Kit (Katherine) Wilson was a driving force in the British cat fancy in the post-WW2 years. She was instrumental in re-establishing several of the clubs and shows that had lapsed during the war, and in introducing classes for non-pedigree cats that were judged on condition rather than against a standard of points.

Kit was niece of actress Miss Sydney Fairbrother whose own cat was seven times champion of England in its class until she withdrew it from competition to "give someone else a chance" (Yorkshire Evening Post, 3rd May 1930). Miss Fairbrother possessed several copper-eyed white shorthair "Australian Squirrel Cats" (with a fanciful breed history) and the Misses Fairbrother and Wilson bred and boarded cats and dogs on a former farm. In 1935 Kit was a member of the West Hertfordshire Players' Club (her aunt being the club's president) and produced a thriller called "The Bat" (Buckinghamshire Examiner, 11th October 1935). In June 1937, the Grange Amateur Light Opera Society (president Miss Sydney Fairbrother) was inaugurated in Northwood, with Kit being one of the committee members. (Buckinghamshire Examiner, 25th June 1937). Kit's character was later summed up in a review of "Paradise Limited," a play written and produced by a team of Kensington theatrical die-hards in 1947: "Forceful Miss Kit Wilson will be the stage director. One of the few women stage directors, she stage managed Emlyn Williams' ‘Dear Evelyn,' [and] has filled a similar capacity at the Gateway Theatre." (Kensington Post, 8th November 1947). Kit had also played principal boy in panto.

According to the Uxbridge & West Drayton Gazette, 27th November 1936, "Miss Katherine Wilson, of The Red House, Harefield, was summoned for exceeding the 30-mile limit on September 16. She pleaded not guilty. The evidence was that her speed in Batchworth Heath-road varied from 38 to 51 miles an hour. Defendant said she was particularly careful to keep within the limit because on her van she had two large glass bottles, a sick cat and two nervous dogs, Her speedometer did not register more than 28 miles an hour. There being a previous conviction defendant had to pay 30s." Those who knew her forceful personality can easily imagine her berating the poor police office in her booming voice.

When the Siamese Cat Show brought people, mostly cat-owning women, to Chenies-street Drill Hall, Holborn, London, not one child could be found to present bouquets at the prizegiving. Miss Kit Wilson, the show manager, said "Evidently women who keep cats don't keep children." (Cornishman, 29th September 1938)

Her nickname was "Alley Cat" as she championed the cause of strays. The Kensington Post, 17th May 1947 reported " ‘Alley cats don't get a dog's chance,' thinks Miss Kit Wilson, joint hon. sec. of the Kensington Kitten Club and the Neuter Cat Society which have recently joined forces to put ‘cats on the map' again in the Royal Borough. Kit who lives with an actress friend at The Loft in South End, a cul-de-sac of the "lost" village of Kensington, although a well-known figure in the fashionable cat world, keeps only alley cats herself. In an exclusive interview she told a Kensington Post reporter, ‘I think I can say I am unique, in one respect. I am the only cat fancier who keeps solely alley cats. We do intend in our future shows to give the alley cat, the shop cat, the pet without a pedigree, a chance.' "

The Dundee Evening Telegraph, 19th June 1947 added "Household cats whose loyalty to their owners won them distinction as pets during the bombing of London will have pride of place in the first post-war cat show arranged by Kensington Cat Club next month. The decision to encourage the showing of common cats at the same time as pedigree Persians, Siamese and the unique Abyssinia case was taken by the committee following many requests from poor people in the borough. ‘We are delighted to institute classes for the ordinary household cat,' said Miss Kit Wilson, joint hon. secretary of the show."

