Simon (ship's cat)

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Simon (* probably 1947 - † November 28, 1949 ) was the ship's cat of the sloop HMS Amethyst . In 1949 the cat was awarded the Dickin Medal after she was seriously injured in the Yangtze incident , recovered and helped fight a rat plague on the ship. To date, Simon is the only cat that has been awarded the Dickin Medal.

Origin and life

In 1948 the stray cat was picked up in the docks of Hong Kong by the seventeen-year-old sailor George Hickinbottom and secretly smuggled aboard the HMS Amethyst . At the time, Simon was estimated to be a year old and malnourished. Simon was soon accepted as a mascot by the crew, hunted rats in the lower decks and slept in the captain's cabin. In 1949 the HMS Amethyst drove up the Yangtze to get to Nanjing , where it was supposed to replace the HMS Consort in order to support the British diplomats present there. In Mao Zedong's opinion, this violated the sovereignty of China, which is why he attacked the ship. The HMS Amethyst was badly damaged and had to anchor on the bank of the river. 22 men were killed in the attack, including the captain, and 31 wounded, some seriously.

Simon was seriously injured in this attack and taken to the ship's doctor, who treated his burns and removed splinters, but the doctor did not believe that he would survive the coming night. But Simon survived and after a recovery phase he began to hunt rats again, which had spread en masse on the anchored ship. After the ship escaped, the cat became a celebrity. When Simon arrived in Plymouth in 1949 , like all animals entering the UK, he was quarantined . Here, Simon contracted a viral disease as a result of his injuries and died despite the efforts of the medical staff and numerous wishes for wellbeing on November 28, 1949. Simon was buried in Ilford at the PDSA Animal Cemetery . Hundreds of people - including the entire HMS Amethyst team - attended the funeral.

Able Seacat Simon

A bush was planted in his honor at the Yangtze Incident Grove at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire .

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