at the young age of 42 years just before the start of World War 2. In May 1940 Jack married Mrs Gwendolene Mary Woolridge of Tonbridge, England (at Penang). Shortly afterward she was evacuated to England. Jack however was interned in a particularly brutal Japanese prisoner of war camp. He survived years of unimaginable horror. He returned to the UK in poor health and died in a private hotel in Norfolk, England in 1948. Doris Evelyn Denyer (Mrs Jack Barton) was a significant voice for the Bell-Murray Afghan hound. She left no family. However, she left a legacy to today’s afghan hound owners, breeders and exhibitors that is way more significant than she perhaps was ever aware. The dogs she owned, bred, and gave to others to own and breed, were hugely influential in establishing the breed on both sides of the Atlantic. We owe it to these pioneering folk to keep their stories alive. One hundred years ago (the photo below was taken in 1914) Doris Evelyn Denyer was a pupil here at The Welsh School, Ashford, Staines, while her parents had moved to Braintree in Essex, the home of Evelyn’s grandmother). I wonder if that young schoolgirl had any inkling of what she was about to set down for Afghan hound breed enthusiasts throughout the World?
Lyall Payne Bletchley Hall Afghan hounds New Zealand October 2013 Related content: 12/15/11 Article "Mysterious Bell-Murray/Cove photo" Steve Tillotson December 2011 Extract on Miss Denyer's Kaf , taken from "Country Life" June 26th 1926, written by A Croxton Smith.. The Hyland Painting Early Afghan hounds Section The Origins Section The Dog Of The Mystic East, by Jean Manson, 1929 The Afghan Hound Is An Ancient Breed, by Evelyn Denyer1925 The Barukhzy (Afghan) And Allied Eastern Hounds. (Extract) by W. D. Drury 1903 Robert Leighton on Mrs Amps Ghazni 1926 UK - KAF (Bell Murray) Afghan Hounds, A Croxton Smith, Country Life 1926 (extract) Extract on The Afghan Hound from "The Practical Dog Book by Edward C Ash m.r.a.c (Dip. Hons.) 1931 Previous Denyer Page Go Whats New Library Of Articles/Main Menu Toolbar |
