It is a sad fact of life we breeders are only put on this earth for all too short a time. Even the greatest of all, on the 26/1/1963 Mr Herbert Summers Lloyd M.B.E. passed away. The dog world lost its GRANDMASTER and with him an extremely rare wealth of breeding knowledge. We that are left in his shadow can only study his written words to learn as much as we can. No matter what breed you love, follow his lead and put the worldwide improvement of your breed before your own self-promotion.

The record books show the success of Mr Lloyd has never been equalled or even approached. So highly respected by his contemporaries everyone addressed him as Mr. Lloyd or H.S.Lloyd. Born on the 1/4/1887 the son of Richard Lloyd, himself a master breeder and one of the founding fathers of the Cocker Spaniel, young Herbert was indeed raised as the masters' apprentice.  He learnt his lessons very well, not only from his father who bred many greats such as, Heir Apparent (sire of 8 champions) and CH.Crown Prince before the "of Ware" affix was adopted. But also from other great founding fathers of the breed such as C.A.Phillips (Rivington) and Mr. R de C. Peele (Bowdler). Richard Lloyd felt his son should have a trade and arranged an apprenticeship to a printer.  Although H S Lloyd did not continue this trade his time was not wasted.  It meant that he was extremely good at proofreading catalogues and producing yearbooks for the Cocker Club, as well as contributing to other literary works. He made his living from the dogs and raised a family of four children doing so.

In 1924 he wrote the first edition of THE POPULAR COCKER SPANIEL. Four more editions followed in 1929, 1933, 1939 and the fifth and final edition in 1948. Also writing  'Cocker Spaniels' a Foyles handbook first published in 1957. The good advice found in these books on breeding quality dogs is timeless and can be applied to any breed or indeed all livestock species. His extensive knowledge included an interest in breeding thoroughbred racehorses and people would often ask his advice on the breeding of their horses. But it was his sheer brilliance at producing great cockers with an almost monotonous regularity for well over four decades that made him world renowned.

Mr Lloyd was a tireless worker for his beloved breed as secretary of THE COCKER SPANIEL CLUB for 39 years (1921-1959). This was the parent club and stood for the breed gaining and maintaining a certain standard. In the 1920s he and the club led the fight against "pocket cockers' and won.  Sadly, in these modern times, these little ones again threaten both the English and American cocker in some parts of the world.

Richard Lloyd died at an early age and his son took over the kennels, and in 1906 adopted the affix "of Ware" after the town in Hertfordshire where the original kennels began. Mr Lloyd went to France and served in the army during the First World War, whilst his sister Gertie looked after the dogs at home. The kennels had moved to Ruislip, then to Swakeleys Farm, Ickenham in Middlesex.

There is hardly a cocker spaniel in the world today that cannot be traced back to "of Ware" breeding. That is because Mr Lloyd had the great insight to see the breed as a world wide gene pool and set out to improve his breed, not only in his own kennel or even his own country, but on a world wide scale. To achieve this he sent many good dogs to the Four Corners of the world. Some of these dogs were bred by him, some were not, but all of them had "of Ware" breeding behind them. He also had the very rare insight to import dogs back to England when he considered these dogs had the qualities and pedigrees to improve his lines at home. Like his father before him he also purchased many dogs over the years that became great stud dogs and stalwarts of the breed.

Just some of these dogs were: CH. Foxham Migrant, CH.Joyful Joe, Bazel Otto, Grindon Gerald, Dominorum D'arcy, and Hampton Guard (Imp. America).

Some were purchased and given "of Ware" names such as Broadcaster of Ware (Imp. Canada), and many others. 

In those early days the breeder did not automatically register their pups with their prefix or suffix, indeed in the very early days affixes did not exist. Often the purchaser would register dogs with their own kennel name or even change the dogs' name entirely. This is still confusing historians of all breeds to this day.

Mr Lloyd was indeed the leading light in taking the cocker spaniel from the new minority breed that it was in his fathers day, to the No.1 most popular breed in the world in his own heyday!

How did he achieve this?

Anyone who puts a dog and bitch together to produce puppies can call themselves a breeder. Even the dreaded back yard breeder and puppy farmers who only bring disrepute to the dog world! To be a good breeder every care must be taken to ensure the good health and happiness of your breeding stock and puppies when striving to improve your stock and your breed. It takes a master breeder to do this consistently. This can only be achieved with a working knowledge and understanding of genetics and linebreeding.

You must first learn how to read a pedigree before you can successfully linebreed to manipulate the gene pool. This cannot be done in one generation. The master breeder must have the patience and persistence to think in generations and gene pools. Only then will the goal be achieved.

