On the surface this is a pretty charming set with the small children and the dogs. I also like the way that the children are identified as being the friend of the dogs.
This dog will grow up to be a Wire-haired Fox terrier, which I am certain I have waxed lyrical about several times before - as the dog that walked beside the coffin of King Edward VII, as the canine star of "The Thin Man" series of movies, and as Tintin`s companion, Snowy, or Milou.
So instead lets chat about Lady Kitty Ritson, whose name appears on every card, because she described each dog. That was only one of her names, she was born Lady Kitty Edith Blanche Ogilvy on the 5th of February 1887, the daughter of the Countess of Airlie, who was a close friend of Queen Mary. Marriage, in 1906, to Berkeley Vincent, KBE CB CMG changed her name into Lady Kitty Vincent. He was older than her, by sixteen years, and a military man who had already served with honours in the China Expeditionary Force, the Second Boer War, the Russo-Japanese War and in Manchuria. They seem to have been very happy though, at first, and they had two children in 1911, but both of them died, aged just three in 1914. By the end of the decade, she had experienced more tragedy - losing both her brother, Patrick Julian Harry Stanley Ogilvy MC, Hon. Captain of the 1st Battalion of the Irish Guards, who was killed in action in 1917, and her sister Lady Mabel Griselda Ashley Sudley Ogilvy, who reportedly died after an accident, in 1918, which occurred whilst she was exercising horses for the Army. However I have not been able to verify this, and her name appears on the Nursing Memorial in London, so it is hard to see that she was both a nurse and a horse-exerciser. But it intrigues me so I will keep digging.
The Vincent marriage broke up in 1925, and the following year our lady married again, to Ralph Gerald Ritson, a Newcastle man, seven years older than her. There were no children from this marriage, perhaps she could not bear another loss.
Today we chiefly know our lady for the pony books she wrote for children, under her second husband`s name of Lady Kitty Ritson - though she also went on to write more learned articles about horsemanship and equitation for magazines, and was an early influencer for the adoption of Western riding techniques and skills. Her first pony book, "A Kiss for Kara" was written in 1939, and it seems very little known today, only that it was a blend of romance and riding - not a great combination as, and I should know, pony-mad children are not the slightest bit interested in romance, or boys, so they just skim over those parts, flicking the pages merrily until they get back to the juicy bits about the riding and the gymkhanas.
These cards show another facet of her character, as she was even more prominent in the dog world, as a judge and author, and we can also thank her for the popularity of many Scandinavian breeds, including the Norwegian Elkhound and the Finnish Spitz.
Apart from that, though, she was also involved with Guide Dogs for the Blind. That story also deserves to be told, for it was an American, Mrs. D. Harrison Eustis, who saw the work with seeing-eye dogs that was being done in Germany and set up a training centre in Wallasey with four guide dogs, who were taught to cater to their owners needs. Two other women then got involved, Mrs Rosamund Bond and Miss Muriel Crooke, both of whom were enthusiasts of the German Shepherd breed. Then, in 1931, two other supporters came forward, one of these was Captain Alan Sington, and the other one was our Lady Kitty Ritson. Having a military man and a titled lady on board was sufficient to raise the profile of the group, and they were then able to get a meeting with the Royal National Institute for the Blind.
Eventually our lady rose to be a Vice President of The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association, along with Mrs. Bond and Miss Crooke. And Mrs. Eustis became a Vice-Patron.
She died on the seventeenth of October, 1969.
The set first appears in our original World Tobacco Issues Index, but very scantly described as :
- DOGS AND FRIEND. Sm. Black and white. Nd. (50). ... C18-40
And its the same text in our updated World Tobacco Issues Index, just changing the card code to C151-235