END OF AN ERA.
08.02.12
A TRADITION spanning more than five decades came to an end last week as the last goat to reside at the Caernarfon barracks died.
Billy Dewi Pritchard, a Persian goat from the Queen’s heard, had to be put down on Saturday following an accident at the town’s Ministry of Defence owned barracks on Llanberis road.
His death brings an end to the tradition of keeping goats at the barracks which has persisted since the late 1940s.
Billy’s owner, former Goat Major and Army Cadet Instructor Norman Pritchard from Caernarfon described it as the end of an era.
He said: “It’s very sad".
“Billy sustained a serious injury to one of his horns and unfortunately, the damage was too much and he had to be put down.
“He was seven years old and it was a great shame because he was in good health before the accident, the whole family thought a lot of him.”
Although not a regimental goat, Mr Pritchard rescued and raised Billy after he was abandoned by its mother on the Great Orme in Llandudno on March 1, 2004.
The last goat to be kept at the barracks belonged to the third battalion of the Royal Welch Fusiliers and died in 2002.
During his career as goat Major, Mr Pritchard’s work took him all over the country and he even paraded one of his goats on the fields of the Millennium stadium during the opening ceremony in 1999.
Mr Pritchard added: “I’ve enjoyed my time as goat Major but there won’t be another one coming to Caernarfon.
“I estimate that there has been a goat at the barracks since the late 1940s so it is definitely the end of an era.”
