Florence Nagle
Florence Nagle was a British trainer and breeder of racehorses, a breeder of pedigree dogs, and an active feminist. Nagle purchased her first Irish Wolfhound in 1913, and went on to own or breed twenty-one United Kingdom Champions. Best in Show at Crufts in 1960 was awarded to Sulhamstead Merman, who was bred, owned and exhibited by Nagle. She also competed successfully in field trials with Irish Setters, from the 1920s until the mid-1960s resulting in eighteen Field Trial Champions. The male dog who was a linchpin in the 1970s revival of the Irish Red and White Setter breed was descended from one of Nagle's Irish Setters.
Described as "the Mrs. Pankhurst of British horse racing", Nagle trained her first racehorse in 1920, the Irish-bred colt Fernley. At that time women were forced to employ men to hold a Jockey Club trainers licence on their behalf, or to have licences in their husbands' names. Nagle worked peacefully to redress such injustices to her sex. She successfully challenged the well-established leading gentlemen's clubs of the racing and canine worlds over their gender inequality, and in 1966 became one of the first two women in the United Kingdom licensed to train racehorses. The first racehorse officially trained in Nagle's name was Mahwa, registered as being owned by her friend Miss Newton Deakin, with whom she jointly owned some of her dogs.
Dissatisfied with the lack of opportunities for women jockeys, Nagle sponsored the Florence Nagle Girl Apprentices' Handicap first run in 1986 at Kempton Park. She died at her home in West Chiltington, Sussex, two years later at the age of 94, leaving funds in her will for the continuation of the race.
Background and early life
Born in Fallowfield, Manchester, Nagle was the daughter of Sir William George Watson, 1st Baronet of Sulhamstead and his second wife Bessie ; she was also the elder sister of art connoisseur Peter Watson. Nagle was educated at Wycombe Abbey before studying domestic economy at Evendine Court, from which she was expelled after visiting Worcester Cathedral without permission. Accompanied by the daughter of a canon, Nagle had hired a car for the excursion – she was one of the first women in Berkshire to hold a driving licence, gaining it when she was fifteen years old. Her education was completed at a finishing school after which she spent some time in Paris, where she became friends with Megan Lloyd George.Sulhamstead Abbots, Nagle's family home in Berkshire, was used as a hospital during the First World War. There she met James Nagle, a native of Ireland who had emigrated to Canada but returned to serve with the King's Royal Rifle Corps and then had been sent to Sulhamstead Abbots to recuperate. Against her parents' wishes the couple were married on 1 July 1916, resulting in them threatening to disinherit her. The early days of Nagle's marriage were hard; she was used to a wealthy lifestyle – her family money came from her father's successful business, Maypole Dairies – but her parents offered the couple no financial assistance. Nagle always worked hard and subsidised their income by making cream teas, cleaning windows and scrubbing toilets. The couple had two children, a son, David, and a daughter, Patricia.
The marriage was not a success, and her husband ran off with one of the kennel maids. Obtaining a divorce was not easy in the 1920s; when asked in court for the reason James left, Nagle answered "He must have got bored with me." The divorce took place in 1928, five years before her husband's death. At the time of the divorce she was living on a smallholding near Headley, but returned to Sulhamstead in 1932 after inheriting land and money from Sir William. Ten years later, in 1942, she purchased Westerlands, a farm in Petworth, so she could personally oversee the stables.
Working in Folkestone during the Second World War, Nagle managed a canteen for the ARP. She also donated the full cost of £5,000 to purchase a Spitfire named Sulhamstead for the Royal Air Force.
Dog breeding
As a child, Nagle had a Pomeranian and a Bulldog, but was promised she could have a larger dog once her schooling was completed. In 1913 her dream came to fruition with the purchase of her first Irish Wolfhound, Manin Michael, for £5. James Nagle subsequently registered the dog with the Kennel Club, before it was transferred to the ownership of Mr and Mrs Nagle, and its name changed to Sir Michael of Sheppey in May 1917. Food shortages during the First World War resulted in an official prohibition on dog breeding, but Nagle ignored it and bred her first litter from a bitch called Lady Alma of Sheppey.During her marriage, while residing in Concara, Sulhamstead, near Reading, she began breeding dogs and served as a judge of Irish Wolfhounds and Setters; Great Danes and Deerhounds were other breeds she judged at championship show level. Her dogs were exhibited at shows by her husband, who was also a judge of Wolfhounds, and they were entered in his name until the couple divorced.
