Judy (dog)

HMS Gnat, photographed in 1922

Able seaman Jan "Tankey" Cooper was given the job of being the "Keeper of the Ship's Dog", who was also the ship's butcher. She was given an open box and a blanket to sleep on. She was trained to stop her from going into certain areas of the ship, such as those inhabited by the Chinese cooks as they disliked her. In November 1936, she fell overboard from the forecastle into the Yangtze River and was spotted by Jefferey. The ship was called to a full stop and a power boat deployed to retrieve her.[14][15] The incident was recorded in the ship's log as a man overboard exercise.[16] As the boat returned to the Gnat, the crew sent the semaphore message "Judy's christening completed".[17] The crew began to find the dog useful in navigating the river, as she was able to alert them to cess boats in sufficient time to close all hatches and minimise the smell.[18]

After undergoing trials following a refit, the Gnat met up with the Ladybird, who also had a ship's dog. However Judy had to be kept away as while he took a fancy to her, she did not care for him.[19] In the early morning after the Ladybird departed, Judy alerted the ship to the presence of river pirates who were about to board the Gnat in the darkness. The attack was easily repelled as the pirates lost the surprise element. Several days later, Judy was taken ashore with a shooting party for the first time but she was unsuccessful as a gundog.[20] Throughout her stay on the Gnat, the crew repeatedly tried to use her as a gundog, each time resulting in a failure.[21]

One of Judy's litters of puppies.

Judy also pointed out the approach of hostile Japanese aircraft long before any of the human crew could hear them. This first occurred prior to the outbreak of war, when the aircraft would fly low over the Gnat with Judy barking at them until they had passed.[22] On an outing to Jiujiang, Jefferey took Judy for a walk outside of the city but she ran ahead, pulling him with her. He realised as he looked back that she had been pulling him away from a leopard.[23] In November 1937, the Gnat met with the American river gunboat USS Panay. After the Panay held a party for the two ship's companies, the Gnat crew departed and only realised afterwards that Judy was not with them. They contacted the Panay via signal lamp, but they insisted that they had not seen her.[24] The following morning, the crew heard from a Chinese trader that Judy was on board the Panay after all. In retaliation, a party boarded the American vessel and stole the ship's bell. Afterwards they contacted the Panay and offered them the bell back in return for Judy. She was returned within the hour.[25]

In early 1938, both Jefferey and Cooper were sent back to Britain as part of the crew rotation.[26] While docked in Hankou, Judy took a liking to another Pointer on board a French gunboat Francis Garnier.[27] The two ship's companies held an impromptu wedding ceremony for the two dogs. The French Pointer, Paul, remained on the Gnat for three days before returning to his ship. Judy fell pregnant, and gave birth to thirteen puppies.[28] Ten of them survived and were eventually given away to a variety of sources including the Francis Garnier and the American gunboat USS Guam.[29] Judy was involved in an incident in October that year that resulted in the ending of her trips ashore in Hankou. Whilst being walked by two sailors from the Gnat, they were confronted by Japanese soldiers who pointed a loaded rifle at Judy.[30] One of the soldiers was thrown into the Yangtze River by Leading Seaman Jack Law in response.[31] During the following days, several Japanese officers came on board the Gnat and it was decided that it would be better for Judy to stay on the ship.[32]

HMS Grasshopper, photographed in 1940.

In June 1939, several Locust class gunboats arrived on the Yangtze to take over operations from the existing Insect class vessels. Part of the crew of the Gnat transferred to HMS Grasshopper, including Judy.[32] Following the British declaration of war on Germany in September that year, several of the river gunboats, Grasshopper included, were redeployed to the British base at Singapore.[32] Judy was initially sea sick, but the crew ensured that she was properly exercised and by the time the ship arrived on station, she had recovered.[33]

