Griffon Bruxellois"Miss Marjorie Cousens"

In Memory of Miss Marjorie Cousens
By Mrs. Eileen Street
President of the GB Club.1964

Marjorie Cousens, late Charmain of the Griffon Bruxellois Club, had a great love and interest in the breed. This, couple with a clever and analytical mind and endless patience for research, enabled her to write the two books on Griffons, which will always be invaluable to the breed.
She spent several years compiling her second book and a very great deal of time at the Kennel Club, delving into their records. She had endless correspondence with breeders in Belgium and America, and when the material for her book came to me after her death it filled a large suitcase.
A well-known dog journalist saw it, and when he look through the proofs said that editing such a work was a task for a professor and not a journalist. Had she not completely compiled the book before she died, no one else could have done so and all these years of work would have been lost.
The founder of her small but very successful kennel was Ch Partridge Hill Polonaise, the first post-war champion bitch from whom she bred six champions. The most famous of these was Ch Seagry Etude. This little dog sired many CC winners and in his last litter Skibbereen Alexandra, winner of the CC at Bournemouth this year. He is now finally retired but living a very happy old age in my house.
Marjorie Cousens had judged no less than 61 breeds in all, and in the last year of her life, Best in Show at Crufts, which gave her a tremendous thrill. As Secretary of the WELKS her wonderful ability for organisation brought it to one of the largest and most successful events of the year, with a balance sheet which must have been the envy of many other show promoters.
In spite of all this, nobody was more willing to help a beginner or anyone else for that matter, and her knowledge of the kennel Club procedure was invaluable to the Club Committee.
She was one of the great personalities of the dog world which is certainly the poorer for her passing.