Founded in 1885 the Scottish Collie Club was not the
first club to serve the Collie community, that privilege
goes to The Collie Club established in 1881 but it can
claim to be the oldest surviving Collie Club in the world,
a fitting tribute to an association which serves the Collie in its homeland.

 

The Scots have always be acknowledged to be fiercely individual, so it should be no surprise that they remained independent of any outside control for more than half century which makes tracing their early history almost impossible. We do know that the Scottish Collie Club issued its own version of the Breed Standard in the year they were established, and expected judges north of the border to adhere to it. There is also a record of Mr J. Tait of the famous ‘Wishaw’ kennel being the Scottish Collie Club’s President some time around the beginning of the
twentieth century, but little else.

 

The reasons why the Scottish Collie Club sought Kennel Club
registration in 1939 were lost during the war that erupted later the
same year, official records tell us that the Stewart sisters ‘Chapelburn’
held the secretary’s post jointly, but we have no record about any
war time events, when anything other than the smallest of shows
which were confined to exhibitors within a restricted radius of the
venue were banned.

 

The Scottish Collie Club, one of a handful of breed clubs to maintain
their Kennel Club registration status throughout the war were rewarded
in 1946 when they were invited to host one of the four Rough Collie
Championship Shows, all organised by breed clubs, held that year.
Championship status returned in 1947, but the following year,
in an effort to encourage the return of large General Championship
Shows, the Kennel Club confined this level of competition to All Breed
shows. By 1950 the Kennel Club were again ready to support single breed championship shows, but confined their patronage to the two national clubs,
and it was a further twenty years before the Scottish Collie Club invited
Mrs Nadine George ‘Beulah’ to step into the centre ring on the 16th of May 1970.

Championship status has been maintained since the 1970 show, but finding suitable dates in a crowded calendar is a constant problem. After occupying an April date, when the weather can still be unpredictable this far north, for many years the Scottish Collie Club moved to its present early June date in 2002 seeing an immediate increase in support.

Membership is open to all, whether or not they have Scottish connections.

For more details about what the Scottish Collie Club has to offer
visit our web-site.