Mims & Ivor
On this page, we pay tribute
to the memory of Marion (always known as "Mims" by those closest to her) and
Ivor Ward-Davies who founded the Winuwuk Boxers back in the early 1950s.
They
put their heart and soul in to the breed, showing enthusiastically in spite
of the fact that it took them many years to achieve any kind of
breakthrough, importing dogs from overseas when they could ill afford it and
always having faith in the next generation. Indeed, they were unique in
that they were always willing to encourage younger enthusiasts and to share
their dogs them. It is thanks to this amazing foresight that the Winuwuk
Boxers continue so successfully today, even though Ivor died in 2000 aged 70
and Mims died in 2010 aged 86.
Ivor was always the more theoretical - a very good assessor of baby puppies,
a thoughtful and popular judge, writer of some of the best Boxer articles
there have ever been and always willing to pass on his wisdom to anyone who
cared to listen. A little bit high maintenance, if truth be known, but a
man of complete integrity, always willing to see the best in dogs no matter
who owned them or what country they came from and whose knowledge of the
Boxer was immense.
Mims was, quite simply, the most popular person there has ever been on the
UK Boxer scene. Nothing demonstrated this better than her record at winning
the voting awards at the annual Boscars. Every time she was nominated
for services to the breed or for helping newcomers she won by a landslide
and in 2004 she was given the ultimate accolade of 'Lifetime achievement'.
Every award was accompanied by a spontaneous standing ovation. Mims
loved her dogs and they loved her back in spades. She was never
happier than when bottle feeding puppies or nursing one of her dogs back to
health.
Mims and Ivor loved watching their
dogs do well in the ring. Ivor saw the kennel take its 100th
CC and Mims saw us surpass
200 CCs just a week before she died. From Dursley
Dandy in the 1950s through such great Winuwuk Boxer names as Sammy in the
70s, Golly in the 80s, Misty in the 90s and Max in the noughties, Ivor and
then Mims were so proud of them and everything we achieved together.
Now in the twenty-tens, two new Champions and Mims knew that the last one
had been made up just a week before she died. She was delighted, absolutely
delighted. She always looked surprised when we won and never took any win
for granted not even during recent years which she obviously enjoyed to the
'Max'. His Crufts group win was the culmination of all her hard work and
for her to be there in the front row when it all happened is one of our most
treasured memories. When she and Ivor imported Mack and Baron from the
States all those years ago, she said they had to live on bread and margarine
for months since it nearly bankrupted them. All that sacrifice paid
off a 100 times over on that March evening in 2009
We will never forget
how much we owe to these two wonderful people and we know that they will
always be looking down on future generations of Winuwuk Boxers, checking in
on how we are
all doing. For the last 10 years we’ve often talked about
what Ivor would have thought about our latest crop of Champions and now we
have already started looking at puppies thinking about which one would have
caught 'Mims' eye. As we continue with the Winuwuks we will hopefully have
many occasions over the coming years when we will be able to say “Mims and
Ivor would have loved this..
