Queen Elizabeth (right) doesn't want to leave any corgis (left) behind when she dies. Photos / Thinkstock, AP
Queen Elizabeth (right) doesn't want to leave any corgis (left) behind when she dies. Photos / Thinkstock, AP
The Royal Family's first corgi, Dookie, was given to the Queen Mother in 1933 by a breeder with connections to Nazi Germany.
Thelma Gray supplied dogs to Luftwaffe commander Hermann Goering and Joachim von Ribbentrop, Nazi ambassador to Britain.
Dookie, officially named Rozavel Golden Eagle, shared a bloodline with vonRibbentrop's two corgis, which came from Mrs Gray's "Rozavel" kennels in Surrey. She revealed she had supplied dogs to senior Nazis in an article for Dog World magazine in 1940, about a rumour all dogs in Germany except those working in the war would be killed.
She wrote: "There are four dogs only which I feel have reasonable chances of survival ... two chows which I sold to Field Marshal Goering and his secretary, and the two corgis belonging to Herr von Ribbentrop ... I cannot help thinking that they will manage to wangle things so that their pets go unharmed."
The article was uncovered by authors Clare and Christy Campbell during research for their book on war pets, Bonzo's War.
