Greyfriars Bobby

Greyfriars Bobby
This statue of Bobby sits at the corner of Edinburgh's Candlemaker Row and George IV Bridge, and is a Category A listed building
Breed	Skye Terrier
Born	c. 1855 or 1856
Died	14 January 1872 (aged 16) Edinburgh, Scotland
Resting place	Greyfriars Kirkyard
Awards	Key to the City of Edinburgh
Owner	John Gray
Official site	http://www.greyfriarsbobby.co.uk/

Greyfriars Bobby was a Skye Terrier who became known in 19th-century Edinburgh after reportedly spending 14 years guarding the grave of his owner, John Gray, until he died himself on 14 January 1872.^[1] A year later, Lady Burdett-Coutts had a statue and fountain erected at the southern end of the George IV Bridge to commemorate him.

Several books and films have been based on Bobby's life, including Greyfriars Bobby by Eleanor Atkinson, and the films Greyfriars Bobby (1961) and The Adventures of Greyfriars Bobby (2006).

The story

Albumen print of Greyfriars Bobby, about 1865, from the collection of the National Galleries of Scotland

Bobby belonged to John Gray, who worked for the Edinburgh City Police as a night watchman, and the two were inseparable for approximately two years.^[1] On 15 February 1858, Gray died of tuberculosis. He was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, the graveyard surrounding Greyfriars Kirk in the Old Town of Edinburgh. Bobby, who survived Gray by fourteen years, is said to have spent the rest of his life sitting on his master's grave. A more realistic account^{[citation needed]} has it that he spent a great deal of time at Gray's grave, but that he left regularly for meals at a restaurant beside the graveyard, and may have spent colder winters in nearby houses.

In 1867, when it was argued that a dog without an owner should be destroyed, the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, Sir William Chambers—who was also a director of the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals)—paid for a renewal of Bobby's licence, making him the responsibility of the city council.

Bobby died in 1872 and could not be buried within the cemetery itself, since it was regarded as "consecrated" ground. He was buried instead just inside the gate of Greyfriars Kirkyard, not far from John Gray's grave.

In memory

Bobby's headstone in Greyfriars Kirkyard

Today, a small statue of Greyfriars Bobby stands in front of the Greyfriars Bobby's Bar, which is located near Greyfriars Kirkyard. The statue originally faced toward the graveyard and pub but has since been turned around, allegedly by a previous landlord of the pub so that the pub would appear in the background of the many photographs that are taken each year.^{[citation needed]}

A red granite stone was erected on Bobby's grave by The Dog Aid Society of Scotland, and unveiled by the Duke of Gloucester on 13 May 1981. It reads: "Greyfriars Bobby — died 14th January 1872 — aged 16 years — Let his loyalty and devotion be a lesson to us all."^[2]

Guided tours of the Kirkyard are given by a number of groups, including the Greyfriars Bobby Walking Theatre and the Greyfriars Kirkyard Trust.

On 25 September 2009, the BBC reported that the statue had undergone a form of 'vandalism'. Protestors against Donald Trump building a golf course had visited statues in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Glasgow and Stirling replacing the faces of the statues with that of Donald Trump, and in some cases, also attaching a set of toy golf clubs to the statue. The 'vandalism' to the statue of Greyfriars Bobby consisted of a face mask of Trump being placed over Bobby's face. ^[3].

Books and films

Another view of the statue.

• The book Greyfriars Bobby by Eleanor Atkinson, which greatly embellished the story, and made John Gray a farm labourer, known as "Auld Jock".^[4] The 1961 film Greyfriars Bobby: The True Story of a Dog was based on this book.^[5]
• The Illustrated True Story of Greyfriars Bobby by John Mackay.
• Another film, The Adventures of Greyfriars Bobby, was released in the UK in February 2006 starring Oliver Golding and Christopher Lee (released elsewhere in 2005 under the alternative title Greyfriars Bobby).^[6] The Edinburgh Castle scenes in this film were actually shot in nearby Stirling Castle, whilst many had reservations on casting a West Highland White Terrier as Bobby, and for adding new characters while leaving out one of the later major characters in Bobby's life, John Traill.^[7]

The statue at the corner of Candlemaker Row and the George IV Bridge

• Challenge to Lassie (1949), an earlier film based on Atkinson's book, but replacing Bobby with Lassie.^[8]
• In the 1945 film The Body Snatcher, Boris Karloff's character (incidentally named Gray) digs up bodies from graves. One of these bodies is that of John Gray. Bobby tries to stop him from taking the corpse, but is struck over the head by Boris Karloff's character, and killed.
• In the PBS kids' series, Where in the World Is Carmen Sandiego?, Patty Larceny put a collar on the statue of Bobby and walked him away in the Season 3 episode Little Dog Gone.
• Scottish-Canadian Celtic-Punk band The Real McKenzies wrote a song as a tribute named "The Ballad of Greyfriars Bobby" that appeared on their 2008 album, Off the Leash.
• The seventh episode of season 4 of Futurama, "Jurassic Bark" features a dog who spends the remainder of his life standing outside the restaurant where his owner Fry worked following Fry's disappearance.

See also

• Bobbie, the Wonder Dog
• Brown Dog affair
• Hachikō, the faithful dog commemorated by a statue at Shibuya, Tokyo.
• List of famous dogs

References

Further reading