A Christmas card from the most famous guide dog trainer in history has been discovered by the family of a Radnorshire man.

Hector Tidman, believed to be the first-ever guide dog owner in Radnorshire, was sent the card by Nikolai Liakhoff, the Russian-born pioneer of Guide Dogs for the Blind.

The prized possession came to light when Hector’s son, Ted Tidman, was sorting through a bagful of old cards at his home in Rhondda Cynon Taf. One card fell into his lap, bearing a picture of a guide dog and signed by Liakhoff and his wife Irena.

The inside of the Christmas card from Nikolai Liakhoff
The inside of the Christmas card from Nikolai Liakhoff (Guide Dogs)

Liakhoff was a First World War hero, and Irena was a Russian princess.T he couple married and settled in Switzerland, where Liakhoff began working for a rich American, Doris Eustis, a breeder and trainer of German Shepherd dogs to guide blind people.

Moving to the UK in the 1930s, Liakhoff teamed up with Muriel Crooke and the British guide dog movement was launched. He trained hundreds of dogs and was awarded the MBE in 1953 but later suffered ill health and died in 1962.

Ted deduced that the Christmas card must have been sent to his father Hector, who had two guide dogs in his lifetime - a collie named Sovereign and Flicker, a black labrador. Hector worked as a telephonist at the county council offices in Llandrindod Wells, and his were the first-ever guide dogs in Radnorshire. Mr Tidman recalls how his father learnt braille at Henshaws, a sight loss charity in Manchester, and had to travel to Leamington to train with his dogs.

Left is Hector Tidman with black labrador, Flicker on his retirement from the county council. On the right he is pictured with collie guide dog, Sovereign
Left is Hector Tidman with black labrador, Flicker on his retirement from the county council. On the right he is pictured with collie guide dog, Sovereign (Guide Dogs)

“I used to take them for free runs and treated them very much as you would a pet,” he said.

“I loved dogs, and I remember how Sovereign would lie quietly as we sat in a pew at chapel. The collie on the front of Liakhoff’s Christmas card looks a lot like Sovereign.”

Mr Tidman, chairman of Llantrisant Male Choir, keeps up to date with the work of Guide Dogs through choir member David Nash, who has raised a series of puppies for the charity. His latest, a nine-month-old German Shepherd puppy called Fisher, regularly attends choir practice and has impressed members with his good behaviour.