Kit Wilson in ‘Cats’ (W. and G. Foyle) tells what to look for in acquiring a cat, how to manage them and to keep them in good health. Photographs show several different breeds. - Hull Daily Mail, 18th November 1949

n 1954 she was chairman of the London Branch of the Cats Protection League (Kensington Post, Friday 19 February 1954) and ran a shelter in the Caledonian Road. She was official lecturer of Our Dumb Friends' League (Hastings and St Leonards Observer, 18th September 1954) and spoke at animal welfare events. She became Chairman of the GCCF and was a huge presence in the UK cat fancy was an international cat judge and travelled to France, Denmark and elsewhere to judge at shows. Her own cats were alley cats, such as Old Bill, who had been a bombed-out stray.

At the Hertfordshire and Middlesex Cat Club's show at the Royal Horticultural Hall, "Miss Kit Wilson, who runs a Cat Protection League shelter in the Caledonian Road, was showing four kittens which had been abandoned by their owners. She had rescued one from a dustbin, two from the streets, and one from a lethal chamber. Fed and cared for, they made fine specimens of brown and silver tabbies and a tortoiseshell, and one had already done well at Kensington kitten show in July. The aim is to pass them on to breeders who will not mind their unorthodox origin." (Birmingham Daily Post, 24th September 1955) and according to the Birmingham Daily Gazette, 20th October 1955, "The person who is most loved for all she has done to rescue and befriend stray and unloved cats is a woman too-Miss Kit Wilson of Kensington, who enjoys the nickname of "Alley Cat." She will be judging the "household pets" class at Saturday's show. She should know the points. Her own six pets can't raise a single pedigree between them."

The Birmingham Daily Post, 23rd August 1956 reported "Among prize-winners today at a cat show at Westminster was a Manx tortoiseshell once destined for the lethal chamber. Its owners brought it to be destroyed because the L.C.C. allows no pets in its flats. The cat was rescued by the president of the organising club, Miss Kit Wilson, who is also an organiser from the Cats' Protection League. She said that she hardly ever exhibits because her pets are ‘alley cats' rescued from various hardships. Luckily she made an exception with this protegee and it won a first premiership." According to the Taunton Courier, and Western Advertiser, 26th August 1961, at the Wessex Cat Club show in Bournemouth, ". . . Miss Kit Wilson, public relations officer of the Cat Protection League. "

As to her personality, The Leicester Evening Mail, 24th June 1957 stated "We heard, for instance, from the forceful liaison officer of the Cats Protection League, Miss Kit Wilson, that . . . " Those who knew Kit admiringly describe her as" an uncompromisingly self-assured and not-to-be-questioned Margaret-Rutherford-as-Miss-Marple, but without the soft edges." When she wished, she could effect a booming, carefully enunciated voice that could carry for miles.

In 1959, her work was honoured by the National Pets Club as reported in the Daily Mirror, 7th March 1959: "today we honour a woman in the a forefront of the campaign: a woman whose example can be an inspiration to all who love animals. She is MISS KIT WILSON, a member of the Cats' Protection League. Her devotion to animal wins her the N.P.C.'s Certificate of Merit. A number of animal lovers wrote to tell us of the wonderful work Miss Wilson has done since the Cats' Protection League was first formed in 1927. Apart from helping the League to find homes for unwanted strays, Miss Wilson, with her pet cat-a stray called Bubble-has collected £800 for cat welfare during the past three years. In that time she has driven her car 27,000 miles to speak at meetings and organise fetes. She has travelled in Ireland and on the Continent and given advice to cat protection societies as far away as Israel and America. It is partly due to Miss Wilson's hard work that the Cats' Protection League-a tiny organisation thirty years ago – has twelve branches and more than 30,000 members."

She also became a television personality: "If you like CATS you will attend the talk by Miss Kit Wilson (television "Good Companions" personality) at Torquay Town Hall, Thursday, September 28th, 2.45 p.m. Tickets 5/-, including refreshments, from Mrs Mitchell, Old Barn, Buckfast, or at the door. "(Torbay Express and South Devon Echo, 21st September 1961).

