Skip to content

History

An image of the first four guide dog owners.
This photograph shows Frankland as part of the first four guide dog 'units' to be trained in Britain, in Wallasey, Cheshire, in October 1931. From the left, Allen Caldwell with Flash, G. W. Lamb with Meta, Musgrave Frankland with Judy and Thomas ap Rhys with Folly.
A photo of Andrew Gilzean.
Andrew Gilzean

Whilst The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association was founded in 1934, the modern guide dog story started in Germany in 1916-17 when the dogs were trained to lead soldiers blinded in the First World War.

In 1927 Mrs Dorothy Eustis, an American training police and army dogs in Switzerland, wrote an article about these German dog training schools and was contacted by blind American, Morris Frank. A year later Mrs Eustis arranged for a guide dog to be trained for Morris Frank and started The Seeing Eye organisation in Switzerland and America.

In 1930 two British women, Miss Muriel Crooke and Mrs Rosamund Bond, heard about The Seeing Eye and contacted Dorothy Eustis who sent over one of her trainers. In 1931, the first four British guide dogs completed their training and three years later The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association was born – training from a lock up garage in Wallasey, Cheshire.

The photograph to the left is of Andrew Gilzean, who was one of the first two guide dog owners in Scotland, trained at The Cliff in Wallasey in March 1935. He was still using Lady, guide dog number 33, in 1943.

An image of Captain Liakhoff from the forties.An image of Captain Liakhoff from the forties.
Captain Liakhoff, the trainer, picks a likely dog from the many which arrive on approval at the training centre in 1942.

From these humble beginnings, the charity slowly grew. In 1940 the first training centre was established in Leamington Spa and since that time, training centres have been built to serve every part of the UK.

In the early years suitable dogs were difficult to find and this was a financial drain on the charity. To combat this, a ‘puppy walking scheme' was started in 1956, placing puppies with volunteer 'walkers' who introduce the young dogs to the sights, sounds and smells of a world in which they will play such an important part. To further ensure the suitability of dogs, a breeding programme was established at Tollgate House, near Warwick, in the 1960s.

An image of Simon Groom, Derek Freeman and puppy on Blue Peter.
In 1965 Blue Peter followed guide dog Honey through her training. Here in 1981 are Simon Groom and Derek Freeman (Breeding and Puppy Walking manager) with Goldie and her pups.

Today, The Guide Dogs for the Blind Association is the world's largest breeder and trainer of working dogs. Thanks to the work of dedicated staff and volunteers, some 21,000 blind and partially-sighted people have experienced the independence that a guide dog can bring. The Association is changing to meet the needs of more people and bring independence and mobility to more visually-impaired people than ever before.

For more detailed information download this history of Guide Dogs. You can also download a detailed history of dogs used as guides for blind people from Roman times to the present day.


Back to top

"A guide dog is almost equal in many ways to giving a blind man sight itself."- Musgrave Frankland, one of the first British people to train with a guide dog.