Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office

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Larry , the current Chief Mouser

The Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office is the title of the house cat of the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom at 10 Downing Street . Only two cats, Humphrey and Larry , received the title officially, other cats only received the title as a nickname mostly from the British press.

history

The "office" of Chief Mousers has been occupied since the reign of Henry VIII , ever since Cardinal Wolsey placed his cat next to him while he went about his business as Lord Chancellor . Official documents released on January 4, 2005 under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 go back only to June 3, 1929, when AE Banham authorized the Treasury to "keep an efficient cat" 1 penny a day to spend from the postage. In April 1932 the weekly budget was increased to 1 shilling 6 pence. In the 21st century Mouse Hunters 100 costs £ per year.

Since the cats are civil servants, they do not belong to the incumbent Prime Minister and it is rare for the terms of office of Prime Minister and Chief Mouser to coincide. The longest-tenured cat on Downing Street was Wilberforce , who served under Edward Heath , Harold Wilson , Jim Callaghan, and Margaret Thatcher . Larry has filled the post since February 14, 2011 . The term of office of the last owner, Sybil , ended in January 2009. Sybil, who took office on September 11, 2007, was the first cat in ten years after her predecessor Humphrey left office in 1997. Sybil belonged to the then Chancellor of the Exchequer Alistair Darling , who at the time lived at 10 Downing Street, while the then Prime Minister, Gordon Brown , resided at 11 Downing Street, which was larger. It is reported that Sybil did not stay in London but returned to Scotland to live with friends of the Darling family. Sybil died on July 27, 2009.

In January 2011, rats scurrying past were spotted repeatedly on the steps of 10 Downing Street during television broadcasts on ITN . Although there was no acting Chief Mouser at the time, the Prime Minister's press secretary announced that there were no plans to hire a cat to solve the problem. Even so, newspapers reported the following day, there was a “pro-cat faction” (“pro-cat faction”) in Downing Street, according to the press secretary, so that the rumors of the imminent replacement of the Chief Mouser post were fueled were. On February 14, 2011, it was reported that a cat named Larry had been called in to address the issue. The Evening Standard reported that the cat was selected by David Cameron and his family. She comes from the Battersea Dogs and Cats Home animal shelter .

On September 16, 2012, it was reported that Prime Minister Cameron had fired Larry and instead appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer Osborne's cat , Freya , as the new Chief Mouser. Some sources, however, speak of a "division of labor" between the two cats in order to avoid hurt feelings. Larry continues to be the only Chief Mouser listed on the No. Downing Street official website. 10 is called.

List of cats

Prime Minister Cameron presents Larry Barack Obama (2011)
Surname Taking office End of office prime minister swell
Treasury Bill 1924 Ramsay MacDonald
Peter fl. 1929 1946 Stanley Baldwin , Ramsay MacDonald, Neville Chamberlain , Winston Churchill , Clement Attlee
Munich Mouser 1937-1940 1943 Neville Chamberlain, Winston Churchill
Nelson 1940s Winston Churchill
Peter II 1946 Clement Attlee
Peter III 1946 1964 Clement Attlee, Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden , Harold Macmillan , Alec Douglas-Home
Peta 1964 circa 1976 Alec Douglas-Home, Harold Wilson , Edward Heath
Wilberforce 1970 1988 Edward Heath, Harold Wilson, Jim Callaghan , Margaret Thatcher
Humphrey 1989 1997 Margaret Thatcher, John Major , Tony Blair
Sybil 2007 2008 Gordon Brown
Larry 2011 David Cameron , Theresa May , Boris Johnson
Freya 2012 2014 David Cameron