KENSINGTON CHARACTERS (No 12) KIT (‘ALLEY CAT’) WILSON, CAT LOVER AND SHOW JUDGE, EDITRESS AND STAGE DIRECTOR, WHO HAS A GHOST AS A VISITOR Kensington News and West London Times, 13th January 1950
Any morning, afternoon or evening Kit Wilson may be sitting in front of the fire, doing housework or eating meal when there will be a scuffling as her four cats and two dogs all rush to the top of the stairs coming from the front door. And coming up the stairs will be a charming ghost dressed in an eighteenth century lavender coloured gown and followed by a bulldog. Sometimes she will have a man with her, sometimes will sit down, but she will always walk through the flat and out through the far wall of the house which overlooks the back of Kensington Square. Kit herself always sees the ghost as do some her friends and the animals, but Audrey Martyn who shares the flat never does.

Their home, tucked away behind Kensington Square, is one to which ghost may well be specially attached. It has a long and interesting history and is known to have been an inn as well as the stables used by the maids of honour at Kensington Palace who lived in a row of turreted houses at the side of Kensington Square. The poet Gray was born there in 1716 and is commemorated by a plaque inside the flat. Over the front door is another plaque to a man named Colmore-Dunn with nineteenth century date, unfortunately no record of this plaque can be found anywhere and no reason for its erection discovered.

KIT WILSON AND DICK TURPIN’S RUN. Another story that is told about Kit’s home took place in the days when the house was an inn. The famous highwayman Dick Turpin was being chased by the Bow Street Runners and was in the inn. He left the inn mounted his horse which was immediately shot from beneath him onto the cobbles. Turpin jumped from the horse and to the George Inn (bombed during the last war) in Kensington Church Street, got another horse and rode to Edgware. Kit and Audrey discovered their home during the war when they were both ambulance drivers. Before that, Kit had lived in Kensington on and off and the borough had been her mother’s home since Kit was four years old.

Kit (her real name is Katherine) is Kit “Alley Cat” Wilson because of her family of cats. Some time ago someone asked her what kind of cats she had and she replied “alley cats” and the name stuck. Until recently she was Secretary of the Kensington Kitten and Neuter Cat Club and she is chairman of the Governing Council of the Cat Fancy. Much of her time is spent organising and judging Cat Shows and she has also judged shows in Europe. Editing the cat magazine which she started called “The Cat Fancy” takes up a lot more time.

“It was in a moment of madness” she says “everyone said that no cat magazine would run more than six months but ‘The Cat Fancy’ is now in its third year.” Kit writes some of the monthly pocket-sized magazine herself as well as other articles on cats. She has just finished writing a book about cats in a handbook series and is working on a small cat encyclopedia. One day she hopes to write history of the domestic cat.

THE ALLEY CATS. A word about the animals that live in “The Loft,” each with its own bowl and favourite chair. The four cats belong to Kit. Firstly there is “Joshua Squash” who was found last Easter. Black and white “Joshua Squash” has such a fellow feeling for strays that he often brings one home after a night on the tiles and more often than not Kit finds a home for it. Then there is “Colonel Blimp” the oldest. He and “Bombed Billy” often go for walks with Kit and Audrey. “Bombed Billy” the most tattered of the four cats was a stray left behind in a convent by the A.R.P. during the war. The last is “Victor Edward Churchill” so because he born on VE day. One of the two dogs belongs to Kit the other to Audrey Martyn. Kit’s is “Bambi” a black lurcher and Audrey’s “Black Button” is a black dachshund. None of her cats has a pedigree for Kit likes cats “as cats” although she likes judging pedigree cats and has bred and shown them herself.

She anxious for laws for cat protection for at present they are classed as vermin and cannot claim any protection and many are stolen at night for experimental laboratories or furs. But nowadays more people realise the monetary value of pedigree cats for export and no cat of the 26 pedigree varieties is exported without a tree of at least three generations. England is the foremost pedigree cat breeding country. Since she left school Kit’s profession has been the stage, and at the moment she is stage director at the Webber-Douglas School of Dramatic Art in Clareville Street. From the end of the war she was the Gateway Theatre (when it was situated in Chepstow Villas).

