Judy the Pointer: The Only Dog Officially Registered as a WWII Prisoner of War

August 8, 2026

Judy, the English Pointer and WWII prisoner of war

When HMS Grasshopper sank on February 14, 1942, a man named George White went back into the wreckage to find the ship's dog. He found her. She survived. Then things got considerably worse.

February 14, 1942

HMS Grasshopper was bombed by Japanese aircraft and sunk off Banka Island in the South China Sea. Judy, an English Pointer who had been the ship's mascot since 1936, was trapped below decks when the ship went down. Leading Aircraftsman George White went back through the wreckage and got her out.

The survivors gathered on a small uninhabited island off the coast of Sumatra with no fresh water visible anywhere. Judy began digging in the sand. She found a freshwater spring. It was enough to keep the group alive until they could find a way off the island.

Gloegoer POW Camp, March 1942

Japanese forces captured the group approximately five weeks later. They were taken to Gloegoer POW Camp number one in Medan, Sumatra. Judy was hidden from the guards. Discovery meant almost certain death for her and punishment for the men hiding her.

In August, a Royal Air Force Leading Aircraftsman named Frank Williams arrived at the camp. He met Judy and began sharing his daily rice ration with her. An English Pointer living on half portions of rice was in trouble, and he knew it.

Prisoner 81A, Gloegoer Medan

Frank Williams went to the camp commandant, Colonel Banno, and made an unusual request: register the dog as an official prisoner of war. He argued that she was a former Royal Navy mascot, that she had survived the same sinking as the men, and that she deserved the same designation. Banno agreed.

Judy became Prisoner 81A, Gloegoer Medan. The registration gave her food rations and, more importantly, legal standing. Guards who would have shot her on sight now had to treat her as a prisoner with a number. It saved her life.

The Torpedoing and After

In mid-1944, the prisoners were transferred by ship. Frank smuggled Judy aboard the SS Van Waerwijck inside a rice sack. The ship was torpedoed in the Banka Strait. Frank pushed Judy through a porthole into the sea. She swam to wreckage and helped other survivors reach floating debris.

She survived. He survived. Both were liberated in September 1945. In May 1946, the PDSA awarded Judy the Dickin Medal. She died in Tanzania in 1950, where Frank had relocated after the war. She remains the only dog officially registered as a prisoner of war in the Second World War.