In the war the pigeons would all have had to be shot for dereliction of duty: released from the hands of actor Jenny Seagrove, instead of swooping in the planned elegant V-formation across one of the most extraordinary cemeteries in Britain, they took one look at the assembled crowd of photographers, did a swift U-turn over the hedge, and headed north for Manchester and home.
Among thousands of domestic moggies and much mourned mongrels, many with expensive headstones describing the grief of humans signing themselves "Mum" and "Dad", 12 animals described as war heroes lie in a sloping field on the north eastern borders of London.
Pet heroes honoured as cemetery reopensMaev KennedyFriday December 14, 2007Guardian Unlimited In memory of brave pets ... the PDSA's Ilford animal cemetery. Photograph: Cate Gillon/Getty
In the war the pigeons would all have had to be shot for dereliction of duty: released from the hands of actor Jenny Seagrove, instead of swooping in the planned elegant V-formation across one of the most extraordinary cemeteries in Britain, they took one look at the assembled crowd of photographers, did a swift U-turn over the hedge, and headed north for Manchester and home.
Among thousands of domestic moggies and much mourned mongrels, many with expensive headstones describing the grief of humans signing themselves "Mum" and "Dad", 12 animals described as war heroes lie in a sloping field on the north eastern borders of London.
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It was still deep countryside when the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals, a 90-year-old charity, which each year still cares for thousands of pets of people too poor to pay vet bills, created the cemetery. After over 3,000 burials it closed in the 1960s, and soon became overgrown and forlorn, tree roots toppling monuments and moss blurring inscriptions.
Yesterday it was formally reopened to the public, after restoration work funded by a £50,000 Big Lottery grant. The site includes the graves of 12 Dickin Medal winners, the animal equivalent of a VC, a fifth of all those ever awarded.
The pigeons passed the grave of Mary of Exeter, a pigeon that made four flights carrying messages back from wartime France, returning seriously injured each time. On her last return shrapnel damaged her neck muscles, but her owner, an Exeter cobbler, made her a leather collar which held her head up and kept her going for another 10 years.
Jake, a present-day Metropolitan Police explosives detector dog, sniffed curiously yesterday at the grave of Simon, the only cat ever to win the medal, for heroic ratting on board HMS Amethyst during the 100 days the ship spent trapped by Chinese communist rebels on the Yangtze River, in 1949.
Fortunately, according to Commander Stuart Hett, who briefly served as the cat's correspondence secretary, Simon was a small but fearless creature who quite liked dogs. Simon was originally the captain's cat, a privileged creature who fished ice cubes out of his water jug and crunched them, but after he survived being blown up along with the captain's cabin, became the pet of the whole crew. Hett, then a 23-year-old sub lieutenant, had the chore of replying to thousands of letters after the ship escaped the barrage and the story went worldwide. The decision was taken to bring the furry hero back to Britain, which proved the death of him: he caught cat flu while still in quarantine.
"Can a cat be brave?" Commander Hett considered yesterday. "Is it right to call an animal a hero? I think so, yes. To continue doing everything required of you under fire, to continue giving comfort and succour to your comrades, yes I think you could properly call that bravery."
