The Jack Russell terrier is the King and Queen’s canine companion of choice. Photo / Getty Images
The Jack Russell terrier is the King and Queen’s canine companion of choice. Photo / Getty Images
Opinion by Kate Wills
Kate Wills is a freelance travel and features writer, covering stories for The Telegraph, Vogue, The Times, The Guardian, Elle, ES Magazine, Grazia and more.
THREE KEY FACTS
Queen Camilla’s Jack Russell, Beth, was put down on November 18 due to an inoperable tumour.
Queen Elizabeth owned more than 30 corgis over her lifetime.
Camilla and King Charles prefer Jack Russell terriers, known for their loyalty and energetic personalities.
With studies showing that dog breeds can reflect their owners’ personalities, Kate Wills explains what these pets may tell us about their royal owners.
A message posted on the royal family’s X account said: “A sad farewell to Beth, the Queen’s much-loved companion from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home who brought such joy, whether on walkies, helping on official duties or curled up by the fire.”
Camilla, 77, was so attached to her Jack Russell terriers – Bluebell and Beth – that their images were embroidered into her coronation gown. They regularly tagged along at royal duties and in 2020, as seen in the video below, Beth even helped unveil a plaque at the new kennels at Battersea Dogs and Cats rescue centre in Windsor. A hidden piece of sausage was tied to the rope cord.
Beth and Bluebell also appeared as the “Girls In Pearls” when Camilla guest edited an edition of Country Life magazine.
Queen Camilla's Jack Russell Terrier, Beth, was recently put down after suffering from an untreatable tumour. Photo / Getty Images
Just as Queen Elizabeth was devoted to her corgis, Camilla is a long-term fan of the Jack Russell. When she adopted Beth from Battersea Dogs Home in 2011, she already had two elderly Jack Russells called Tosca and Rosie (who have since passed away). Before them was Freddy, another Jack Russell who died in 2008, at the grand old age of 21.
“The nice thing about dogs is you can sit them down. You could have a nice long conversation, you could be cross, you could be sad and they just sit looking at you wagging their tail,” Queen Camilla said on BBC Radio 5 Live in 2020.
It’s a passion she shares with King Charles, who lost his Jack Russell terrier Pooh in the woods at Balmoral in 1994 and never found him. After Pooh came Tigga, who was by Charles’s side during polo matches and in many a family Christmas card. Tigga was put down in 2002 at age of 18, but is immortalised in a willow sculpture in Highgrove Gardens, the King’s country estate in Gloucestershire.
So what does it reveal about the King and Queen that the Jack Russell is their canine companion of choice? It’s a well-known phenomenon that dogs and their owners look alike, but in 2022 the Kennel Club published research that found that people are likely to pick dogs with similar personalities to them. According to the findings of the Kennel Club’s study, Jack Russell owners are loyal, faithful and good listeners.
“Jack Russells have a great sense of humour and a mind of their own,” says Bill Lambert, Kennel Club spokesman. “They don’t go with the crowd. They have their own opinions and views and we see that with the King and Queen. They are also happy dogs with lots of energy and there’s a similarity with Charles and Camilla there too.”
Lambert says that Jack Russell terriers are currently increasing in popularity, in part because of social media and high-profile owners like the King and Queen.
Queen Camilla with Beth, her Jack Russell Terrier, in 2020. Photo / Getty Images
“Jack Russell terriers are funny, tenacious and energetic. They are agile, quick and work on their own. They are like pocket rockets who love to curl up in front of a fire so long as they have had a busy day,” says Louise Glazebrook, dog behaviourist and author of Everything Your Puppy Wants You to Know. “And by busy, I don’t mean a walk around the block. You need to work really hard at giving them jobs, stimulating their brain and making sure they have a life filled with work or they will go off-piste.”
Glazebrook says these little dogs are best suited to those who have the ability to exercise, train and channel their natural instincts. “They are suited to people who like to be busy and it is why many people have them on smallholdings or in country settings, as they can keep the vermin at bay whilst also helping out with jobs around the garden,” she says. “They are not a lap dog or an ‘easy’ dog to do one walk a day and then leave them to it. That definitely will not work. I imagine the Queen’s dogs adored the houses, the grounds and the ability to be busy wherever they went.”
Beth may have lived a life of luxury at Buckingham Palace, but she wasn’t even the world’s most pampered Jack Russell. That title would probably go to one of Mariah Carey’s dogs – she currently has eight – the Good Reverend Pow Jackson, Mutley P Gore Jackson The Third, Jill E Beans, Pipitty Jackson, Cha, Jackie Lambchops, JJ and Squeak E Beans.
