The Animals' VC: For Gallantry or Devotion: The PDSA Dickin Medal - Inspiring stories of bravery and courage

by David Long

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.

288 pages, Hardcover

First published August 30, 2012

About the author

Winner of the Blue Peter Book of the Year 2017, writer and journalist David Long has regularly appeared in The Times and the London Evening Standard, as well as on television and radio. He has written more than 30 books for children and adults and lives in Suffolk.

Reviews

[JD · Rating 4 out of 5]

A nice read about the stories of all 63 animals that were awarded the Dickin Medal up until 2012. The stories vary in length, from a few pages to just a paragraph. Some of the stories will be well known to readers and there are 32 pigeon recipients, some of whom did not even have a name that will not be known at all. I am a dog person, but my favorite story in the book was about the only cat recipient of the medal, Able Seacat Simon, that earned his medal in 1949 on the Yangtze River in China while serving on HMS Amethyst during the Yangtze Incident. An added bonus in the end of the book is the tales of the "civilian" animals that earned the PDSA Gold Medal. Highly enjoyable read and recommended for a nice light read.

[Saturday's Child · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a random choice from a selection of books displayed on the subject of pets/animals and it turned out to be a great read.

[Weasel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting read - some issues in the edition I read (page numbers referenced incorrectly) - good to read a book that gives a summary of all the reciepients. It's not quite uniform as far as what information is given for each (those with limited information it partly makes sense for, but sometimes it feels like an omission, or odd sequencing of the information).

[Andrew · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inspirational stories that bring an occasional lump to the throat. Thoroughly recommend this book to everyone.

[The Bookish Wombat · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was so looking forward to reading the inspiring stories of animals that have been awarded the PDSA's Dickin Medal, however while the facts about the medal-winners is interesting and often moving this book is a real disappointment. In my view it does a disservice to the lives of its subjects.

The style of the book is very complex with long sentences which include multiple clauses. This seems to partly be the author not wishing to abandon any of the research he did and trying to shoe-horn it in whether it's necessary or not. The citation for each Dickin Medal awarded is used at the beginning of the section of the book covering that medal-winner, but the author frequently uses this exact wording over again in his description of the deeds of the animal.

Other style problems were the use of the same word close together in sentences and multiple typos (e.g. ships setting sale etc).

I felt let down by this book and that more care taken while writing it would have shown more respect to its brave subjects.