Studying Mr Lloyds pedigrees show the bringing together of lines over many generations to form superb tapestries of linebreeding rarely seen these days. Not content to linebreed to one good dog, he mastered the art of bringing the gene pools of many good dogs together to breed great ones. This enabled him to consistently produce high quality dogs in such numbers that he could send them around the world for the betterment of his beloved breed.

The pedigree of "Witchdoctor of Ware" is a good example. If you take 6 different coloured felt pens, start at the front of the pedigree and work back through each generation. As soon as a dog appears twice, give it a colour and underline it every time it appears in the pedigree with that colour. Repeat this process till you can find no other duplications and have used all the colours. Furthermore the 5^th generation reveals another 6 duplications. Now master breeders can stand back and admire the handiwork of THE GRANDMASTER. The novice may well be confused, but if they are smart will take a major learning curve. The ordinary or hobby breeder will not understand or see the point and sadly for their breed, never will.

Of course this was not achieved alone and Mr Lloyd worked well with his contemporaries to achieve his goal. The most famous of these partnerships was with Mrs. Jamieson Higgens of "Falconers" who was a great master breeder in her own right. Her great brood bitch "Falconers Cowslip" was bred by Mr Lloyd, and as she preferred to have just bitches, the dogs usually went to "of Ware". Mr Lloyd inherited the "Falconers" prefix from her in 1950.

Mrs. Jennifer Lloyd Carey remembers her father being followed around at shows by an entourage of breeders and exhibitors, carefully listening to his every word. People would ask his advice on what dog to put their bitch to and he would look at the bitch and her pedigree, then suggest the dog he considered the right choice for her. Mr Lloyd would do this, not only for his own breed, but for breeders of other breeds as well, then taking great interest in the resulting puppies, sometimes purchasing a promising puppy from that litter for "of Ware". The most famous example of these purchases was the great "Tracey Witch of Ware" bred by Miss Denise Weldon.

The "of Ware" kennels also housed several champions of other breeds. In gundog breeds there were at least two Clumber spaniels, a field spaniel and also an English pointer. Mr Lloyds' Springer spaniels were a great influence to that breed at that time, in particular Triple F.T.Ch.Wakes Wager. This dog was litter brother to F.T.CH.Busylad of Ware being sired by F.T.CH.Busy Podge of Ware. Also Int. CH. Springbok of Ware sired 24 champions in England, America, Canada and India.

In terriers there were at least an Airedale, a smooth fox terrier and a wire fox terrier.

The combination of a good dog presented and handled so well is always attractive to judges. As a great showman and exhibitor, Mr Lloyd reigned supreme for nearly fifty years. Often travelling by train to shows, especially in Scotland and Ireland. It is written that he never 'handled' a dog in the ring, they seemed to 'SHOW' themselves, freestanding and moving on a loose lead to perfection. This was not only with his own dogs, for in the early days Mr Lloyd handled other peoples dogs, and different breeds as well.  Even if he had never even met the dog before, the result was always the same!

This "MAGIC TOUCH" is a truly rare gift indeed!!!!!!

Not only training dogs for the 'show ring' Mr Lloyd was an extremely good 'gundog' handler and trainer for the field. But as there are only 24 hours in every day, he actually trained and set up his own handler to train his field dogs and handle them in field trials. Mr Lloyd was also an active 'field trial' judge and was a great believer of the cocker as a field dog. But his ability as a trainer of dogs did not stop there! Appointed by the Home Office to establish a police experimental school in 1934 at Newbury.  Not believing in attack work, he trained what would now be known as 'sniffer dogs' and liked to use Labradors for this work. During the Second World War he turned his talents to "war dogs" when the War Office appointed him as technical advisor and head trainer, which included mine detection dogs and their handlers. NO dogs or handlers (trained by Mr Lloyd) were killed in action. For this service he was awarded an M.B.E. so in fact his full title is "Mr.H.S.Lloyd. M.B.E." 

He would only judge cockers overseas until 1954 when he judged the bitches at the Midland Cocker Spaniel Club Championship show at home, he awarded a red bitch 'Cornbow Myosotis' the challenge.

Mr H S Lloyd M.B.E. truly was, not only THE GRANDMASTER of all breeders, but was without doubt THE GRANDMASTER of all dogmen! Below is a partial list of his field and show achievements of just a few of the 'of Ware" stars.

# SIX TIMES Best in Show at Crufts in 1930 and 1931 by Luckystar of Ware, then in 1938 and 1939 by Exquisite Model of Ware. Tracey Witch of Ware won the next two Crufts after the war in 1948 and 1950(cockers made a record entry of 1008 entries and Marcus of Akron of Ware was dog Challenge). Then in 1953 at seven and a half years of age, Witch also won best bitch in show. Also in 1934 Whoopee of Ware won Best Gundog and Reserve (Runner-Up) in Show, in 1936 Silver Templa of Ware won Best Gundog and Reserve (Runner-Up) in Show and in 1952 Sh.Ch.Joywyns Blueboy of Ware won Best Gundog.

