Dickin Medal

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The Dickin Medal was instituted in 1943 by Maria Dickin to honour the work of animals in war. It is a large bronze medallion, bearing the words "For Gallantry" and "We Also Serve" within a laurel wreath, carried on ribbon of striped green, dark brown and pale blue. Traditionally, the medal is presented by the Lord Mayor of the City of London. It has become recognised as "the animals' Victoria Cross".^[1] As of February 2008, it has been awarded 62 times.^[1]

Contents 1 Overview 1.1 Posthumous award 2 Civilian counterpart 3 Restoration of Ilford Cemetery 4 Partial list of winners 4.1 World War II era 4.2 Modern era 5 Disputed medal 6 References 7 External links

[edit] Overview

Maria Dickin was the founder of the PDSA (People's Dispensary for Sick Animals), a United Kingdom veterinary charity. She set up the medal as an award for any animal displaying conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty whilst serving with British Commonwealth armed forces or civil emergency services. The medal was awarded 54 times between 1943 and 1949, to 32 pigeons, 18 dogs, 3 horses and 1 cat, to acknowledge actions during the Second World War, after which the medal was officially replaced with the PDSA's non-military Silver Medal. The animated film Valiant, released in 2005, is a tribute to the role of homing pigeons during World War II, and the fact that they won the most number of Dickin Medals during the war.

[edit] Posthumous award

A special "one-off" posthumous Dickin Medal award was made in 2000 to a Canadian dog for actions in 1941 which would have been honoured at the time, had the PDSA been informed. The medal was subsequently revived in 2002 to honour three dogs in relation to the September 11 attacks, and was awarded to two dogs serving with Commonwealth forces in the former Yugoslavia and Iraq respectively.

[edit] Civilian counterpart

A comparable award, the PDSA Gold Medal, is an animal bravery award that acknowledges the civilian bravery and devotion to duty of animals. Created by the PDSA in 2002, it is now recognised as the animal's equivalent of the George Cross.

[edit] Restoration of Ilford Cemetery

In December 2007 all 62 recipients were afforded full military honours at the conclusion of the National Lottery aided project^[2] to restore the cemetery.

[edit] Partial list of winners

[edit] World War II era

• 1943: Winkie - first pigeon to be awarded the medal; flew 120 miles from a crashed bomber to deliver an SOS
• 1943: Ruhr Express - a messenger pigeon
• 1944: Commando - a messenger pigeon
• 1944: Paddy - messenger pigeon that made the fastest recorded crossing of the English Channel, delivering messages from Normandy for D-Day, travelling 230 miles in 4 hours 5 minutes.
• 1944: William of Orange used in Battle of Arnhem in September 1944 saving 2000 soldiers
• 1945: Rex - A rescue dog was officially recorded to have saved 65 people in London's flying bomb blitz.
• 1946: G.I. Joe - a messenger pigeon that saved many people's lives in World War II.
• 1946: Judy - the only animal to have been officially registered as a Japanese prisoner of war.
• 1947: Olga, Upstart and Regal - three police horses involved in incidents following German bombing raids in, the first two involving flying bombs and the third an attack involving explosive incendiaries
• 1949: Simon - the ship's cat on HMS Amethyst during the Yangtze Incident, noted for surviving injuries from a cannon shell, raising morale and killing off a rat infestation during the incident, by doing this duty despite being wounded. Rank raised to "Able Seacat" and awarded campaign medal. The medal was sold by the Royal Navy and is now a valuable collectors item, partly because Simon has been the only cat to win the medal.

[edit] Modern era

• 2000: Gander - a Newfoundland dog serving with Canadian infantry in Hong Kong in 1941
• 2002: Salty and Roselle - guide dogs who separately led their owners to safety from the World Trade Center during the September 11 attacks ^[3]
• 2002: Appollo - a search and rescue dog with the New York Police Department, as a representative of all such dogs who worked at the World Trade Center site and the Pentagon in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks ^[3]
• 2003: Sam - a Royal Army Veterinary Corps dog serving with The Royal Canadian Regiment in Bosnia-Herzegovina, for separately disarming a gunman and later holding back a hostile crowd while guarding a refugee compound until reinforcements arrived
• 2003: Buster - a Royal Army Veterinary Corps arms and explosives search dog serving with the Duke of Wellington's Regiment in Iraq, for finding an extremist group's hidden arsenal of weapons and explosives
• 2007: Sadie - a Royal Army Veterinary Corps arms and explosives search black Labrador dog serving in Afghanistan, for finding a bomb planted underneath sandbags, yards from where a suicide car bombing had earlier killed a German soldier outside the United Nations headquarters in Kabul in November 2005^[4]

[edit] Disputed medal

Rob the SAS Dog was awarded the Dickin Medal in 1945 for taking part in more than 20 parachute drops and for his involvement in operations behind enemy lines in Italy and North Africa during the Second World War. There is evidence that his record is a hoax concocted by the training officer at 2nd SAS at the time so that the dog would remain with the regiment.^[5]

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Animals' VC (series of BBC radio programmes)
• PDSA Dickin Medal: 'the animals' VC' from the PDSA
• Birds of War, a documentary about pigeons involved in World War II, many of whom won the Dickin Medal