ADVICE ON ANIMALS. Before the war she provided animals for films and if the film were historical she found out what animals were popular in that period and how they were treated. If dogs were wanted, for example, how they were clipped. It all began when the director of “Peg Woffington,” a film starring Anna Neagle, asked Kit to get him 27 fluffy photogenic kittens for the film. Kit knew that in the eighteenth century all cats were short haired, told the director and so became animal advisor.

Her advice to anyone who is fond of animals is to do things in quiet manner and in no way become a “crank.” The ghost of a woman and a dog may haunt “The Loft” today but who knows, one day in 2050 A.D. there may be the ghost of a cat with them?

Saving Horses from Slaughter
In 1952 (Kensington Post, 5th September 1952 and 12th September, 1952) she organised the Our Dumb Friends' League Horse Fair and fete in South End and St. Alban's Grove, Kensington (known as Kensington's Lost Village) showing off a horse, a pony and a donkey saved from slaughter through locally raised donations. For nearly a year she was appalled at the wholesale destruction of horses and arranged the collection of milk bottle tops, rags and other salvage, as well as cash donations, to raise funds so that Our Dumb Friends' League could save a pony from slaughter. "Miss Wilson – bluff, volatile and outspoken – told me firmly ‘This is no sentimental affair for the poor little gee-gees" and said that the huge slaughter of horses for human consumption meant that horses were worth more dead than alive and there would be none left for farmers to use. The efforts saved a 35 year old pony called Bobby (to retire in Sussex), 12 year old horse Bill (to go to a farm in Surrey) and 10 year old donkey Edward (to be a pet). The fair raised enough funds to save a mule whose owner could not afford to keep it. By August 1953, the "South End Horse Saving Campaign" had saved three horses, two ponies, one mule and one donkey.

"There is a branch of almost everything in Kensington but oddly enough, in view of the many enthusiastic animal lovers within the Borough's boundaries, the Our Dumb Friends' League is not among the organisations represented here. One of Kensington's liveliest personalities is already planning that something shall be done about it. Miss Kit Wilson, who is chairman of the Kensington Kitten and Neuter Cat Club and an editor of a cat paper, usually brings to fruition any enterprise she plans. This week, in her South End, Kensington flat, we spoke to Miss Wilson about her idea of a Dumb Friends' League in Kensington." (Kensington Post, 21st August 1953) Kit, described in the report as determined and enthusiastic, realised that there were people who were living on a reduced scale after the war, alone in one room, and they needed a social club where they could do some useful work. Hence the Kensington Branch did not medicate animals like many other branches, but did behind the scenes work such as sorting donated foreign stamps for resale, which made it a social club as well as providing practical fund-raising help.

On 21st August 1953, the Kensington Post reported further on her Our Dumb Friends' League project: "I think that in this part of London in particular," said Miss Wilson, "there are many older people who had a sufficient income before the war who are now living on a very reduced scale; you know, in one room, all alone. I think they need some social club in which they can get together and at the same time do some useful work.” It became clear as Miss Wilson went on with her explanations in her own determined and enthusiastic way that she had (although the saying is hardly appropriate) decided to kill two birds with one stone. The Our Dumb Friends League in Kensington would be the social club and the useful work it would provide would not be taking splinters out of cat's paws or giving aspirins to dogs with headaches; they would for instance, help to sort the millions of foreign stamps given to the society every year for re-sale to the benefit of the League's funds. "They would be able to sort them out and put them in the envelopes for delivery to the wholesalers," explained Miss 'Wilson. Not an orthodox way to run a branch of Our Dumb Friends' League perhaps, but a happy example of serving good causes in the most practical fashion. We expect that we shall be visiting South End - the "olde world” part of Kensington - again soon to hear about the opening day of the branch. Miss Wilson will think this a very premature expectation; but then in Kensington we know the drive there is behind her intentions.

