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In this official photograph released by Buckingham Palace Wednesday April 20, 2016 to mark her 90th birthday, Queen Elizabeth is seen walking in the private grounds of Windsor Castle, in England, on steps at the rear of the East Terrace and East Garden with four of her dogs: clockwise from top left corgi Willow, dorgis Vulcan and Candy, and Holly a corgi. Photo: AP
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Britain’s Queen Elizabeth heartbroken over death of Willow, her beloved last corgi

‘The queen has mourned every one of her corgis over the years, but she has been more upset about Willow’s death than any of them’

Royalty
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The last of Queen Elizabeth’s beloved corgi dogs has died at the age of 14, the Daily Mail newspaper reported.

Willow, who was the 14th generation descended from the first corgi, Susan, owned by the 91-year-old queen since her 18th birthday, was put to sleep at Windsor Castle on Sunday, the paper said, leaving the queen heartbroken.

“The queen has mourned every one of her corgis over the years, but she has been more upset about Willow’s death than any of them,” a Buckingham Palace source told the Mail.

“It is probably because Willow was the last link to her parents and a pastime that goes back to her own childhood. It really does feel like the end of an era.”

Buckingham Palace declined to comment, saying it was a private matter.

The first corgi, Susan, was given to the queen by her mother and her father, George VI, and she has owned more than 30 since. She still owns two other dorgi dogs, Vulcan and Candy, a cross between a corgi and a dachshund, the Daily Mail said.
In a file picture taken on September 8, 1960 Britain's Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip sit at Balmoral with their children Princess Anne (left), Prince Charles (right) and the newborn Prince Andrew playing with a corgi. Photo: Agence France-Presse

The monarch’s corgis earned a reputation for snapping at the heels of royal retainers as they carried out duties at her palaces, and Willow and another corgi appeared with the British monarch for a film segment during the 2012 London Olympic Games opening ceremony. In 1999, the queen demoted one of her footmen after he got her pets drunk on whisky and gin by slipping spirits into their food and water.

However, the queen’s grandson Prince Harry said his fiancée, US actress Meghan Markle whom he marries next month, had charmed the dogs.
Queen Elizabeth talks with members of the Manitoba Corgi Association during a visit to Winnipeg in 2002. Photo: AP

“The corgis took to you (Markle) straight away. I’ve spent the last 33 years being barked at. This one walks in – absolutely nothing,” Harry said in a TV interview when they announced their engagement last November.

She replied: “Just laying on my feet during tea, it was very sweet.”

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Sorrow for queen with the death of last corgi
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