Hello all,
Humphrey the cat has finally passed away after years of service to his nation. Humphrey was found as a stray by a civil servant in 1989 and from October of that year until November of 1997 he was employed at Number 10 Downing Street. He worked his way up through the ranks, attaining the position of Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office (the building adjacent to Number 10) by the time he retired.
He was, of course, named Humphrey after the unforgettable character of Sir Humphrey Appleby, Permanent Secretary to the Department of Administrative Affairs in long running BBC sitcom Yes, Minister. In 2005 the Daily Telegraph made a Freedom of Information Act (2000) request for more info on Humphrey and his time at Number 10 and a series of anecdotes came to light.
In 1993 Humphrey was diagnosed with a kidney ailment and a memo was circulated asking members of staff not to give him treats because it would upset his specially designed diet.
During 1994 Humphrey was accused of murdering a nest of baby robins, an allegation that was vehemently denied by the Whitehall propagandists,
telegraphindia.com/1050315/a … 494494.asp
In June of 1995 Humphrey went AWOL and was for a time presumed dead (his actual death was announced at the time) but it emerged some months later that he’d gone for a wander and had been found and adopted by the nearby medical college. Staff at the college read his obituary and realised that they had the cat and he was returned to Number 10, from where he issued the following statement,
telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh … doss14.xml
By far the biggest scandal of Humphrey’s life came in 1997, with the arrival of the feline-hating Cherie Blair in Downing Street. Her widely acknowledged view that cats are ‘unhygienic’ led some papers to speculate that she had the cat’s blood on her hands. Calls were made (mainly from embittered Tories who had just lost the election) for proof that Humphrey was still alive, which led to the Downing Street press office arranging a meeting for select members of the media at a secret location in south London. Humphrey was photographed, alive and well, next to that mornings newspapers.
Later that year Humphrey was given early retirement due to his health problems. He lived out the remaining 9 years in the care of an as yet unnamed Cabinet Office worker and his death was announced today.
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4823834.stm
telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jh … doss14.xml
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/politics/34455.stm
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humphrey
news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm?tid … =280622005
telegraphindia.com/1050315/a … 494494.asp
You see, I’m not inventing any of this…