Initially the stay at Singapore was peaceful, and Judy stayed with a customs official and his family for a week ashore.[33] The ship was rarely deployed until January 1942 when it was deployed with other gunboats to provide covering bombardments along the coast of Malaya for retreating troops, and occasionally to carry out evacuations.[34] By this time, Judy was primarily being looked after by Petty Officer George White.[35] The Battle of Singapore took place between 8–15 February. On the first day, along with the other military vessels, Grasshopper was sailed out to sea to provide anti-aircraft fire.[35] By 11 February, Grasshopper and its sister ship Dragonfly were the largest vessels left at Singapore.[36] On 13 February, the vessels were ordered to evacuate personnel and leave Singapore.[37] The ships left at 9pm that evening, and travelled together.[38] White later reported that Judy had "personally greeted virtually everyone on board".[39]

The ships headed for Batavia in the Dutch East Indies.[40] Fearing the Japanese Navy, they sought to travel via the Lingga Islands[41] hoping that the island group it sat in could be used as a hiding place. As they approached on 14 February, Judy indicated the approach of Japanese aircraft and the anti-aircraft gunners took up their positions in readiness. The Grasshopper was hit with a single bomb before the planes departed.[42] Judy was below decks when the planes returned. The Dragonfly was hit by three bombs and sank quickly.[41] The Grasshopper was hit by a further two bombs, and the order was given to abandon ship as a fire spread close to an ammunition compartment. Boats were lowered and the crew and evacuees were ferried just over a hundred yards to shore whilst the Japanese planes strafed the vessels. It was only when they were ashore that they realised Judy was not with them.[43]

The island they arrived on turned out to be uninhabited with little food and no apparent water. After a camp had been set up ashore, White was sent back to the still floating Grasshopper to scavenge supplies.[44] He boarded the vessel and descended below decks to search for any items that might be of use. Whilst there, he felt Judy in the darkness, pinned in her bed under a row of lockers.[45] He constructed a raft out of materials on the Grasshopper and rowed the items, along with Judy, back to the island.[46] The lack of water was becoming an issue, until Judy began to dig at a point on the waterline.[47] It took a couple of minutes, but Judy managed to unearth a fresh-water spring and was credited with saving everyone's lives. During the first night, the magazine on the Grasshopper finally caught light and exploded, sinking the vessel.[48] The survivors continued to camp on the beach for the following few days, with Judy protecting them from snakes.[49]

Five days after the Grasshopper was bombed, a tongkang arrived which took the survivors to Singkep Island, the largest of the Lingga Islands.[50] There they left their wounded, and Judy along with the other survivors travelled two days later on a Chinese junk to Sumatra where it was hoped that a British force remained which could take them to Sri Lanka.[51] Upon arrival, they took the vessel up a series of rivers until they narrowed so much that the junk could not pass. They then embarked on a 200 miles (320 km) cross-country trek across the island in an attempt to reach Padang. During the journey through the jungle, Judy was attacked by a crocodile and suffered a cut to her shoulder.[52] The survivors patched up the 6 inches (15 cm) cut with their limited first aid supplies.[53] She continued to warn them of approaching predators, and one crewman claimed she saved him from a Sumatran tiger.[54] They emerged from the jungle at Sawahlunto, where they caught the train towards Padang.[55] The group missed the last evacuation ship by nine days,[56] with the Japanese due to arrive to take over the city at any moment.[57] After the arrival of the Japanese, the survivors from the Grasshopper along with Judy, were taken into custody as prisoners of war on 18 March.[58][59]

The crew became prisoners of war, initially held in Padang, but were soon moved onto Belawan.[60] They smuggled Judy on board the transport trucks, hidden under empty rice sacks. After five days they arrived at the Gloegoer prisoner of war camp in Medan. Chief Petty Officer Leonard Williams recorded, "thus began 3–4 years of the most horrific labour, torture, starvation, and every degradation the Japanese could inflict on us".[41] She was looked after by Les Searle from the Grasshopper, and a Private named Cousens who had a job making leather goods for the guards. Cousens would feed scraps of leather to Judy,[61] but died of malaria a short time after the two servicemen had stolen a large quantity of rice from the Japanese.[62]

