Obituary

Isobel Keene
Prefix Killdown

11.1.1901 – 27.2.2010

It is with much sadness I have to tell of the passing of Isobel on Saturday 27th February 2010.  Isobel had celebrated her 10th Birthday in January 2010.  I have this minute only just received this news, and when information is to hand re her funeral I will arrange for this to be posted onto the website.

Jean Murchison – The Siamese Cat Club

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As a number of you will already no doubt be aware we have recently been notified that our most senior judge Isobel Keene died yesterday aged 109.

Mrs Keene was the true doyenne of the GCCF and in particular the Siamese section being a very well respected judge of the breed, her prefix was ‘Killdown’ and was known and respected world wide. 

Mrs Keene bred a number of champions in the days when competition was fierce, sometimes numbering of 28 (or more) in an open class, ‘Killdown’ cats are behind a great many Siamese pedigrees and she has left a legacy to be proud of.   The quality of the cats she bred, stood very well the test of time.

There are a number in the section who will have far more personal details to share concerning this grand dame of the Siamese world including some of  our more senior judges who will no doubt have personal anecdotes to share.   She lived a long and very full life. 

Our sympathy goes out to her remaining family.

Sincerely

John H Hansson
(Chairman GCCF)

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Isobel Keene was our most senior judge, renowned across the world for breeding the famous Killdown Siamese. Brian and I felt privileged to know her.

In 1972 a friend, living locally, asked if we were busy; her car had broken down and she was due to take her Siamese queen to stud..... Could we help??? That chance meeting with Isobel Keene at Killdown was a catalyst; Brian and I realised how spectacular a Siamese could be; we fell in love with seal points and were determined to breed the best we could.

Isobel Keene owned and bred the most magnificent Siamese I have ever seen; one could learn so much from her cats, her knowledge and her experiences across the years. She was great fun to steward for as she had a mischievous sense of humour. Those were the days when the Open Classes were huge but Isobel had a sure eye; she would walk down the line of cats and know immediately when the cat was lifted from the pen whether it was a winner or not. She loved judging Siamese males and firmly believed a stud should stamp his quality and style on the kittens he produced. That was the great test for Siamese exhibitors, to produce a Siamese male of sufficient quality to win a certificate from Mrs Keene! I remember when the Siamese Cat Club Show inaugurated the Gallery of Fame; there were 42 Siamese in the GOF that year and every one of them had "Killdown" in their pedigree!

Isobel was proud of the fact she was a "Victorian"; she greatly admired the royal family, especially the Queen Mother who was younger, though they were both born in 1901. She was delighted when, at 100, she received a birthday card from the queen; but was disappointed as the years passed to find it was the same card with the Queen wearing the same frock (although this year the royal outfit was different)!

In early May 1980 Isobel phoned to say she had something special to show us; it was a litter of outstanding Tabbypoint kittens! She said I could have the male, the famous Killdown Midas who made his debut becoming Best in Show Siamese at fourteen weeks at the Three Counties that year! Isobel was then smitten with tabby points, breeding some beauties. When we last visited her in January, there on her bed was her beloved seal tabby point neuter, a handsome Longview boy who was her constant companion. Isobel Keene's prefix lives on in the pedigrees of the best Siamese and she will live on in the memory of those who were fortunate to have known her.

We send our sympathy to Mary, her daughter, her grand children and great grandchildren.

Anne & Brian Gregory

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I was sad to hear the passing of Isobel Keene at the great age of 109, but a blessing to learn that she died peacefully in her sleep.

Isobel Keene was indeed the backbone of our Siamese, and I have always felt proud and privileged to have known her and been able to have had the Killdown line as the basis for my breeding, my Gr.Ch. Kaloke Pharaoh and Gr.Ch. Kaloke Kuna being out of Isobel’s Ch. Sabukia Sirocco (x Killdown Kerry) and Ch. Killdown Rearguard. Her Killdown cats were outstanding and well worth the 800 mile round trip to be able to use her studs.

Isobel was a most regal lady. I always felt like being in the presence of old Queen Mary. She was always gracious and kind. One time, when I was unable to make the long trip myself, I had sent one of my very young sons down with a queen and Isobel gave him strawberries to eat on the train back.

We always still exchanged Christmas cards right up to the end.

My deepest sympathy goes to her devoted daughter Mary, who has been always been there for Isobel.

What a wonderful legacy Isobel Keene has left us with her Killdown prefix.

Mary Key
‘Kaloke’ prefix
Sealpoint Siamese

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I was saddened but relieved to hear that the great lady Isobel Leene had died in her sleep peacefully.

