Obituary - Olive Morton (Knotroms Poodles)

At the fabulous age of 95 it was time for Olive Morton to say goodbye to this world on 2nd January.

Olive was always outspoken - what you saw and what you heard was what you got and what she genuinely thought. She didn't suffer fools gladly, but was a true friend for life to those she well liked.

The Knotroms Poodles were owned jointly with her daughter Viv Ackers (later Ackers-Rathbone) though later on Viv did obtain her own prefix, the well named ‘Vivsown’. They shared a passion for all three sizes of Poodles, though she did always grumpily make out that the Standards and Miniatures were ‘those things’ of Viv’s - but in truth she loved them dearly!

Olive loved apricots and was a stalwart for the colour. The first Champion was an apricot Toy Ch Sunspark of Knotroms who was made up in 1970. His half-sister, Ch Prudent, however, was black. Standards were always a love of Viv's and next came along the black bitch, Ch Knotroms Desdemona.

In 1985 Olive won at Crufts with Knotroms Golden Partridge winning the DCC under Bill Siggers and jointly BOB from Bill and Stanley Dangerfield. It’s a long time since we had two judges at Crufts! Golden Partridge gained his title in 1976 and won a handful of CCs. Next came two black Miniature Champions handled by Viv in the shape of Ch K Mistress Matilda and Ch Mista Mutiny of K. The last apricot Toy to be titled by Olive was Ch Knotroms Golden Phoenix in 1981. The final Champion from this prefix was the black Toy bitch Ch K Kiss N Hugg who this time was handled by Viv. From this small, select kennel there were several overseas Champions, New Zealand and Sweden to name just a couple of countries.

Olive was a well respected Championship show judge in all sizes. She was a founder member of the Northern Toy Poodle Club and eventually held the position of Chairman for many years until 2003. She was also involved with the Poodle Council and was Vice-Chaiman from 1988-1994.
Her funeral was held on Thursday 15th January at Southport Crematorium.

Elizabeth Holmes-Leak

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