Charles Cruft (showman) - Conformation Shows

Conformation Shows

In 1878, whilst still working for Spratt's, Cruft traveled across Europe in order to expand the biscuit business. Whilst in France, he was invited to run the dog show at the third World's Fair whilst he was there promoting Spratt's dog cake, known as the Exposition Universelle. Further offers to run shows came in for Cruft, including an offer to become Secretary of the Dutch Kennel Club, and an offer to run the livestock section of the Brussels and Antwerp International Exhibitions. He took up job offers to run the shows for the Scottish Kennel Club, and became manager of the poultry section of the shows of the Royal Agricultural Society. He also co-founded and became club secretary of the Schipperke Club of Brussels.

By the time Cruft turned 30 in 1882, Spratts had been sold to Edward Wylan who in turn promoted Charles first to "Chief Traveller", and then to General Manager. Under Crufts guidance, the company diversified its product base and expanded into game bird and poultry food markets, as well as producing a range of accessories for cats and dogs. Cruft himself became secretary of the Toy Spaniel Club and the Pug Dog Club. He was also involved in clubs which promoted the Saint Bernard and Borzoi breeds.

In 1886, Cruft was approached to run a dog show for terriers in London by the Duchess of Newcastle, and so on 10 March his show opened at the Royal Aquarium in Westminster, London. Entitled "The first Great Show of all kinds of Terriers", the show received 570 entries across 57 classes and included Lord Alfred Paget among the patrons. Collies and several breeds of toy dogs were added by 1890.

This gradual expansion of breeds led to the creation of the first show to be named after Cruft was in 1891, when "Cruft's Greatest Dog Show" was held at the Royal Agricultural Hall, Islington, with part of the deal to hold the show at that location was to restrict the venue to only allowing Cruft to run dog shows at the location. He designed the logo himself, the head of a Saint Bernard surrounded by a collar with a crown on top. He introduced a system where competitors would pay to enter their dogs, and make additional payments if they wished to take the dogs away each night of the three day competition, and again pay if they wanted to take them away early on the final day. By 1914, the show had grown in popularity until it was recognized as the largest dog show in the world and by 1936 when the show celebrated its Golden Jubilee, over 10,000 dogs were entered at the event. Cruft's shows were frequented by Royalty, with Queen Victoria exhibiting dogs, and King Edward VII also doing so prior to becoming King. In 1893, Tsar Alexander III of Russia sent eighteen Borzois to compete, and from 1916 King George V entered his Labrador Retrievers regularly.

On 7 and 8 March 1894, he experimented with expanding his shows and held his first Cat conformation show. The first show had over 600 entries, becoming easily the biggest of its kind so far, with patrons that included the Duchess of Newcastle, the Countess de Sefton and Lady de Trafford. The publication Fur and Feather praised the new venture and encouraged more. Crufts however wasn't so sure as the initial show had lost over a hundred pounds, and entries in some of the classes were restricted to only a handful of cats. He held a second show in March 1895, which once again Fur and Feather heaped praise upon, despite the cutbacks that Cruft had initiated in order to make the show more profitable. Fur and Feather announced in March 1896 that the cat show had been postponed due to Cruft's other business commitments, but he never went on to run such a show again.

In 1896, Cruft designed special train carriages to carry competition dogs for his shows from around the country. Cruft was Secretary of the Ranelagh Fox Terrier Show in 1901, and together with several colleagues including Sir Humphrey de Trafford created the National Terrier Club, and from the second show onwards on 21 June 1902, the show became known as the National Terrier Show. Cruft continued as Secretary of the club until 1914 when Sir William Savory took on the role.

Despite the fact that he gave away very few details about himself to the press, in order to make them concentrate more on promotion of his shows, he did not always see eye to eye with all members of the media. One newspaper refused to publish his name at all, and whenever it made reference to Cruft's dog shows, it simply referred to them as "a dog show in Islington".