Harrison Weir

Harrison William Weir (5 May 18243 January 1906), known as "The Father of the Cat Fancy", was a British artist.

He organised the first cat show in England, at the Crystal Palace, London, in July 1871. He and his brother, John Jenner Weir, both served as judges in the show. In 1887 Harrison Weir founded the National Cat Club and was its first President and Show Manager until his resignation in 1890.

History Weir was born at Lewes, Sussex, on 5 May 1824.

Weir was a keen animal fancier and his illustrations of domestic cats, dogs and poultry are probably best known. He was an experienced breeder of cats, carrier pigeons, and poultry and for thirty years often acted as a judge at the principal pigeon and poultry shows. He wrote and illustrated the exhaustive book Our Poultry and All About Them (1903), and much earlier in 1867 illustrated William Bernhard Tegetmeier's The Poultry Book.

Weir also had interest and experience in gardening and the cultivation of fruit trees and for many years contributed letters, articles, and illustrations to various gardening periodicals. Messrs. Garrard & Co. engaged him to design trophy cups for Ascot, Goodwood, and other annual horse races. In 1891 Weir was granted a civil list pension of £100 per year.

Interests and activities As a show judge, Weir was especially interested in cats, poultry, and pigeons, and these animals, along with dogs and rabbits, seem to be favourites in his art. In addition to gardening, fruit growing, field naturalist studies, and poultry breeding, Weir belonged to many clubs: the Savage, Whitefriars, Constitutional, Horticultural, Wigwam, Hamburgh, etc.

Family Harrison Weir was married three times: first, in 1845 to Ann, older daughter of John Frederick Herring, Sr., the famous painter of racehorses; second, to Alice, youngest daughter of T. Upjohn, M.R.C.S., of Norfolk; and third, upon Alice's death in 1898, in 1899 to Eva, daughter of George Gobell of Worthing, Sussex. Eva became his widow. Weir had two sons, Arthur Herring Weir (1847–1902) and John Gilbert Weir, and two daughters.

Selected works

As writer or editor, and illustrator: Every Day in the Country (1883) – diary Our Cats and All About Them: Their Varieties, Habits, and Management; and for Show, the Standard of Excellence and Beauty, Described and Pictured (1889) The Poultry Book (1912), by "many expert American breeders" and Weir, eds. Willis Grant Johnson and George O. Brown

As illustrator only: Cat and Dog, or Memoirs of Puss and the Captain, Julia Maitland (Grant and Griffiths, 1854), The Poetry of Nature (1868) – poems selected by Weir