A bitch puppy, the runt of the litter, was purchased for £48 in 1923 and she became Nagle's first dog to gain the title of Champion. Named Sulhamstead Thelma, she was declared the best Irish Wolfhound bitch and awarded the Challenge Certificate at three consecutive Crufts, in 1925, 1926 and 1927. Her next Champion was Sulhamstead Conncara, a male dog, born in 1925. Conncara was blind, possibly owing to an accident as a young puppy, but Nagle kept that secret until three years after his death, believing that his qualities would have been overlooked by other breeders if they had known. According to Nagle's biographer, Ferelith Somerfield, this dog was "one of the great sires of all time in the breed" and an "outstanding show dog". A prepotent sire, he produced several Champions and other top-class show specimens.
Nagle owned or bred forty-five Wolfhounds who were awarded Challenge Certificates, twenty-one of them Champions. She believed dogs should be capable of carrying out the work the breed was developed to do, and she promoted coursing.
Irish Wolfhounds bred by Nagle were also successful in America; she began exporting dogs there in 1933. Best of breed awards at the Irish Wolfhound Club of America speciality shows were secured by Champion Sulhamstead Matador of Killybracken in 1960 and by Sulhamstead Mars of Riverlawn in 1963. She also judged the national speciality there twice and judged Irish Setters and Irish Wolfhounds at Westminster in 1937. Other countries she exported Wolfhounds to included Sweden, Italy and Uruguay. As late as 1960, Sulhamstead Merman, a 150-pound Irish Wolfhound bred, owned and shown by Nagle at "London's big dog show", Crufts, won the Hound Group and went on to be declared Best in Show or "supreme champion"; the judges were H. S. Lloyd and Fred Cross. She judged the breed twice at Crufts: in 1961, the only time in a nine-year period her dogs were not best of breed there; and in 1970.
Nagle acquired her first Irish Setter, whom she named Sulhamstead D'Or, in 1924 to keep a wolfhound puppy company. In April 1930 she entered him into the All-Aged Stakes at the Kennel Club field trials. In August 1932 she entered a dog named Sulhamstead Token D'Or into the Scottish Field Trials in the same category. At the Kennel Club field trials of April 1933, Nagle entered Sulhamstead Bob D'Or into the All-Aged Stakes and the judge awarded her the prize presented by the Irish Setter Association of England. In September 1934, she entered her Irish Setter Sulhamstead Snip D'Or into the Novice Stake of the Devon and Cornwall Pointer and Setter Society's 12th working trials at Pynes, near Exeter.
In July 1935 Nagle entered the field trials of the Irish Setter Association near Ruabon in North Wales, competing in the Open Stake for Irish Setters and the Puppy Stake for Irish Setters, for puppies which were born the previous year. At the 35th International Gun Dog League trials held at Douglas Castle in August 1935, she was awarded a diploma in the Champion Stakes for Pointers and Setters. The following month, Nagle took the silver perpetual challenge trophy in the Open Stake of the field trials of the Devon and Cornwall Pointer and Setter Society at Newlyn, near Newquay, competing with her Irish Setter Sulhamstead Baffle D'Or. At the Kennel Club field trials for pointers and setters in April 1936, she entered Sulhamstead Bluff D'Or into the All-Aged Stake and was awarded the Penheale Challenge Cup by Captain N. R. Colville for the "best constitutioned dog or bitch, displaying the greatest game-finding ability". At the 18th annual Scottish Field Trial Association's field trials for pointers and setters at Yester estate in Gifford, East Lothian, Scotland in August 1936, Nagle won first prize in the Brace Stake with Sulhamstead Bluff D'Or. The Kennel Club own a pastel painting by Cecil Aldin of two of Nagle's Irish Setters, the Field Trial Champions Sulhamstead Sheilin D'Or and Sulhamstead Valla D'Or. Field trials saw a general downturn in popularity of Irish Setters competing in the 1930s; during the following decade the breed was principally represented by Nagle's dogs. Nagle had eighteen Irish Setter field trial champions during the period she was active in the breed from the 1920s to the mid-1960s. The male dog Harlequin of Knockalla was pivotal in the revival of the Irish Red and White Setter breed in the 1970s; he was a descendant of Nagle's Irish Setter Sulhamstead Natty D'Or, so the Sulhamstead bloodline is behind most modern day red and whites. Nagle withdrew from the field-trial scene in the mid-1960s following the retirement of her handler, George Abbott.
Other breeds she owned included Golden Retrievers and Pointers. Nagle's activities were not confined to dogs and horses. A Berkshire boar named Pamber Ugly Duckling was champion at the Royal Show in 1921. Later he was exported to Argentina, after the purchaser paid what at the time was a record price of £750. During the 1930s she owned Prince Everett of Auchterarder, a prize-winning Aberdeen Angus.