Peter III
Peter, c. 1962
Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office
In role
27 August 1947 – 9 March 1964
Monarchs
Prime Minister
Preceded byPeter II
Succeeded byPeta
Personal details
Bornc. 1947
Died (aged 16)
Resting placeIlford, Essex, England
ResidenceHome Office
OccupationMouser

Peter III (c. 1947 – 9 March 1964) was a cat who served as the chief mouser to the Cabinet Office from 1947 to 1964. He was the successor to Peter II, who died after being hit by a car in Whitehall. He served under five prime ministers: Clement Attlee, Winston Churchill, Anthony Eden, Harold Macmillan, and Alec Douglas-Home. He was euthanised after suffering a liver infection, aged 16, and was succeeded by Peta, a Manx cat. He was buried in Ilford, Essex.

Life and career

Peter became the chief mouser to the Cabinet Office on 27 August 1947 following the death of Peter II, who had been hit by a car in Whitehall.[1][2] He was still a kitten when he assumed the role and wore a tartan cat collar with a medallion bearing his name.[3] Peter attracted widespread public attention following an appearance on the BBC current affairs programme Tonight in 1958;[4][5] he also had a large fanbase in both Italy and the United States and received letters and gifts from Australia.[5][6] In 1958 a worker at the Home Office, in response to a letter complaining that Peter's food allowance was too low, noted that he had left the chewed body of a pigeon inside his desk, and, as he had not fully eaten it, was therefore "not suffering from starvation".[4]

In October 1958 it was reported that Peter's living allowance had been raised due to rising costs; a Home Office spokesman said that "everyone seems satisfied that he does his job well".[7] However, Peter did not receive a pay increase in 1962, during the chancellor of the Exchequer Selwyn Lloyd's "Pay Pause".[3][8] In 1960 Peter defecated on a doormat near the Cenotaph shortly before the Remembrance Day ceremony; it was disposed of by a civil servant before the Queen arrived.[6] Peter appeared on the home secretary's official 1958 Christmas card,[9] and in an October 1962 issue of the magazine Women's Realm.[4] Throughout his life, Peter made a number of appearances in media, including in television and film.[10] Speaking in 2017, Chris Day, the head of Modern Domestic Records at the National Archives, called Peter "the first superstar cat of Whitehall".[5]

Death and burial

The procession immediately preceding the burial

Peter was euthanised on 9 March 1964 after suffering an incurable liver infection, aged 16.[11][12] Two days after his death Ronald Garvey, the lieutenant governor of the Isle of Man, offered the Home Office a Manx cat;[13] on 8 May he was replaced by that cat, called Peta.[14] Peter's burial was held "with full honours" on 13 March 1964 at the PDSA pet cemetery in Ilford, Essex, at a plot of land that had been "reserved for Peter for several years".[10] It was immediately preceded by a procession including a donkey, two women from the Home Office staff and various journalists and photographers.[15][16] He was buried in a brass-handled veneered oak coffin,[note 1] on which a nosegay of daffodils and anemones had been placed, along with a card which read "To Peter, from an animal lover";[10] this was lowered into the grave from "a purple-draped wheelbarrow".[18][19] At the burial, Amy Gough, a civil servant, said:[19]

We'll miss him. He was the friendliest cat ... he slept in in-trays, and on copies of The Times, and he was particularly fond of liver.

See also

References

Notes

  1. ↑ The Daily Herald states instead that the handles were made of gold.[17]

Citations

  1. ↑ "Whiskers in the workplace: More cats with careers". BBC News. 3 February 2018. Archived from the original on 30 June 2023. Retrieved 30 June 2023.
  2. ↑ Coke, Hope (4 November 2022). "A Prime Minister's best friend!". Tatler. Retrieved 30 June 2023.
  3. 1 2 "Poor Peter". Liverpool Daily Post. 28 June 1962. p. 8. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 Day, Chris (7 June 2016). "The bureaucats at the heart of government". The National Archives. Archived from the original on 6 July 2023. Retrieved 30 June 2023.
  5. 1 2 3 Day, Chris; Whitworth, Carriane (29 March 2017). "Bureau-cats: A short history of Whitehall's official felines". The National Archives. Archived from the original on 6 July 2023. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  6. 1 2 Fenton, Ben (4 January 2005). "Cats that left a mark in the corridors of power". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 10 April 2018.
  7. ↑ "British raise allowance of official mouser". The Bellingham Herald. Associated Press. 19 October 1958. p. 19. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  8. ↑ "Bureaucratic cat". Londoner's Diary. Evening Standard. 30 June 1962. p. 4. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  9. ↑ Adams, Penny (27 May 1964). "Fan letters for Home Office cat". Coventry Evening Telegraph. p. 16. Retrieved 30 June 2023.
  10. 1 2 3 "Full honours at funeral of Home Office cat". Birmingham Post. 14 March 1964. p. 18. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  11. ↑ "Home Office lose a hired killer.". Daily Mirror. 10 March 1964. p. 3. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  12. ↑ "Happened over 'ome". The Windsor Star. 14 March 1964. p. 31. Retrieved 6 July 2023.
  13. ↑ "Whitehall hires a Manx cat". Daily Mirror. 13 March 1964. p. 3. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
  14. ↑ "Home Office cat history revealed". BBC News. 4 January 2005. Retrieved 17 February 2021.
  15. ↑ "Burial of government cat". The La Crosse Tribune. 14 March 1964. p. 1. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  16. ↑ "Home Office cat laid to rest in British ceremony". Hartford Courant. Associated Press. 14 March 1964. p. 5. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  17. ↑ Dawes, Frank (9 May 1964). "New Manx cat-in Manx". Daily Herald. p. 8. Retrieved 30 June 2023.
  18. ↑ "No mice attend: British bury 'Home Office' cat". The Decatur Daily Review. Associated Press. 14 March 1964. p. 8. Retrieved 5 July 2023.
  19. 1 2 "A top cat is buried". Daily Mirror. 14 March 1964. p. 2. Retrieved 4 July 2023.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.