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Downing Street Cats

Sybil, Humphrey and Wilberforce

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We're delighted to report that Humphrey has a successor! After 10 catless years at the PM's residence, on 11 September 2007 a new resident of 10 Downing Street made her public debut. Sybil is a black-and-white female, and the Downing Street website reported that 'Sybil has arrived from Edinburgh with Chancellor Alastair Darling and his wife Margaret. She will make her home in the residential quarters of Number 10. Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his family live in the flat above Number 11. Sybil is Downing Street's first cat since Humphrey, who retired in 1997. She will have free rein to come and go around the Downing Street estate.'

The prime minister, Gordon Brown — who lives above no. 11 Downing street but works at no. 10 — and his wife Sarah confirmed via a spokesman that they will be happy to have Sybil around and that she will be free to wander at will over the whole premises. 'It's in the nature of things that cats are difficult to confine,' said the official. A Treasury spokesman said that Sybil is 'a confirmed mouser', so clearly she will be taking over the official mousing duties.

Sybil is apparently named after Basil Fawlty's wife in the celebrated BBC television series, Fawlty Towers but, unlike the probable reaction of her namesake, Sybil the cat seemed slightly unnerved by the press call. A Daily Mail article has some very nice pictures.

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There is a history of cats in the British prime minister's residence and the Treasury dating as far back as the time of Henry VIII. One former Treasury cat was called 'Treasury Bill'; and Wilberforce was the Downing Street cat who 'took office' with Edward Heath in 1970 and remained until 1988 when he died. Margaret Thatcher is reputed to have bought Wilberforce a tin of sardines in Moscow when she was visiting a supermarket there — because there was nothing else to buy! Sir Bernard Ingham said that the cat caused him, as an asthmatic, some trouble when he came to work on Monday mornings as Wilberforce 'lounged on my desk over the weekend in between mouse-catching duties'. The Bridgeman Art Library website displays a painting of Wilberforce, and a number of other well-known cats by the same artist can be seen at two pages of search results.

But it was Humphrey who really brought the position of resident mouser at Downing Street to the public's attention. He was a stray, long-haired, black-and-white cat who became one of the most popular and admired cats in Great Britain. He wandered into the prime minister's London residence of No. 10 Downing Street in October 1989, late in Margaret Thatcher's prime ministership, and remained throughout John Major's term in office (one of the few inhabitants of No. 10 to outlast Mrs T.!). He was about a year old and was named, following a ballot among staff, after Sir Humphrey Appleby in the very popular BBC television comedy show Yes, Minister, and was given the official title of Mouser to the Cabinet Office; his food was paid for by the departmental budget. The cost of £100 a year was said to appeal to Mrs Thatcher because it was much cheaper than hiring a pest-control contractor (the previous one charged £4,000 a year and was said never to have caught a mouse!).

Humphrey's eight years in the corridors of power saw him mingling with the great and the good (and others), which he did with aplomb and the natural dignity of his kind; he was described as a laid-back and relaxed cat, which was probably just as well. He paid scant attention to politicians, heads of state or even royalty (especially those pesky corgis) and seemed quite unfazed by photocalls. There is a delightful book containing various excellent photographs of Humphrey going about his duties (A Day in the Life of Humphrey, as told by David Brawn, published by HarperCollins in 1995). Although officially the No. 10 cat, in fact he wandered freely between No. 10 and No. 11, the residence of the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

His life was not without adventure, though, and when US President Bill Clinton came to visit, Humphrey apparently narrowly escaped being run over by the two-ton, armoured, presidential Cadillac, which naturally he had decided to investigate. Then during John Major's tenure he was accused of killing and devouring baby robins in the No. 10 garden, which caused a bit of a fuss; however, Major staunchly defended him, saying, 'It is quite certain that Humphrey is not a serial killer.' Good for Mr Major!

[Note: some years later it has been revealed that the Daily Telegraph political editor, George Jones, fabricated the whole story about Humphrey and the robins; the cat was never under suspicion. Mr Major had taken George to see some baby robins, but when they got to the nest the birds were dead and seemed to have been abandoned by their parents. It is possible that Mr Major himself was responsible, by disturbing the parent birds. Humphrey is exonerated!]

