Cats in the Second World War

We have previously written about Simon, the ship’s cat on board HMS Amethyst, and the only feline holder of the Dickin medal – the animal’s VC.  However, there is another cat who was decorated for her courage… 
Faith was the tabby and white coloured church cat of St Faith & St Augustine, Watling Street, just to the east of [...]

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Call for memorial to soldier bear

There are calls for a memorial to Voytek, an Iranian bear that fought for the Polish against the Germans and ended up in a Scottish zoo.  Voytek was adopted by Polish forces after being discovered in Iran in 1943.
He was trained to carry heavy mortar rounds and saw action in Monte Cassino, Italy, before being stationed [...]

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Service for animal war heroes

An unusual memorial service took place yesterday at the PDSA animal cemetery in Ilford, Essex, which is the burial place of twelve recipients of the Dickin Medal (the animal’s Victoria Cross).   Among them are Simon, ship’s cat on HMS Amethyst during the Yangtze Incident, whom we’ve written about before.  Read more about Dickin Medal winner, Simon
The service was attended [...]

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Arms and the cat

Richard, one of our volunteers, has been looking into war memorials to cats.
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Animals such as horses and elephants have been pressed into military service since classical times, and also used have been dogs, camels, oxen, mules, donkeys, pigeons and various other ‘humble beasts ‘.
Of the animal memorials on the UKNIWM database, those to horses, as [...]

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Browse by War

72 different wars and conflicts are marked by memorials on our database and you can now browse this list. 
Click to browse by War
The First World War produced the most memorials (37,028) but you can also browse memorials with dedications to First World War Civilians (71 memorials).
Why not have a look at some of the more unusual conflicts, like the Austrian Succession, [...]

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