Especially nowadays, the lambing season runs for much longer, between November and May, however, it is still the case that most lambs are born in spring.
These are Kent, or Romney Marsh ewe lambs, and they won the first prize and championship at the Royal Agricultural Show in Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
They were shown there by J. Egerton Quested, who wrote a book in 1932 called "The Place and Management of Sheep in Modern Farming", in which he quotes "I have been farming and grazing in the south east corner of the County of Kent for forty years, and my flock consists of about 2500 pedigree Romney Marsh ewes. These ewes are all individually numbered and pedigrees have been kept since 1985, so that I can carry the pedigree of any sheep that I have bred since that date through thirty-six years..."
He died in 1943. And he is also famous for something else, as his son was John Bowley Quested, of the Royal Flying Corps, and Royal Air Force, who won the Military Cross and Croix de Guerre during the First World War, but sadly only survived his father for five years.
This set is first described in our original reference book to Gallaher issues, RB.4, published in 1944, as :
1924. 25. CHAMPION ANIMALS & BIRDS OF 1923 (titled series). Size 2 1/2" x 1 1/2" approx. Numbered 1-25. Fronts, printed in full colours with coloured borders, "Gallaher`s Cigarettes" and subject titles. Backs, printed in black, with descriptions and "Issued by Gallaher Ltd., Belfast & London". Printed by Norbury, Natzio & Co, Ltd., Manchester.
Varieties : cards exist with wrongly placed backs of "British Champions"
On which subject, cards of "British Champions [of 1923]" are also found with backs for "Champion Animals and Birds of 1923". Both sets were produced by the same printers, and this error seems to prove that both sets were produced at the same time.
This error is not carried forward to our original World Tobacco Issues Index, which just describes our set as :
CHAMPION ANIMALS & BIRDS OF 1923. Sm. Nd. (25) ... G12-46
And this text is repeated in our updated version, the only difference being a new card code, of G075-360