See also

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Larry the Cat Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office , number10.gov.uk, accessed August 28, 2012.
  2. ↑ Purr-fect ending for Humphrey! , BBC News . November 25, 1997. Retrieved October 30, 2011. 
  3. ↑ Caroline Davies: More questions over how No 10 handled the kitty . In: The Daily Telegraph , November 24, 1997. Archived from the original on December 5, 2007. Retrieved October 30, 2011. 
  4. ^ Chapter Six. The Cat and the Law. Van Vechten, Carl. 1922. The Tiger in the House . Bartleby.com. Retrieved October 30, 2011.
  5. ↑ a b c d e Home Office cat history revealed , BBC News . January 4, 2005. Retrieved October 30, 2011. 
  6. ↑ The official Home Office cat . In: HM Government . The National Archives . 1929-1976. Retrieved October 30, 2011.
  7. ^ Tale of Home Office cat . In: Metro , Associated Newspapers , January 4, 2005. Retrieved October 30, 2011. 
  8. ↑ David Millward: Humphrey ... the Downing Street dossier . In: The Daily Telegraph , March 15, 2005. Retrieved October 30, 2011. 
  9. ↑ Ben Fenton: Cats that left a mark in the corridors of power . In: The Daily Telegraph , January 4, 2005. Archived from the original on May 23, 2005. Retrieved October 30, 2011. 
  10. ↑ No. 10 has its first cat since Humphrey . September 12, 2007. Retrieved October 30, 2011. 
  11. ↑ Assinder Nick: No 10 gets new feline first lady , BBC News . September 12, 2007. Retrieved October 30, 2011. 
  12. ↑ A Country Life for the No. 10 Cat . In: Daily Mail , January 30, 2009. Retrieved October 30, 2011. 
  13. ↑ Andrew Pierce: Downing Street cat Sybil dies . In: The Telegraph , July 29, 2009. Retrieved October 30, 2011. 
  14. ↑ Andy McSmith: Farewell to the original New Labor cat . In: The Independent , July 29, 2009. Retrieved October 30, 2011. 
  15. ↑ Another rat spotted on steps of Number 10 . In: ITN , MSN , January 24, 2011. Retrieved October 30, 2011. 
  16. ^ A b "Pro-cat faction" urges Downing Street rat rethink , BBC News . January 25, 2011. Retrieved October 30, 2011. 
  17. ↑ a b c Craig Woodhouse : Larry the tabby lands No 10 job as rat catcher . In: Evening Standard . Evening Standard Ltd , February 14, 2011, accessed April 22, 2018 .
  18. ↑ a b c A paw performance! Larry the Downing Street cat is sacked as Number 10's chief mouse catcher after chillaxing too much on the job . September 16, 2012. Retrieved February 2, 2013. 
  19. ↑ Mel Campbell: 'Miaow, Prime Minister': the bureaucats of Downing Street . In: Crikey , May 19, 2010. Retrieved January 25, 2011. 
  20. ↑ David Irving: Churchill's War Volume II: Triumph in Adversity . Focal Point Publications, 2001, ISBN 1-872-19715-9 , p. 833.
  21. ↑ a b Riddles, Mysteries, Enigmas . In: The Churchill Center (ed.): Finest Hour . No. 110, Spring 2001.
  22. ↑ Riddles, Mysteries, Enigmas . In: The Churchill Center (ed.): Finest Hour . No. 109, winter 2000-2001.
  23. ↑ Jane Merrick: Ten years after the Humphrey hoo-ha, a cat returns to Downing Street . In: Daily Mail , Associated Newspapers, September 11, 2007. Retrieved March 12, 2008. 
  24. ↑ Humphrey the Cat . Cabinet Office , archived from the original ; accessed on February 6, 2016 (English, original website no longer available).
  25. ^ Morning press briefing from 11 September 2007 . At: 10 Downing Street . HM Government . September 11, 2007. Archived from the original on January 4, 2008. Retrieved October 30, 2011.
  26. ^ Larry the cat escapes Downing Street eviction. BBC News, July 12, 2016, accessed July 14, 2016 .
  27. ↑ Boris Johnson is British Prime Minister - does the cat Larry have to move out of Downing Street now? July 25, 2019, accessed July 25, 2019 .
  28. ↑ George Osborne's family cat Freya sent away from Downing Street to Kent ; The Independent, November 9, 2014