# 30 CCs.  won at Crufts by dogs from the kennel.

#More than 200 times awarded All Breeds Best In Shows in Great Britain alone, and a like number abroad.

# "Of Wares" and their progeny won upwards of 3,000 Championships (Challenges).

# At least 200 champions worldwide owned or bred at "of Ware".

# Best Exhibit in Show at the Cocker Club Championship Show won 9 times.

# The Field Trial Cocker Championship Stakes won 3 times by: -

   Int. F.T.CH. Barney of Ware, F.T.CH.Tornado of Ware and F.T.CH.Tiptoe of Ware.

#International F.T.CH.Barney of Ware also won the English F.T. Championship Stake, then won the Indian F.T.Championship stake TWICE.

# Three years in succession winning the "Dog World" 100 guinea Gold Cup for the dog most frequently winning "Best in Show" at Championship shows in U.K.

# At least 5 times Best in Show at Australian Royal Shows won by "of Wares" or their progeny.

# 8 times the Governor's Cup in Calcutta won by Irridescent of Ware

# 23 first prizes won at field trials with cockers.

# At least 7 cocker Field Trial Champions bred at "of Ware".

CH.INVADER OF WARE, sire of the homebred "F.T.CH.Tornado of Ware", winner of the Kennel Club Field Trail Championship Stake. Sire of 12 Champions, and some 40 other C.C. winners, inc. Falconers Cowslip 11CCs, and Vivary Crusader 25 CCs. Unbeaten in class, shown 88 times for 88 firsts and 12 challenges

LUCKYSTAR OF WARE, as a puppy created a record by winning 135 first prizes and 8 Challenge Certificates. In the nine weeks before his first birthday he won 4 Best in Shows. In total he won 367 first prizes, 32 Challenge Certificates and as many Best in Shows including Crufts twice! Sire of 6 Champions and many other winners!

WHOOPEE OF WARE, Pre-War record holder (all breeds) with 56 Challenge Certificates, 28 times Best In Show winner including the 1933 and 1936 Cocker Club Championship Shows. Crufts Best of Breed cocker and about 500 first prizes. Sire of twelve Champions and many other C.C. and in Show winners!

EXQUISITE MODEL OF WARE won 53 Challenge Certificates, a pre-war record for a bitch, only exceeded by her sire with 56 c.c.s. Twenty Best in Shows Including Crufts twice!

TRACEY WITCH OF WARE Won 52 Challenge Certificates and repeated the wins of her grandsire Luckystar of Ware by winning Best in show at Crufts twice.

Here are just some of his words of wisdom. Quotes from not only his books, but also "with thanks" to the memories of his daughter Mrs. Jennifer Lloyd Carey without whose kind help this tribute could not have been written.

* Ability to work is the basis of the standard.

* Exaggeration is just another word for extinction.

* Stamina can be inbred, as well as ruined.

* Moderation in all things.

* Never lose sight of the fact that a Cocker comes under the gundog Group and is recognized the world over as a working dog and not only as a thing of beauty.

* A cocker should be built like a well made hunter and move like a train. Must have depth of brisket, spring of rib, were points he was particularly keen on. Have pounds for inches, a lot of dog in a small space.

* Soundness in constitution, soundness in movement fore and aft, and last but by no means least soundness in intellect are essentials in perpetuating healthy stock.

There are those that say that Mr Lloyds' dogs would not win today, but in which arena and under what judge? Coat presentation may have changed but the "grand sporting dog" underneath should be the same. The exhibitor who has become a judge that looks for the show pony may well discard Mr Lloyds' dogs. But the judge with a true "eye" for a good dog would still find them and make them the winners, with or without coat. In the field they would still be among the best workers in the world!

Still known today by master breeders of all breeds worldwide!

 Mr Herbert Summers Lloyd M.B.E. will always be THE GRANDMASTER. For no one has ever loved their breed more, known their breed better or worked harder for the betterment of they're beloved breeds than THE GRANDMASTER.

May the legend live on forever!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

References

"of  Ware" stud booklets. Copies kindly supplied by Mrs. Jennifer Lloyd Carey and Sharon Damkaer.

Photos from. "The Cocker Spaniel" by H.S.Lloyd M.B.E. 4^th edition published by  "Our Dogs", publishing Co. Ltd. Manchester, England.

Quotes, with thanks to Mrs. Jennifer Lloyd Carey and the Foyles handbook 'Cocker Spaniels' by H.S.Lloyd M.B.E. published by W & G Foyle Ltd. 1958. London. England.