In August, Judy met Leading Aircraftman Frank Williams, who adopted her and shared his daily handful of rice.[4] In the camp Judy would intervene by distracting the guards when they were administering punishment.[1] She was the only animal to have been officially registered as a prisoner of war during the Second World War,[1] after Frank William's intervention to protect the dog from the guards, who would often threaten to shoot Judy as the dog growled and barked at them. Williams managed to convince the camp Commandant, who was drunk on sake, to sign the registration papers with the promise of one of Judy's future puppies.[4] Judy's official prisoner-of-war name was '81A Gloegoer Medan'.[63]

During her stay at the camp, she would alert the prisoners to the approach of the Japanese guards and also if other animals such as snakes or scorpions were around. She also made excursions from the camp, looking for food, and would bring back rats and snakes to Williams.[64] Judy had another group of puppies, of which five survived. One of them was given to the camp Commandant as promised and another puppy was smuggled into the women's camp along with any food that the men could spare.[41][64] A further puppy was given to the Red Cross in Medan, one more was beaten to death by a drunken guard, and the final one remained in the camp after Judy and Williams left.[65]

In June 1944, the men were transferred to Singapore aboard the SS Van Waerwijck, renamed to the Harukiku Maru by the Japanese.[66] Dogs were not allowed on board, but Frank Williams managed to teach Judy to lie still and silent inside a rice sack. When he boarded the ship, Judy climbed into a sack and Williams slung it over his shoulder to take on board. For three hours the men were forced to stand on deck in the searing heat, and for the entire time Judy remained still and silent in the bag on Wiliams's back. The conditions on board the ship were cramped with more than 700 prisoners. On 26 June 1944, the ship was torpedoed by HMS Truculent.[67] Williams pushed Judy out of a porthole in an attempt to save her life, even though there was a 15 feet (4.6 m) drop to the sea. Over 500 of the passengers did not survive.[68]

Frank Williams was recaptured and was sent to a new camp without news of Judy's survival. However, stories began being told of a dog helping drowning men reach pieces of debris on which to hold, and others recalled how the dog would bring them flotsam to keep them afloat.[41] She had been found in the water by other survivors of the sinking, and once again hidden from the Japanese. Upon arrival at a dock, she was found by Les Searle who tried to smuggle her onto a truck with him. However, she was discovered by a Japanese Captain who threatened to kill her – whose order was countermanded by the newly arrived former Commander of the Medan camp and she was allowed to travel with Searle onto the new camp.[69]

Williams was giving up hope of finding Judy when she arrived in his new camp. After four weeks at the new camp, they were moved back to Sumatra by paddle steamer. They had been told that it was a "special mission" to pick fruit.[70] Instead they spent a year in Sumatra, with the Japanese using the men to cut through the jungle to lay railway track. She also proved useful in conducting trades with the locals, as she would indicate when someone was hiding near to the track.[71] Her barking deliberately alerted the guards to when there was something too large for her to handle in the jungle, such as tigers or elephants.[72]

The experience saw a change in the dog, with Frank later writing, "She wasn't that tame, obedient dog anymore, she was a skinny animal that kept herself alive through cunning and instinct." Because of the remoteness of the work camp, she was at a reduced risk from the local population who Frank feared would eat her.[73] A radarman named Tom Scott later wrote that Frank and Judy shared an unusual bond, with Frank able to send the dog into the jungle with a click and recall her with a whistle.[74] On one occasion, Frank found Judy attempting to bury an elephant's leg bone.[75]

In early 1945, Frank began to find that Judy was more aggressive towards the Japanese and Korean guards. Although he'd normally send her into the jungle to avoid them, on one occasion, the guards gave chase and shot at the dog. He later found Judy bleeding from the shoulder where she had been grazed by the bullet.[76] He covered the wound with some palm fronds, but could do nothing else to treat or reward her.[77] After moving camps once more,[78] Judy was sentenced to death by the Japanese as part of a plan to control a lice breakout. She disappeared for three days, with guards conducting sweeps in an attempt to find her.[79] She only reappeared when the Japanese forces abandoned the camp.[80]