In 1995 the cat had his greatest adventure, when he disappeared and it was assumed that he had died ('possibly from eating too many Civil Service biscuits', as one commentator wryly put it). But in fact he had wandered just over a mile away to the Royal Army Medical College, where he was presumed to be a stray and was taken in and given food and shelter. Some three months later The Times reported that he was probably dead and published an obituary picture — whereupon the medics realised that their 'stray', known as 'PC', was actually Humphrey! He was duly returned, with international press coverage, and resumed his post as First Mouser.

It perhaps isn't widely known that Humphrey had another adventure away from home when he was 'cat-napped' by a German travel agent, Hanni Velden, who found him wandering around St James's Park. She thought he was a stray and took him home to her apartment in a seventh-floor tower block in Lambeth. When she took him to the vet for a check-up, though, he was recognised by a member of the public, and when the Cabinet Office was phoned they confirmed that he had been missing — so Hanni had to return her 'stray'. And he appeared on the 1996 Downing Street Christmas card!

But then in May 1997 a Labour government was elected, and within six months — on 13 November — he had left his prestigious residence. All kinds of political humour was bandied about ('. . . voting with his paws. After eight happy years under the Conservatives, he could take only six months of Labour . . .'; 'Perhaps, like all other groups who have suffered from Labour's broken promises, he didn't get the loving attention he was promised in May from the new occupants of Number 10'; and so on). Cherie Blair was said to dislike cats and to consider them unhygienic [suggests to me she doesn't know too much about them! - Ed.]: even to be allergic to them. Still, there is a photo of her holding Humphrey here — even if she doesn't look thrilled to bits about it (but neither does Humphrey).

There was even a rumour that poor Humphrey had been 'put to sleep' — possibly for leaving puddles on Tony's carpets to express his disapproval? — but in fact it seems that he was 'retiring from politics for health reasons'. He had had a kidney complaint for some time, and his medical advisers felt that it would be better for him to retire from his hectic environment and take life more easily in the suburbs. A Conservative member of Parliament asked for proof that the cat was still alive, though, and so political journalists took up the case.

Downing Street actually smuggled the media to a secret location in south London; they included Sean Dempsey, who had photographed Humphrey many times. 'He greeted me like an old friend,' said Dempsey, 'and there was no doubt it really was Humphrey.' As hostages are, he was photographed with the newspapers of the day to prove there was no trickery, and with his new pal, a goldfish!

So a political crisis was averted, and the former No. 10 feline continued to enjoy his well-earned retirement. His new owners were not identified, neither was the location; but they said he was happy, had put on weight, and that they had had no trouble with puddles. After some years of living in retirement, perhaps dreaming of the days when he was on familiar terms with the rich and powerful, it was reported on 20 March 2006 that Humphrey had died in his sleep the previous week. He had reached the grand old age of 18.

At the beginning of 2005 many government files became available to the public for the first time under the Freedom of Information Act, and these included some of the papers relating to Humphrey. They can be viewed at the Cabinet Office website and make fascinating reading; but I wonder what happened to the ones before 1996? For example, I enjoyed a 1992 memo that I read of elsewhere stating about Humphrey that: 'He tends to eat little and often, no doubt because he knows he can get food whenever he wants. He is a workaholic who spends nearly all his time at the office, does not socialise a great deal or go to many parties, and has not been involved in any sex or drugs scandals that we know of.'

Perhaps one day we'll be able to read about 'Humphrey: the Early Years'!

Other links:
http://www.moggies.co.uk/html/humphrey.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk/politics/34455.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_31000/31303.stm
http://backword.me.uk/2004/November/ofcatsand.html
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4823834.stm
Painting of Humphrey

NB: perhaps less well known, but also 'employed' by the British government at the Home Office over a period of nearly a century, were several cats named 'Peter': read their story.
You may also like to read about Humphrey's American feline counterpart at the White House, Socks Clinton.

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