Mascots

[Ex-Dragoon]

I was looking at the 21st Bn CEF Tribute Site (thanks to swellal for providing a link in his profile) and with interest looked up mascots. Now mascots were nothing I really learned about back when I wore green but I must admit I was horrified to see Nan beheaded and in the PWOR museum. My understanding was that mascots were part of the regiment but to see an animal that meant so much to the boys and to be treated in such a way leaves me shaking my head. Did this kind of thing happen a lot when the mascot passed on?

 

[Art Johnson]

The 15th Bn CEF (48th Highlanders) had a dog for a mascot. The name escapes me at the moment but when the battalion was in the line he was left in the rear under the care of the P/M. When the war was over Lt/Col Bent brought the dog and a horse by name of Fritz back to his farm in Nova Scotia where they both lived out their lives and were buried .

 

[ouyin2000]

The Canadian Scottish have a rather large St Bernard as their mascot, named Wallace (the sixth St Bernard to bear the name)

Unfortunately, the dogshave had a history of hip and other joint problems, such as cancer, arthiritis, etc.

There is a story about the latest Wallace here: http://www.army.dnd.ca/canadian_scottish/news_wallace.htm

 

[swellal]

I was horrified to see Nan beheaded and in the PWOR museum.

As a background, the members of the 21st Battalion Association wanted to pay a special tribute to their beloved Nan and decided to have her head mounted and she was initially installed in the Sr NCO's Mess at the PWOR where the Association had their meetings and did most of their socializing.  The remaining portion of her body was buried with full military honours in the Military Section of Cataraqui Cemetery in Kingston.  Her head wasn't moved to the museum until 1991.

Al
PWOR Archivist

 

[Michael OLeary]

A pair of Regimental mascot stories:


      Bivouacking on the right flank of the Legion were the 23rd Royal Welsh Fusiliers and their regimental mascot, a magnificent billy goat called Dai. A present from Queen Victoria, the goat had won a citation for its cool conduct at the Alma. Two legionnaires coveted Dai, not for his sang-froid, but his fleecy coat. One night they crept over and poisoned the pride of the Welsh Fusiliers. When Dai had been buried with solemn ceremony in Inkerman cemetery, the legionnaires dug up the coffin and skinned the luckless animal. A tanner and tailor finished the job and the legionnaires tossed for the thick hide jacket. The man who won was wearing it when a major from the Fusiliers approached him.
      "That's a fine jacket," he commented.
      "C'est assez bien," muttered the legionnaire, trembling in case the murder and body snatching had been discovered.
      "Must keep you warm," the major went on. "Tell you whatâ ”I'll give you twenty pounds for it."
      Twenty pounds! A whole wagon of brandy! The major walked off, garbed in the skin of his own regimental mascot. - Hugh McLeave, The Damned Die Hard, 1973


The Prince of Wales Leinster Regiment (Royal Canadians) was raised in Canada in 1858 and one of its earliest "recruits" was "Sam," a fine Newfoundland puppy. Soon after raising, the regiment came to England, being stationed in Aldershot for a time, where dogs were forbidden in Camp. Sam was captured by the military police, but as he was being taken to the "place of execution" he was forcibly rescued by men of the regiment. The Commanding Officer was called on to explain why orders had been disobeyed and the conduct of his men in interfering with the police. The outcome was that the mascot was allowed to remain in barracks, provided he was always tied up. A good long rope was obtained and Sam tied to the stables, a restriction on his movements which he very much resented. The next day was a divisional field day in the Long Valley area and as the whole of the division was drawn up in line for inspection, before the manoeuvres began, Sam could be seen trotting down the front of the line with a yard or two of rope trailing behind him. When he reached his regiment he took up his accustomed position in front of the band with a look of satisfaction on his face. What had happened was that as soon as the mascot heard his regiment march away to the exercise he started gnawing the rope and eventually made his escape and tracked down The Leinster Regiment.
            Sam was an individualist and refused to own any one person as his master. He breakfasted with the men, dined at midday at the sergeants' mess and had his evening meal in the kitchen of the officers' mess. When the regiment was stationed at Gibraltar he marched out with every guard and attended all parades. He returned to Canada with the regiment in 1867 and died in Ottawa. His fine curly coat was made into a drummer's apron, so that his usefulness did not end with his death. - Major T.J. Edwards, M.B.E., F.R.Hist.S., "Regimental Mascots, Part V," The Army Quarterly, Volume LXV, October 1952 and January 1953

