pets' names

[paul guthrie]

Well I cannot remember which book but I think it was by a British tanker, anyway he named a cat ******, this was the times, I am carzy about cats, ailurophile is the fancy word, smuggled cat back to UK and visited it over the years until it died years ago, good man!

[pbrydon]

I dont know if he ( or she ) had a name but the 6th Bn Kings Liverpool Regt ( Liverpool Rifles )had a Jack Russell type dog as a sort of mascot.I have a picture of him with the band,but much more interestingly is that the dog had a coat made out of what appears to be army blanket material and sewn on to the coat were Liverpool Rifles shoulder titles,55th West Lancs Div signs,the 6th kings battle insignia ( 2 parallell rifle green bars ) and some overseas service strips.The coat was of course fastened with army buttons.

I dont know how to attach photos of the dog and coat to this message,but if any body would like me to send them scans please let me know.

Peter Brydon

[Somme1916]

I know my cats’ names are not related to WW1 but they are related to the military. NATO & OTAN, are identical black & white twins (brother & sister) which I found at SHAPE HQ in Belgium.

Cheers,

Jon

[paul guthrie]

The silly season is here! One of my cats is named Pierre and it has to do with WW1. He is a very bad boy who has sex with his Dad's leg! When I named him I was mad as hell at the French for not getting the Legion of Honor to my friend Lt. George Washington Fugate who was one of less than 50 surviving AEF officers despite having six months notice. He died without getting it and really wanted it. Since he is bad and they were bad I gave him a French name.

Told you it was silly!

[Bernard_Lewis]

The Swansea Battalion mascot was a bulldog named 'Tawe' (after the river on which Swansea stands). Not sure if it saw active service but there is a photo of it in the press of the time.

Bernard Lewis

[Kate Wills]

In the summer of 1916 the Lincolnshire Yeomanry found themselves twiddling their thumbs in Egypt, and to relieve the boredom and remind themselves of home many sought out a pet. Someone had a lamb, and there were stray dogs, a jackal, and desert foxes called Charlie and Deeb etc. A much-loved charachter was a mongoose called Jimmy. Jimmy would come into their tents at dawn and snuffle out the snakes and scorpions that found repose in their boots and equipment, and he made himself so useful that he was dubbed ‘Safety Officer’ and given rations.

[David Filsell]

General Tom Bridges kept a lion cub and when he had a limb amputated suggested that it should be fed to the beast. I also read that dogs on naval ships were "always" called bouncer. I have a Jack Russel called Major-General Sir Thompson Capper (sadly simply known as Tom). He was named because my wife has a pedigree Golden retriever called something like Sunflower Radiant of Wapping and I didn't want the Jack (part Paterdale terrier completely insane) to develop an inferiority complex. The dog's certainly as much a thruster as Capper (OC 7th Infantry Division 1914-1915 KIA) and recently took on a big butch black retriever (One of the ones with the big head and no neck) who had a go at the Retriever.

[Myrtle]

David's mention of dogs on naval ships always being called 'Bouncer' reminds me of the story about the Norwegian elk-hound called 'Booster' that was found by the Telemachus in late 1917. He was in an open boat in the middle of a howling gale in the North Sea with 16 Swedish sailors from a sailing ship called the Esmerelda which had been set alight by a German submarine.

When the Swedish sailors returned home Booster remained with the Telemachus.

There are many stories of his time with the ship before and after the Armistice when the Telemachus went to the Baltic. On his return Booster retired to a farm on Dartmoor.

Myrtle