Simon (cat)

Simon ( probably * 1947, † November 28, 1949 ) was the ship's cat of HMS Amethyst Sloop. 1949, the cat was posthumously awarded the Dickin Medal after she was severely injured in the Yangtze incident, recovered again and helped a rat infestation on the ship to fight. Simon is still the only cat who was awarded the Dickin Medal.

Origin and life

1948, the stray cat from the seventeen years old seaman George Hickinbottom was taken up in the docks of Hong Kong and smuggled aboard HMS Amethyst. At this time Simon was estimated at a year old and malnourished. Simon was soon accepted by the Department as a mascot, chasing rats in the lower deck and slept in the captain's cabin. 1949 drove the HMS Amethyst the Yangtze up to go to Nanjing, where she was the HMS Consort replace, so as to support the present there British diplomat. This injured after Mao Zedong's opinion of China's sovereignty, which is why he was allowed to attack the ship. The HMS Amethyst was badly damaged and had moored on the banks of the river. In the attack, 22 men were killed, including the captain, and 31 wounded part.

Simon was seriously injured in the attack and taken to the ship's doctor, who treated his burns and splinters away, but the doctor did not think he would survive the coming night. Simon survived, however, and after a recovery period he started again to hunt rats that had en masse taken hold on the anchored ship. After the ship had escaped, the cat was a celebrity. When Simon arrived in Plymouth in 1949, he was brought, like all animals, who entered Britain in quarantine. Here, Simon moved as a result of his injuries, a viral disease to and died despite the efforts of the medical staff and many well wishes on November 28, 1949 Simon was in Ilford buried at the PDSA Animal Cemetery, where hundreds of people -. Including the entire crew of the HMS Amethyst - attended the funeral.

He was a bush in honor of the Yangtze Incident Grove at the National Memorial Arboretum in Staffordshire planted.