 

[muskrat89]

Don't forget Winnie the Pooh  http://www.geocities.com/louanne_wendy/poohhist.html

 

[Sig_Des]

The C & E Branch had a Mascot, Jimmy the Duck...until it was discovered that Jimmy wasn't a Jimmy at all, it was a she...She was renamed, the name eludes me right now...

She's stuffed, and displayed at the C & E museum in Kingston

 

[pbi]

When I was in RRegtC (1974-1982) we had a large St Bernard as mascot, usually known as "Royal". It was handled by the Mascot Major, a WO who marched with the mascot behind the Pioneers but (IIRC) in front of the band. The mascot worse a dog-sized "saddle blanket" bearing Regimental insignia and devices on it: the Mascot Major wore normal ceremonial scarlet but with a multicoloured aiguillete-type device hanging off one breast of the tunic. I remember one very hot day, when parading at Nathan Phillips Square in downtown Toronto, the very large and thirsty dog took off into the reflecting pool, dragging in the very skinny and pissed-off Mascot Major.

Cheers

 

[3rd Herd]

if memory serves me right we had a donkey as a mascot in Cyprus 1980, died as a result of spending too much time in the mess. Didn't a certain general's pet pig disappear during ex in Wainwright ?

 

[SHELLDRAKE!!]

Not really a mascot, but the herbies have a polar bear rug that is currently(I think) with 2 RCHA that is often the subject of kidnapping. 1 RCHA keeps a sport of making it appear in Shilo on occasion.

 

[Fishbone Jones]

THE WATCHPIG

During Leliefontein celebrations in ‘72 with the RCD we aquired the Watch Pig. Small lead in though. Leliefontein lasted for about a week at that time, lot‘s of parties and sports along with the parades. Sports were always accompanied by copious amounts of drink. During the games the MO was always on duty. Two or three guys went to the hospital during the bicycle jousts and another six or seven with sprains and breaks during the Sqn vs Sqn murder ball game. For some reason though, when the greased pig competition started, the MO found it to inhumane and made us stop. So, now what to do with the little pink piglet?

It was decided the pig would be auctioned off at the smoker, figuring one of the guys living on a local farm would buy it for the landlord. Nope. The single guys pooled our money and won the pig. For the rest of the night he kept up with the boys drinking beer. A can would get tossed to him, he‘d bite into it, and drink the beer that flowed out. Within a couple of days he was a raving alchoholic. He‘d roam the hallway of T4 searching for his elixar. He‘d get extremley agitated as he sobered up and attack you if you had no beer for him. Hence the Watch Pig moniker. You had to know how to disarm the guard. As we returned to the shack at night, you always had a can of beer. On entering the darkened shack, you‘d listen for the clip clop of his cloven hooves and toss the beer to the other end. When he went for it, you went the other way to your room.

The Black Forest Officer‘s Mess had a large silver punch bowl. During the RCD Officer‘s Leliefontein soiree, it disappeared about the same time as the Stewards. The MP‘s show up at the shack to recover it and rousted us all out. Ignoring our drunken taunts, they ask for it back under threat of us all ending up in cells. They‘re told the "pig" in the end room has it. They knock at the door and listen. Snorting and snuffling is heard. Thinking the occupant passed out, they use their pass key. Upon rushing in, they slip on the pig shyte on the floor (cleaned up twice daily BTW) and are confronted face to face with a very drunken and ornary swine. His punch bowl, which had previously been full was now empty and he wanted it replenished. So that was strike one for the Watch Pig. Ordered out of the shacks by the SSM, he was given a spot between the wings, tied to the Snowball tower. The SSM stated he was our responsibility and we were on thin ice. It took Watch Pig about two hours to turn the lawn into a muddy, circular sty, about twenty feet in diameter. The length of his rope. German CE type complains, strike two.

