Orders, Decorations and Medals

The Second World War Dickin Medal (a.k.a. “The Animals’ V.C.”) awarded to “Brian”, a German Shepherd dog, who parachuted into Normandy with the 13th Battalion, Airborne Division, in June 1944

The Dickin Medal, obverse, ‘P.D.S.A., For Gallantry, We Also Serve’, reverse, officially inscribed ‘ “Brian”, 13th Btn. Airborne Division, Normandy, June 1944, A.F.M.C. No. 1211, D.M. No. 48’, with double-ring suspension, original investiture hook and length of riband, extremely fine £8000-12,000

This lot was sold as part of a special collection, The Ron Penhall Collection.

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P.D.S.A. (The People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals) and A.F.M.C. (Allied Forces Mascot Club) certificate, dated 26 April 1947, states:

‘For excellent patrol work and qualifying as a paratrooper, Airborne Division, in Normandy, June 1944.’

“Brian” (a.k.a. “Bing”), a cross-bred Alsatian, and ‘a fully qualified paratroop with the requisite number of jumps’, was five years old at the time of receiving his Dickin Medal at a special ceremony held at the P.D.S.A’s Headquarters in Cork Street, London on 26 April 1947. He was also the recipient of a special R.S.P.C.A. collar and medallion ‘For Valour’.

Born at Nottingham in early 1942, “Brian” was the smallest of a litter of half alsatian, half collie pups. Purchased for Miss Betty Fetch, as a present from her parents, the onset of wartime rationing soon became a problem for the new owners of a dog with a big appetite, and with much regret, “Brian” was loaned to the Army’s War Dog Training School at Potters Bar, from which establishment he graduated as a fully qualified patrol dog in early 1944. Posted to the 13th Parachute Battalion, where he came under the care of Sergeant Ken Bailey, a former member of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps, “Brian” was selected for parachute training in the unit’s scout and sniper platoon.

Among three dogs to pass a two-week long course, he was duly enrolled for the 13th’s parachute drop on D-Day, but not before undergoing further tests in the fuselage of a Dakota, an environment that was made all the more realistic by high-speed taxiing and flat-out engine tests for any signs of ill-effects. He was also trained to recognise that when the engines were throttled-back, it was time to jump. At about the same time, he was fitted with a specially designed parachute harness, the arrival of which allowed his handler to jump with him from a stationary aircraft, but with the engines running to give a sense of slip-stream. As it transpired, this latter test established that the side-exit on the Dakota was too risky for “Brian” to exit from, the danger of the slip-stream throwing him back against the aircraft being too great. Accordingly, he was selected for a conversion course in Albermarles, which had a floor-exit at the rear of the aircraft. All was now set for “Brian’s” first proper flight experience, which commenced with a series of 10-minute circuits around the unit’s base near Netheravon and, on 3 April 1944, he undertook his first parachute descent - the first of seven successful drops from which he emerged with wagging tail when greeted by his handler back on terra firma.

In the following month the 13th Parachute Battalion moved to its transit camp at Brize Norton in Oxfordshire and, at 50 minutes after midnight on D-Day 6 June 1944, descended by parachute on Ranville, which place had to be taken and held to assist the crossing of the bridges on the River Orne. Of the three dogs dropped with “Brian”, one was badly hurt and evacuated and the other never seen again. For his own part, “Brian” landed in a tree and was sniped at by enemy troops, but ultimately was rescued by his handler, Sergeant Ken Bailey, and reported to his post on the edge of the Bois de Bavent, an area infested with Germans. He subsequently endured heavy mortar and shell fire, during which he was slightly wounded, but, with the provision of his own slit trench, survived the ordeal, and went on to serve with the 13th Battalion for three months, during which period, as the Allies pushed inland, he proved adept as a sniffer dog in addition to his usual guard dog duties.

Returning to the U.K.for a period of rest in early September, “Brian” had to go into quarantine for six months, but he was again in action with the men of the 13th Battalion in March 1945, during the crossing of the Rhine operations. Described by a Major in the R.A.V.C. as an obedient dog who responded to ‘the words of command at once’, he remained on military duty until April 1946, the latter part of his tour of duty encompassing security work at airfields and ammunition dumps of the B.A.O.R. In fact, so impressed were his military masters that they tried to persuade Miss Betty Fetch, his true owner, to let him stay on active duty, but she steadfastly refused, and “Brian” once more returned to the U.K., where he completed his quarantine in the military kennels at Chilbolton Down, near Stockport - it was here that it was noted for the record that he had a broken tooth and a scarred leg, injuries no doubt caused by his earlier activities on the end of a parachute and while under fire in Normandy.

“Brian” was finally returned to his owner, Miss Betty Fetch, at Loughborough in October 1946 and quickly gained celebrity status, attending a number of public events in 1946-47, among them the Kenilworth Carnival Dog Tournament at Wembley. More importantly, however, he was awarded the Dickin Medal, which decoration was attached to his collar by Air Chief Marshal Sir Frederick Bowhill at the P.D.S.A’s headquarters in London in a special ceremony held on 26 April 1947 - whether anyone warned Sir Frederick that “Brian” had recently become suspicious of anyone in uniform remains unknown, but this newly acquired characteristic was not lost on assorted postmen and policemen over the coming years. He died aged 13 and was buried at the P.D.S.A’s cemetery at Ilford, alongside fellow holders of the “Animals’ V.C.”, but his extraordinary story is commemorated for posterity’s sake in a special display at the Airborne Museum, Aldershot.

Sold with a quantity of original documentation and photographs, including a fascinating array of letters from the War Office and the P.D.S.A., in addition to the Dickin Medal certificate of award, a selection of press cuttings and a collar fitment inscribed, ‘War Dog 1939-45’; together with a recently commissioned oil painting depicting “Brian” in an airborne enviroment.

The Dickin Medal

Instituted by Maria Dickin, C.B.E., the founder of the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals, in 1943, the Dickin Medal has since been awarded on 60 occasions - 32 of them going to pigeons, 24 to dogs, three to horses and one to a cat. The vast majority were granted in respect of acts of bravery in the 1939-45 War, including a posthumous award made to “Gander”, a Newfoundland dog and mascot of the Royal Rifles of Canada, who was killed by a grenade in the defence of Hong Kong in 1941 - his actions were recognised as late as October 2000 following a campaign mounted by Canadian veterans.

More recent times have witnessed the award of Dickin Medals to three dogs for their brave rescue work during the tragic events of 11 September in the Twin Towers and the Pentagon, or for subsequent search and rescue work at “Ground Zero”. So, too, a posthumous award to “Sam” of the R.A.V.C., attached 1st Battalion, Royal Canadian Regiment, for gallant work in Bosnia, and to “Buster”, another R.A.V.C. search dog, for his bravery in Iraq in 2003. The latter award was presented to the recipient by H.R.H. Princess Alexandra, Patron of the P.D.S.A., at a special ceremony held at the Imperial War Museum in December 2003.

The record price at auction for a Dickin Medal was established in 1993, when the award to “Simon” the cat of H.M.S. Amethyst (Yangtze incident, 1949) realised £23,000. Another record price was established for an award to a dog a year or two later at £18,400, on this occasion for the Medal presented to “Antis”, who completed several operational sorties with Bomber Command in the 1939-45 War, but that result has since been surpassed by a hammer price of £22,000 for an award to the collie “Sheila” for rescuing an American bomber crew whose B-19 Flying Fortress crashed on the Cheviot Hills, Northumberland in December 1944 (Morton & Eden, December 2005).

Provenance: Ex Sotheby’s, 28 November 1995 (Lot 1109).