The Doll Club
THE DOLL CLUB. Liverpool Echo, 17th August 1953: A new club. formed in London. is believed to be the first of its kind in the British Isles. It is called the Doll Club and all members - mainly people of mature years - are doll owners and enthusiasts.[ . . .] President of the club is Mist Kit Wilson, the cat judge and author of books on cats. Another cat-lover among the promoters of the club is Mrs. Francis de Clifford, secretary of the Russian Blue Cat Club.

Local Community
Kit lived in a "loft" in South End, Kensington which she shared at various times with an actress friend, a lady potter and with the fey Val Prentis, judge and breeder of Siamese cats, who was a pianist for the Royal Academy of Dancing and favoured mauve chiffon while Kit preferred tweeds. Kit was a well-known and respected character in that part of Kensington.

Always active in local causes, she was involved in a petition objecting to an extension of Messrs John Barker and Company's bakery in Young Street which would result in the loss of two seventeenth century houses (25 and 27, Friday House and Little House), even though she did not live in Kensington Square or Young Street. Bothe houses were war-damaged and unoccupied, and not scheduled for preservation as of historical or architectural interest (Kensington Post, 27th February 1953). Ultimately London County Council deemed them not worth preserving and the buildings were demolished.

Kensington Post, 28th August 1953 published an article on the "Lost Village" of Kensington, which naturally featured Kit as a local personality. "South End as a thoroughfare is finished," was the comment of MISS KIT WILSON, lively personality of The Loft (which almost is a loft, but a most charming one) at No 18." The reported mentioned a religious movement that had once occupied No 19: "To the best of the residents' knowledge the sect only secured one local convert, Miss Wilson's Siamese cat. He wandered into the service by mistake and was invited to attend again, being suspected by the cult of possessing psychic influences."

In the article, it is clear how forceful a personality she was. "South End has become very animal conscious since the appearance in 1940 of MISS KIT WILSON who combines a theatrical career with being an expert on cats (she is editor of a cat's paper and chairman of the Kensington Kitten and Neuter Cat Club). Miss Wilson shares ‘The Loft' with a friend, MISS AUDREY MARTIN, who is a potter, and Old Bill, her 15-year-old alley cat. She takes a lively interest in animal welfare and this interest, last year, produced the biggest even in South End since Dick Turpin dodge the Bow Street Runners there. With the backing of the Our Dumb Friends' League, and with the whole-hearted co-operation of the residents from all the neighbouring streets, she organized the South End Horse Fair. The object was to raise money to save horses condemned to export to the Continent for slaughter. It too place about this time last year and attracted a vast crowd. The work continues quietly. When we called, Miss Wilson was just stowing away the last haul brought by her ‘salvage squad' (a group of schoolchildren who go round collecting jars for her to sell to a cockle and whelk stallholder in Shepherd's Bush."

OLD BILL

COCKNEY OLD BILL WILL MEW A WELCOME Kensington Post, 18th December 1953
Old Bill, the cockney cat, will have to be on his best behaviour on Saturday. For he is to act as party host to his human friends at 10, Holland Park, Kensington. Unfortunately none of Bill’s feline friends will be coming to support him, but their owners will be there to talk cats over a cup of tea. No doubt Old Bill will remind them what an excellent opportunity it would be to buy their Christmas present from the cats comfort stall. For the aim of the party, arranged by Mrs N. de Clifford, social organiser of the London area of the Cats Protection League, is to raise funds for welfare work among London cats.

Old Bill, a 15 year-old tawny and white blitz stray, is owned by Miss Kit Wilson, of the Kensington Kitten and Neuter Cat Club, who lives at South End, Kensington. He has made several public appearances this year, the first in the summer when at the Kensington Kitten and Neuter Cat Club Show he was entered in the “judges corner” as a coster cat in charge of a fish barrow standing in a pen decorated as an alley. Later he appeared by invitation at the Coronation Show organised by the Governing Council of the Cat Fancy where he collected £8 14s. for Our Dumb Friends’ League.