Pete D is elected to ensure the Watch Pig behaves properly as the whole thing was his idea. Him being the drunkest when we bought it and not being able to remember, he seemed the best candidate.

The final straw came about a week later, on a Sunday morning. The day broke sunny and warm. Too nice to sleep in, even after a hard night in the CC Keller Bar. One of the fellas looked out and raised the alarm. Watch Pig was loose! Pete D was roused and told to go out and tie him up. Forgetting the beer bait, Pete goes out in nothing but his jockeys. Without incentive to listen (no beer) Watch Pig takes off down the road. Pete D is in hot pursuit as Watch Pig rounds the corner and heads up the main road behind the shacks. Watch Pig is clippity clopping along as fast as he can, straight down the middle of the road, considering the twenty or thiry pounds he has put on while on his three week beer diet and Pete‘s not doing much better. They are about twenty yards short of the Church, when the congregation, led by the Base Commander, his family and the Padre step out into the morning sun. Ringside to see Watch Pig being pusued by a drunken RCD wearing nothing but yellow jockey shorts and screaming profanity at the pig. We can only imagine the thoughts that were racing through the various minds. Needless to say, that was Strike Three for Watch Pig. He was given to a local farmer who could not believe his size for his age. Nor could he understand Watch Pig‘s horrible disposition...and Watch Pig being family, we didn‘t tell him.

 

[PPCLI MCpl]

Jake: The Charlie Company C-ck

In 2002, 3 VP BG returned to Bagram in preparation for Op Torri.  To alleviate some of the stress, and because he was insane, one of our CQ staff, who we called Safety Sam, decided he wanted a pet chicken. 

So he wandered down to the main drag, the site of local merchants hocking everything from belts to AK's.  He approached a local and asked him for a chicken.  The local didn't understand. So after some arm flapping charades, a look of recognition crossed the merchants face, and he told the buyer "$50.

So our hero agreed, and the merchant takes off at a sprint.  He returns a short time later with a rooster, quite agitated at being stolen from it's previous owner I'm sure.

So the buyer says "Okay $25"  The seller refuses, "No, no, $50"

So Sam turns and walks away, leaving the disgruntled merchant standing in the middle of the road with a squawking bird.  Anyway, reason prevailed.

Now, Charlie Company are the proud owners of a rooster we promptly named Jake.  He was a sickly bird, who couldn't manage a "C-ck a doodle doo" without sounding like he was choking on marbles.

He was built a roost out of cardboard and fed from a bag of grain Sam had wrangled from the Americans.  He was a novelty at first, but after several mornings of his grating croaks, he started getting death threats from the other companies.

The problem solved itself when Jake pecked his paracord leash off and ran into some uncleared ground adjacent our position.  We tried to convince one of the Polish EOD guys to go retrieve him, but he looked at us like we had two heads.  Must have been a language barrier thing.

Anyway, that was the last we saw of old Jake.

Tune in next time, and I'll spin the yarn of the turtle that tried to mate with my Weapon Det Commanders head.....

 

[buzgo]

The C & E Branch had a Mascot, Jimmy the Duck...until it was discovered that Jimmy wasn't a Jimmy at all, it was a she...She was renamed, the name eludes me right now...

She's stuffed, and displayed at the C & E museum in Kingston

Ermintrude!

 

[UberCree]

C co 2/75 Ranger Reg't had a Monkey as a mascot in Afghanistan. 

His name was "Spank".


;D

 

[Michael Dorosh]

THE WATCHPIG

He was given to a local farmer who could not believe his size for his age. Nor could he understand Watch Pig‘s horrible disposition...and Watch Pig being family, we didn‘t tell him.

What happened to Pete D?

Was there a ban on yellow jockey shorts in the RCD from then on?