Early History of the Pomeranian Breed in NSW

By Margaret Ansell

One of the earliest known Pomeranians to be brought to our country was a chocolate introduced by the late Jack maude;s father in 1910.Unfortunately no records exist relating to him. The next Sydneysider on record to import from the UK was a Mr Cook of Summer Hill, the first owner of Orange Poms in NSW

From 1929 until 1947 the club incorporating Pomeranians, was known as the Pekingese and Pomeranian Club. First winner of it's vice-president cup was a Mr Hawkless of Hawklock Kennels. The last winner in 1947, and also outright winner,was Mr C.Lambert. It was in this year that the club disbanded and Pekingese exhibitors formed their own breed club.

From 1947 until 12 years later, Pomeranians had no club of their own and were only a part of the local toy dog club. Within these 12 years many changes took place in relation to exhibiting the breed, in particular the size and weighing of exhibits. In these earlier years, there were varying colors, including white,black,chocolate and wolf sable and any dog appearing to be in excess of 7 lbs underwent a weight check during the course of exhibiting.

It's interesting to note that in 1948 Mr Claude Lambert won both miniature and overweight Pomeranian Championships with Egyptian Hurricane [Min.] and Egyptian What's wanted. The Egyptian prefix was carried on by Claude's daughter Mrs Phil Lawton.

A change to weighing of Pomeranians eventuated when Mrs Bourke moved from Queensland to take up residence in N.S.W. , and subsequently became a member of the RAS. She instigated the ruling out of different classes for the breed and initiated the requirement that dogs exhibited should average 4 1/2 lbs and the bitches 5 1/2/ lbs. This then ended the weighing of the breed and any exhibit in excess of this average was no longer shown.

Early prefixs

Some of the known and shown prefixes in these earlier times were Eqyptian [C. Lambert], Wenya [Mrs Agnew], Lilyfield [Mrs Kincaid], Pekin, Remohu, Pomanu, Woodhill, Hawklock, Rado [Mr & Mrs Askew], Muronva [Muriel Boggs], Angora [Mrs Morcana} and Waverley [ Mrs Cavangh]. Some of the very early breeders in Victoria were Maybole [ Mrs Leveridge], Mountroyal [ Mrs Montcrieff ,Mrs O'Toole Cliffdale, Oakland [Mrs Esler], and more.
Claude Lambert got into the breed in the early twenties. A butcher by trade, he bought a white Pom, with pedigree, for two pounds and months meat from an old lady who said she could nto afford to keep the dog.