Simpkin (cat)
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Simpkin is the name of the resident cat at Hertford College, Oxford. The college's tradition of keeping a mouser was started in the early 1970s by the former college principal Geoffrey Warnock.[1] The college's cat is named Simpkin after a character in the children's book, The Tailor of Gloucester, by Beatrix Potter.[2]
To date, Hertford College has had four college cats called Simpkin. The first three were black with white chest and feet, but the current one, Simpkin IV, is entirely black.[1]
Simpkin I, originally named Blanca, was given to the daughter of Hertford College's then principal, Geoffrey Warnock, and arrived at the college as a kitten. Renamed Simpkin after the character in The Tailor of Gloucester, he gained public notoriety on one occasion by having to be rescued from a high roof at New College, Oxford by the local fire brigade.[3]
Simpkin II (1986 – 17 Dec 1999)
Simpkins (aka Simpkin II) was born in Oxford in 1986, and arrived at the college in that year. Noted for being a keen hunter, he is mentioned in the book College Cats of Oxford and Cambridge[4] as stalking and then being forced to flee by an angry mallard drake.
Simpkins died on 17 December 1999, aged 14 years. He was succeeded very briefly by a white kitten called "Sir G", who was stolen soon after arriving on campus.[5]