Miss Wilson, who intends to tell Bill’s story on Saturday, is a little apprehensive about his behaviour. “I hope he doesn’t scratch anybody,” she said.

XMAS TREE RESERVED FOR OLD BILL, THE COCKNEY CAT Kensington Post, 25th December 1953
Old Bill, the Cockney cat, had a Christmas tree all to himself at a party and bazaar for cat lovers at 10, Holland Park, on Saturday. The tree was loaded with sugar mice and chocolate fish with a tiny toy cat sitting in for the fairy at the top. But Old Bill wasn’t particularly interested in the tree. In fact, when taken out of his box to look at it, he knocked most of his presents off and the tree went tumbling over. Old Bill was the only cat among scores of humans. He was the host, too, but the organizing was left to Mrs N. de Clifford, social organizer of the London area of the Cats Protection League. The party was to provide funds for welfare work among London cats. And one of the stalls catered for cats themselves, with cat food and powders, toy mice, and feeding bowls. There were all sorts of goods for cat lovers, including books on cats, calendars decorated with cat pictures, and feline brooches A 15-year-old blitz stray, Old Bill, is owned by Miss Kit Wilson, of the Kensington Kitten and Neuter Cat Club, who told the party something of his history.

OLD BILL DISAPPOINTS HIS MANY WOMEN ADMIRERS Kensington Post, 16th July 1954
Saturday was to have been Old Bill's big day. He was due to preside over a party at a house in Holland Park, Kensington. A crowd, mainly women, had gathered to greet him and congratulate him on reaching the ripe old age of 16. For Old Bill is a CAT a tawny and white ex-blitz stray owned by Miss Kit Wilson, chairman of the London area of the Cats' Protection League. He usually presides over the prizegiving party of the Kensington Shop Cats' competition sitting in his pen. But Miss Wilson is in France, and so Old Bill stayed behind to look after her Kensington home. And, it was pointed out to Saturday’s gathering of cat owners, a cat as old as Old Bill doesn’t like moving from the surroundings to which he is accustomed, even for a party.

Mrs N. de Cllifford, social organizer for the London area of the CP.L., told guests at the party: “Old Bill has sent his apologies for not being able to attend. Instead a photograph showing the cat in his pen was placed on the speakers’ table. Cat-owners applauded when they saw it. On the wall was another photograph of Old Bill. Said a League official: “Old Bill sent us that one himself.”

The party was, after all, for owners only. As in the case of Old Bill it was thought best that cats shouldn’t travel from their homes all the way to Holland Park. But one of two cats did take a look in. One notable was Siamese on a lead. Another came in a shopping basket. In all corners of the toom the guests talked shop – shop cats.

Two “outsiders” from Kensington Church Street tied for first place in the competition. They were “Jummy” a seven-year-old tabby, one of four cats owned by Mrs Florence Turner, licensee of the “Churchill Arms,” and “Fluffy,” a nine-years-old half-tabby, half-Persian, owned by Mr John Comley, manager of the Cedars Stores, a fishmongers. Mrs Turner took some time before she chose Jummy for the competition in preference to Bill, 5, Micky, 4, or Molly, 2-and-a-half. Jummy is a heavyweight cat weighing 18 lbs. In the evenings he sits on a barrel on the bar counter and keeps and eye on the customers. “There’s no trouble when Jummy is around,” said Mrs Turner.

Fluffy, like Old Bill, is an ex-blitz stray. He was found by Mr Comley when quite young on a Notting Hill bomb site during the war. Mrs Turner and Mr Comley tossed on Saturday for whose cat should hold the winner’s silver challenge cup for the first months of the year. Mr Comley won and was presented with the cup by Miss Rachel Ferguson, the writer.