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

When HMS Grasshopper sank on February 14, 1942, a man named George White was pulled from the water with a dog he had never seen before. The dog had apparently swum out from the shore as the ship went down. They both survived. The dog had no papers, no name, no history. George named her Judy, after his daughter.

That was not quite right. Judy was a registered purebred English Pointer, born in Shanghai in 1937, with a full pedigree. She had been a mascot on several Royal Navy ships before Grasshopper. She had a registered number with the Royal Navy. She had, in fact, a longer record of service than most of the men aboard.

Before Grasshopper

Judy joined the Royal Navy in 1936 as a mascot on HMS Gnat in Shanghai. She transferred to HMS Grasshopper, a gunboat, as the war moved into the Pacific theater. She already had a reputation by the time of the sinking: she had helped the crew locate fresh water on at least one occasion using her nose, she had spotted enemy aircraft before radar did, and she had survived a previous shipwreck.

The POW Camp

After the Grasshopper sank, survivors reached Sumatra, where they were captured by Japanese forces. They were taken to a prisoner of war camp. Judy was not welcome. The Japanese commanders made repeated attempts to remove her. The prisoners repeatedly refused.

Leading Aircraftman Frank Williams, a Royal Air Force prisoner, negotiated with the camp commander to have Judy officially registered as a prisoner of war. She received the designation POW 81A Medan. She was the only animal ever officially registered as a prisoner of war in World War II.

Registration as a POW gave her some protection, though not immunity from danger. She was nearly executed on multiple occasions. Frank Williams hid her, distracted guards, and smuggled her onto the prison ship that transported prisoners in 1944 at considerable personal risk.

After the War

Judy survived the war and returned to England with Frank Williams in 1945. She was awarded the Dickin Medal in 1946, the highest military honor available to animals in the UK. She died in Tanzania in 1950 while Frank was stationed there. He built her a granite monument with her service record inscribed on it.

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Sources

• Wikipedia — Judy (dog) — Sourced account of Judy's service aboard HMS Grasshopper, her time as the only officially registered animal POW, and her Dickin Medal
• PDSA — Dickin Medal: Judy — Official record of Judy's 1946 Dickin Medal award, citing her as the only animal officially registered as a prisoner of war
• Imperial War Museum — Judy: The Dog Who Became a POW — IWM account of Judy's capture, Frank Williams' negotiations with the camp commander, and her escape
• History.com — Judy, the WWII Dog Who Became a POW — Historical account of Judy's rescue from the sinking HMS Grasshopper and her years in Japanese captivity
• BBC News — Judy the dog: The remarkable story of the canine POW — BBC account of Judy's service and Frank Williams' efforts to bring her safely home to England

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