Wilberforce (cat)

Encyclopedia : W : WI : WIL : Wilberforce (cat)

Wilberforce was a cat who lived at 10 Downing Street between 1973 and 1987 and served under four British Prime Ministers, including Edward Heath, Harold Wilson, Jim Callaghan and Margaret Thatcher. His chief function was to catch mice, and was the successor to Petra.

[According to Bernard Ingham], the former press secretary to Margaret Thatcher, Wilberforce was a normal cat for whom Thatcher once bought "a tin of sardines in a Moscow supermarket".

Wilberforce the cat also inspired [Wilberforce the band] to name themselves after him.

He retired on 3 April 1987, and was succeeded by Humphrey who was born the year Wilberforce died, in 1988.

|- style="text-align: center;"

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.