Paddy: Wilson's labrador

I recently went to see the revival of Yes, Prime Minister in London and that reminded me that you should never be surprised by anything that you find in the prime ministerial files in the National Archives.   Even so, I was surprised when trawling through Harold Wilson’s files to look for anything related to the Isles of Scilly to find a memorandum from a civil servant headed ‘Paddy’, the name of Mr Wilson’s labrador.  

The memorandum assured the prime minister that the Isles of Scilly Council had no intention of banning his dog from the islands.   The Clerk of the Council wrote to the prime minister in January 1976 referring ‘to a lot of stupidity hinging round your poor unfortunate dog, and Tregarthen Mumford has rung me this morning to say you are furious about it all’.   The prime minister was assured that there was no intention of controlling residents dogs ‘in which category you would, of course, come.’

Following an incident in which a Frenchman had been fined for exercising his dog on the lifeboat slip, the Council had become concerned about the spread of rabies from dogs that had not been quarantined landing on the islands.   As the Council saw it, ‘we have a very high number of visiting boats from the Continent; some of these boats carry dogs; it is certain that animals are even now landed illicitly for exercise on some of the off islands; there is a resident population of dogs of uncertain size within the islands, which is greatly added to in the peak holidaying months by mainland dogs brought here by their owners.’

The Council’s proposed solution was to get the Steamship Company to refuse to accept dogs and to ask accommodation providers to refuse to accept visitors intending to bring their dogs with them.    This led to a storm in the national press and the town hall received ‘a spate of letters from animal lovers accusing the Council of sinister motives’.

A number of government departments were involved in consultations on drafting a diplomatic letter from the prime minister to the islands Council.    The prime minister expressed his ‘deep concern’ about rabies and gave his assurance that any constructive proposals would be fully considered, but tactfully pointed out that some of the suggestions made might involve extra work for the harbour master.

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