Carey’s Jack Russells enjoy jacuzzi baths, go surfing with her and wear matching Gucci. She sent them to pet therapy to cope with adjusting to the birth of her twins, and hand-feeds them strawberries. One was once driven 4828km from New York to Los Angeles in his own chauffeur-driven limo because he wasn’t able to travel first class on a plane.
Mariah Carey performs with one of her Jack Russell terriers during the NFL Kick-Off Concert in 2012. Photo / Getty Images
It’s certainly a world apart from the life of the first Jack Russell, who was bred by Parson John Russell around 1815. While at Oxford University, Russell discovered “Trump” (no, not that one), a white terrier he spotted hitching a ride on the back of a milk wagon. A keen huntsman, Russell made Trump the mother of the first Jack Russell terrier. Trump was mostly white, which Russell preferred, as spotting a white dog while hunting is much easier than spotting a dog with dark markings.
Swimbridge in Devon, where John Russell was parson for more than 40 years, has a pub called the Jack Russell Inn, and its sign is a reproduction of a painting of Trump, which was commissioned by the then Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII). The original still hangs at Sandringham.
Jack Russell terriers were bred to hunt foxes throughout the 19th century, as they were able to cover long distances while also being small enough to enter a fox den. Their ability to hunt vermin made them an ideal farm dog.
After World War II, the need for hunting dogs declined, as did the numbers of Jack Russell terriers. They became domestic pets, and are especially popular in Australia, but weren’t recognised as an official pedigree by the Kennel Club until 2016.
The Jack Russell terrier has also been part of some iconic pop culture moments. When the artist Francis Barraud noticed his terrier Nipper listening intently to the phonograph, the resulting painting became His Master’s Voice (1899), and subsequently the logo for EMI and HMV.
Chef Rick Stein’s dog Chalky was an unforgettable feature of his TV shows, and Eddie, from the sitcom Frasier, reportedly received more fan mail than any of the human actors.
Eddie, played by Moose, frequently stole the spotlight from his two-legged Frasier co-stars Kelsey Grammar, John Mahoney and David Hyde Pierce. Photo / Getty Images
The breed enjoyed a surge in popularity in 2011, after the scene-stealing Uggie was made a star by the Oscar-winning movie The Artist. A campaign was even launched to give Uggie an Oscar, and his memoir, Uggie, the Artist: My Story, was published in 2012. There was reportedly also a “Boris Bounce” in 2020, with Jack Russell terriers in high demand after Boris and Carrie Johnson moved their Jack Russell-cross Dilyn into Downing St.
Of course, Camilla is in good royal company with her loyal affection for one particular dog breed, which dates all the way back to King Charles and the eponymous Cavalier spaniels he went everywhere with. Queen Elizabeth II was known for her intense devotion to her corgis. She got her first aged 7 and owned more than 30 over her lifetime, even breeding Dorgis (when Princess Margaret’s dachshund Pipkin mated with one of the Queen’s corgis, Tiny).
What the royals’ dogs say about them
Princess Margaret loved her Sealyham terriers so much that she had them brought to her bedroom every morning with her breakfast tray, and posed for a portrait by Cecil Beaton with one of them.
Princess Anne’s dog of choice is the bull terrier, but in 2002 she became the first royal in more than a century to attend court, where she was found guilty under the Dangerous Dogs Act after her dog Dotty bit two children in Hyde Park. Another bull terrier, Florence, was blamed for attacking one of the Queen’s corgis, Pharo, in 2003, which later had to be put down due to the injuries sustained. One can imagine the awkward family dinners after that.
As is appropriate for the couple credited with bringing some much needed warmth to the royals, the Prince and Princess of Wales have gone for a cuddlier breed. Kate and William’s cocker spaniel Lupo, who died in 2020, featured in so many family photo shoots that he became a celebrity in his own right. The family currently own another cocker spaniel, Orla, which William has revealed sleeps in their bed.
Prince William carrying his cocker spaniel Lupo at The Golden Metropolitan Polo Club Charity Cup polo match in 2012. Photo / Getty Images
The owners of cocker spaniels also topped the Kennel Club’s research for being the most family-orientated, which seems to fit the Waleses down to a tee.
Although the Queen is currently grieving the loss of Beth, the King let slip to Amanda Holden at the Royal Variety Show that they are planning to get a new four-legged friend for Christmas. No prizes for guessing which breed it’s likely to be.
And while Beth has gone to the doggy kennel in the sky, she’s not forgotten. This year Highgrove is bringing out a range of charity Christmas ornaments that includes a likeness of Beth. Embellished with gold metal thread work and sequins, the decorations cost £12.95 ($28) each. Bluebell is also available.
