Their contribution to the war effort would be as estate owners, animal breeders and farmers, then a reserved occupation. Herbert Whitley was lucky in someways to have poor enough eyesight to fail an army medical, likewise his brother William who had severely damaged his leg in a riding accident years before. One wonders what might have happened if Herbert Whitley had been fit enough to fight? Several zoo keepers from London Zoo were also killed in this same period and battle. There are several websites which describe Charles Whitley including portraits: Edward and Elizabeth Eleanor Whitley, of Primley, Paignton, Devon. ![]() 15, Hibers Trench Cemetery, France. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission website lists him as born at Halewood, Liverpool and as the Son of the late Mr. ![]() Hibers cemetery, where Herbert’s brother Charles Whitley is buried, on the brow of the hill to the left of the cross of sacrifice (Image CWGC website)Ĭaptain Charles Whitley, 7th Battalion, King’s Royal Rifle Corps, Military Cross, died aged 28 on 11th April 1917 during the Battle for Arras. Some of the family of his estate workers and no doubt some of his horses would no doubt have perished too on the Western Front. ![]() Charles Whitley, one of the four Whitley brothers was dead, killed in the First World War. Sadly by the time his fledgling zoo opened in 1923, one of the four Whitley brothers was dead. In 1930 the collection changed its name to Primley Zoological Gardens. The Zoo closed briefly in 1924 due to a dispute over entertainment tax Whitley felt very strongly that his collection was a place of learning and not entertainment. In 1923, in the aftermath of the First World War, Herbert Whitley opened his collection, then known as Torbay Zoological Gardens, to the public. Going public after a private wartime tragedy The first monkeys arrived in 1910 and a pair of sulphur crested cockatoos in 1911 – the foundation of Herbert’s bird collection which was later to feature secret carrier pigeons and unfortunate GI snacks in the shape of peacocks. Their plan was to create a breeding centre for pedigree livestock, but exotic animals soon appeared. Herbert and his brother William formed a partnership to manage the Primley estate farms. His archive or library has scrapbooks and bound journal volumes featuring his many breeding successes, some featured in Jack Baker’s ‘biography’ of Whitley (see below). He went on to breed and exhibit finches, rabbits, poultry and pigeons. It is said that Herbert Whitley’s zoo began as a child, when his mother gave him a pair of canaries. A fight ensued with local authorities over its educational role, rather than pure entertainment which saw Herbert close his zoo for a number of years rather than be liable for an ‘entertainment tax’ on zoo visits. These plants and animals would by summer 1923 be transformed into the nucleus of the collection which became Primley Zoological Gardens, opened to the public for educational rather than just purely entertainment reasons (see below). Paignton Zoo has recently been searching for ‘lost’ cultivars from Whitley’s Primley Botanic Nursery, named ‘Primley Blue’ (including mallow, rosemary and hebe). He had a lifelong passion for blue animals and plants, from peacocks to rosemary. Unlike Picasso, Herbert Whitley never grew out of his ‘blue period’. With an agricultural or science based degree behind him, Whitley quickly used his family wealth to establish stud kennels and farms for his experiments in breeding dogs, farm animals, pigeons, horses as well as building greenhouses for exotic plants. 1880) remained with his young family in Liverpool, after studying medicine. His older brother Edward Whitley Junior (b. Here Herbert quickly established an estate of several farms in the area with his brother William. On his father’s death, Herbert Whitley, two brothers William and Charles and a sister Mary moved from Liverpool and Lancashire to Devon around 1904 to 1907 with his widowed mother Eleanor (1848 – 1929). Herbert’s father Edward has an impressive entry in Debrett’s 1886 House Of Commons directory from the year Herbert Whitley was born. Herbert Whitley (1886 – 1955) was one of four sons of Edward Whitley, a Liverpool based brewer ( Greenall Whitley) and Victorian MP (1825 – 1892). Our sister zoo at Paignton was started in 1923 by an eccentric and wealthy figure with hard business sense, a passion for the colour blue and an eye for good breeding stock amongst plants and animals – Herbert Whitley. The 29th August 1944 / 2014 is one such sad anniversary. It is 70 years this year since the events of D-Day, and this month 75 years since World War Two began and also 100 years since the outbreak of World War One – both wars were to cost the Whitley family dear. Herbert Whitley, trademark cigarette in mouth (Image source: Paignton Zoo website)
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