Judy, a purebred
pointer, was the mascot of several ships in the Pacific, and was captured by
the Japanese in 1942 and taken to a prison camp. There she met Aircraftsman
Frank Williams, who shared his small portion of rice with her.
Judy raised morale
in the POW camp, and also barked when poisonous snakes, crocodiles or even
tigers approached the prisoners. When the prisoners were shipped back to
Singapore, she was smuggled out in a rice sack, never whimpering or betraying
her presence to the guards.
The next day, that
ship was torpedoed. Williams pushed Judy out of a porthole in an attempt to
save her life, even though there was a 15-foot drop to the sea. He made his own
escape from the ship, but was then recaptured and sent to a new POW camp.
He didn't know if
Judy had survived, but soon he began hearing stories about a dog helping
drowning men reach pieces of debris after the shipwreck. And when Williams
arrived at the new camp, he said: "I couldn’t believe my eyes! As I walked
through the gate, a scraggly dog hit me square between the shoulders and
knocked me over. I’d never been so glad to see the old girl!"
They spent a year
together at that camp in Sumatra. "Judy saved my life in so many
ways," said Williams. "But the greatest of all was giving me a reason
to live. All I had to do was look into those weary, bloodshot eyes and ask
myself: 'What would happen to her if I died?' I had to keep going."
Once hostilities
ceased, Judy was then smuggled aboard a troopship heading back to Liverpool. In
England, she was awarded the Dickin Medal (the "Victoria Cross" for
animals) in May 1946. Her citation reads: "For magnificent courage and
endurance in Japanese prison camps, which helped to maintain morale among her
fellow prisoners, and also for saving many lives through her intelligence and
watchfulness".
At the same time,
Frank Williams was awarded the PDSA's White Cross of St. Giles for his devotion
to Judy. Frank and Judy spent a year after the war visiting the relatives of
English POWs who had not survived, and Frank said that Judy "always
provided a comforting presence to the families."
When Judy finally
died at the age of 13, Frank spent two months building a granite and marble
memorial in her memory, which included a plaque describing her life story.
Here is a book
that tells more about their story.
(Source)
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