I remember when my seal point kitten Michanash Sealed Withakiss got Best Opposite sex under Mrs Keene at the Siamese Cat Club Show 1985, I was delighted. The KILLDOWN prefix was admired both here and abroad. Although she had not judged for a number of years those who telephoned and visited kept us all informed. A lady who loved Seal Pointed Siamese and moved with the times to breed some lovely tabbies. Rest in peace.

Steve Morris
GCCF Judge
Michanash cats.

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I first met Isobel in 1966, shortly after the death of her husband, when I took a queen to Killdown to be mated.  I was completely overawed at that first meeting but we quickly formed a friendship which has lasted over the years.  Isobel always insisted that she was a Victorian and she just managed it, being born a scant eleven days before the death of Queen Victoria.

As a girl Isobel’s father farmed at Addiscombe near Croydon, which at that time was a rural area.  When the World War threatened Europe the family moved to Cornwall and the entire farm, including the animals, was transported by train to their new home, Trerice near Newquay. The day was made memorable for Isobel by her pet cat being sick on her new velvet dress. In the twenties the family moved again, this time to Winkfield in Berkshire where Isobel met her husband to be, Bob.  She married in the late twenties and moved to Medmenham near Marlow.   After living for some years at Westfield Farm her husband retired and the family moved a short distance to a newly built house, standing in ten acres, which they named Killdown and where a Siamese dynasty was founded.

When her first siamese cat turned out to be somewhat disappointing  Isobel decided to consult an expert. Fortuitously, the expert was Elsie Kent, a respected judge of the breed and one of the most memorable characters  ever to grace the Cat Fancy.  From a litter of kittens, bred by Elsie, Isobel chose Sealsleeve Shah Danseur, a seal point female  subsequently mated to Oriental Silky Boy with considerable success.  Whilst the Killdown prefix became known and respected world wide I have never known Isobel to be other than modest and self deprecating, after all her reputation has always spoken for her.

Latterly, Isobel has lived quietly at home with her constant companion, a seal tabby point named Longview Just William, known as Jerry.  Isobel will be sadly missed and, hopefully, remembered as an outstanding influence on the quality, development and improvement of the Siamese breed.

My sincere sympathies go to her daughter Mary and her grandchildren Anne and David.

Norma Farnsworth

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It is a matter of considerable sadness to me that after just a few short months of my having written a piece for the Siamese Cat Club magazine about the amazing Mrs Keene, I now have the unenviable task of writing an obituary for her, honoured though I am to have been asked to do so.

I think that once she had attained the extraordinary age of 109, many of us felt that Mrs Keene, unlike the rest of us mere mortals, was somehow indestructible, that she would go on forever. Reality, however, broke through as it is wont to do when, on a grey Sunday morning on the last day of February 2010, Isobel died peacefully in her sleep. She left a world which had changed profoundly from that into which she had been born. During her amazingly long life time, she had witnessed two World Wars, lived during the reigns of six monarchs and the terms of office of twenty prime ministers. More importantly for members of the Cat Fancy and certainly for Mrs Keene herself, her death brings the end of an era, for she was part of the Golden Age of seal point Siamese breeding, carrying on the breeding traditions of Greta Hindley, Elsie Kent and Phyllis Holroyd and producing, with cats such as Killdown Sultan, Killdown Vanguard and Killdown Kerry, champion after champion throughout  the sixties, seventies and into the eighties.  Make no mistake about it, Mrs Keene’s cats were quite magnificent – typey, but not overly so, with glorious powerful bodies,  true  seal points, exquisite eye colour and perfect ear placement.

On a personal level, always in high heels, immaculately dressed and made up,  Mrs Keene was charming, compassionate, level headed, brave and possessed of extraordinary energy. I remember that once when I was with her, my car broke down and we had to wait for several hours in a pub car park for the AA to come. I expected she would become irritated and fretful. She was, after all, in her late eighties at the time. But not a bit of it. She remained far more cheerful and stoical than I did. Again, years ago, I fled to her when I had driven my car not once, but twice, into a Rolls Royce belonging to my husband. I vowed I was never going back home. Cool as a cucumber, Isobel welcomed me in and dealt with my understandably irate husband.

As her health and her eyesight began to fail over the past few years, I would visit her every other Sunday, sit with her and read out snippets from the Sunday Express. She relished scandal but not just any old scandal - no pop stars or footballers for her- it had to be about royalty or, at a pinch, politicians. She was a huge fan of the Queen Mother and I suspect that she viewed her as something of a role model although Isobel was herself far prettier, with a good figure and sublime legs.

I have known her for more than half my life and I loved her.

May she rest in peace.

Geraldine Houser.