Artist: Robert Wadsworth Grafton (1876–1936)
William McCombie
MCCOMBIE, WILLIAM (1805–1880), inducted between 1920–1936
William McCombie, a tenant farmer on the Tillyfour estate in Alford, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, was the first to cross Aberdeen and Angus cattle, founding a new breed. McCombie’s Black Prince was successful in the ring in 1867 and was inspected by Queen Victoria, with its beef offered to her as a Christmas present. The herd took the top prize at the Exposition Universelle in Paris, 1878. McCombie was the first tenant farmer to be elected to the House of Commons in 1868, at a time when Parliament represented mostly landed gentry. Alvin Sanders, one of the first historians of the Saddle & Sirloin Club, wrote about McCombie’s outstanding contributions as a breeder and livestock judge, saying his portrait should have been included in the Sanctum Sanctorum when the collection was first established. In 2001, Queen Elizabeth and Prince Charles unveiled a statue of an Aberdeen Angus bull and a portrait plaque of McCombie by the roadside into Alford, to honor the work of this celebrated livestock breeder.
Source: Saddle & Sirloin Guidebook 2026, p. 135