In the original dustsheet. Black cloth binding with gilt title on the spine.

F.B.A. provides an in-depth photographic presentation of this item to stimulate your feeling and touch. More traditional book descriptions are immediately available.

A great book.

The first recipients of the Dickin Medal in December 1943 were three pigeons serving with the Royal Air Force, all of whom contributed to the recovery of aircrew from ditched aircraft. The most recent to be honoured is Treo, a black Labrador, awarded for his ‘heroic actions as an arms and explosives search dog in Afghanistan’. These true tales of heartrending devotion and duty are told from first-hand accounts and from the citations themselves. There’s Rip the terrier who is credited with saving upwards of 100 lives sniffing out survivors buried after bombing raids in WWII. Judy the pointer, hero of a Japanese Prisoner of War Camp. Simon the ship’s cat who, though injured, continued to stay with his crew under fire. G.I. Joe the pigeon who saved the inhabitants of a village in Italy when she flew twenty miles in twenty minutes with a message to evacuate prior to a bombing raid. There’s Buster, a spaniel who located an arms cache in Afghanistan saving the lives of countless soldiers.
Written in a spirit of celebration and intended to provide a lasting memorial to these remarkable animals and the men and women who came to rely on them, these tales of courage and devotion will stay with the reader long after they have closed the book.

Reviews: 

• “Astonishing stories of animal courage” (Choice magazine)
• There have been just 64 recipients of the Animals’ Victoria Cross awarded for ‘Conspicuous gallantry or devotion to duty while serving in military conflict’. For the first time all their heroic, touching and stirring stories are told.
• All of us can testify to the remarkable bond that can form between animals and humans. We rely on animals for so many things: companionship, solace, help in our daily lives, and indeed love. But there are some animals, like some humans, who have that extra special something that sets them apart. Something of the selflessness that comes in extreme situations, particularly those that occur in wartime where an act of bravery can capture the mood of the time. We call it gallantry. We humans celebrate this gallantry with the Victoria Cross. In animals we celebrate it with the PDSA Dickin Medal, named after Maria Dickin, CBE, founder of PDSA (The People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals).
• In this book, the true tales of heart-rending devotion and duty of every Dickin Medal recipient are told from first-hand accounts and from the citations themselves. There’s Rip the terrier, who is credited with saving upwards of 100 lives sniffing out survivors buried after bombing raids in World War II. Judy the pointer, hero of a Japanese prisoner of war camp. Simon the ship’s cat, who, though injured, continued to stay with his crew under fire. And there’s Buster, a spaniel who located an arms cache in Afghanistan, saving the lives of countless soldiers.
• This is a lasting memorial to these remarkable animals and the men and women who came to rely on them.
• The Dickin Medal is regarded as the Animals’ Victoria Cross, awarded for ‘Conspicuous gallantry or devotion to duty while serving in military conflict’. Here, for the first time, all their heroic, touching and stirring stories are told with the full cooperation of the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA) founders and administrators of the Awards.

David Long; a writer and journalist for more than 25 years, David Long has appeared regularly on television and radio and written for the Times, Sunday Times and London Evening Standard and a huge diversity of magazines around the world. He has written nine previous books.

The PDSA Dickin Medal was instituted in 1943 in the United Kingdom by Maria Dickin to honour the work of animals in World War II. It is a bronze medallion, bearing the words “For Gallantry” and “We Also Serve” within a laurel wreath, carried on a ribbon of striped green, dark brown, and pale blue. It is awarded to animals that have displayed “conspicuous gallantry or devotion to duty while serving or associated with any branch of the Armed Forces or Civil Defence Units”. The award is commonly referred to as “the animals’ Victoria Cross”.

Maria Dickin was the founder of the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA), a British veterinary charity. She established the award for any animal displaying conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty whilst serving with British Empire armed forces or civil emergency services. The medal was awarded 54 times between 1943 and 1949 – to 32 pigeons, 18 dogs, 3 horses, and a ship’s cat – to acknowledge actions of gallantry or devotion during the Second World War and subsequent conflicts.

The awarding of the medal was revived in 2000. In December 2007, 12 former recipients buried at the PDSA Animal Cemetery in Ilford, Essex, were afforded full military honours at the conclusion of a National Lottery-aided project to restore the cemetery.