I am grateful to Irene Slater who sent me the following blast from the past.
“A couple of years ago we were at Lewes Farmers Market with one of our dogs when a lady passing by said ‘that’s a Finnish Spitz!’ She explained that she had worked as a kennel maid for Mrs de la Poer Beresford near Lewes in the mid-1940s when she had looked after several Finnish Spitz. She said her name was Marion Dale (formerly Bell) and she no longer lives in the area but has relatives nearby. A few months ago, we met her and her daughter at Lewes Farmers Market by chance again. She said she had a photo somewhere of her with some of Mrs Beresford’s dogs and would try to find it. We said we would love to see it and hear more about her time as a kennel maid. In early July, we invited her to our house to see our dogs and six-week-old puppies. Her daughter Isobel kindly came with her and we had a lovely afternoon together. She has now written a long article with several pictures about her time with Mrs Beresford. Hopefully her article will be published in the Society’s next newsletter for you to read.” This will be passed to the editor(s) of the FSS’s newsletter when received and should then be available to members.