PONIES ON PARADE
... and even bears and penguins too! The world’s military adore a menagerie of wacky mascots
EARLIER this week a lance corporal of the Royal Regiment of Scotland died quietly in Edinburgh. He was an annual visitor to Balmoral and a particular favourite of the Queen – not least because he was a placid, shaggy little Shetland pony.
Cruachan III is sorely missed, not least because the 30-year-old’s successor, Cruachan IV – who replaced him as the regiment’s mascot in 2012, at the perky age of three – is something of a diva.
It took time and patience to train Cruachan IV out of his intense dislike of bagpipes. On his first meeting with Her Majesty he curled his upper lip disdainfully; he always cheekily nibbles her posy and at Edinburgh Castle last month he even tried to eat Prince Harry.
Of course, after seven decades dealing with untold prime ministers, African chieftains, foreign despots and the late Princess Margaret, the Queen is not readily ruffled and remains on civil terms with the miniature horse – but the late Cruachan III was her real pet, and she always kept in touch.
Quite a number – and, indeed, range – of engaging animals are kept as mascots in Her Majesty’s forces, though only nine at public expense. Four of them – two ponies, a goat and a ram – enjoy the rank of lance corporal, and all have rather magnificent names.
Domhnall of Shanton, for instance, is an Irish wolfhound who parades on high days with the Irish Guards. The Royal Irish Regiment also has a wolfhound, Brian Boru.
Derby XXX is the Swaledale ram much cherished by the Mercian Regiment, while Llewellyn and Shenkin III are Kashmiri goats on the hayroll, one might say, of the 1st and 3rd battalions of the Royal Welsh.
The Royal Warwickshire Regiment adopted an Indian black buck antelope – an antelope is on their badge – called Bobby, who went on to become the mascot of the merged regiments who formed the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers.
NOT that a cute hound or a doe-eyed pony can be signed up as a mascot at any division’s whim. The case for each must be made to the Army Honours and Distinction committee before the beast be granted rank and a service number, thus winning prospects of promotion and, more importantly, regular rations.
Cruachan IV enjoys ‘pasture forage and concentrate’, was in October promoted to corporal and is the latest in an 80-year succession of diminutive Shetlanders in the job.
It was the Queen’s great-grand aunt, Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll – an intense and clever daughter of Queen Victoria – who in 1928 first presented the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders with a Shetland pony.
Indeed, ‘Cruachan’ is not just a mighty mountain in Argyll but the historic war-cry of Clan Campbell.
The gelding’s job is no sinecure. He leads the Royal Regiment of Scotland on parade at formal occasions and represents it at a range of events across Scotland. He appears at the Royal Military Tattoo and even accompanies his comrades overseas.
Cruachan IV has his own uniform – a ‘saddlecloth’ in Government Tartan IA and gold, and a regimental badge – and he has twice been decorated, holding medals for the regiment’s service in Afghanistan and another for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee.
Over his saddlecloth he wears a black leather roller and crupper; when on public duty he must don an in-hand bridle and snaffle bit.
Cruachan IV enjoys the sweet life at Edinburgh’s Redford Barracks, where he and his pal Islay enjoy cosy stables, a lush paddock and the care of a dedicated ‘pony major’ – Corporal Mark Wilkinson.
Though Cruachan IV is lively, he has never seriously disgraced himself in public and, it is whispered, will do anything for a Polo mint. But this week, of course, he has been bereaved – and the distress of officers and others at Redford Barracks this week drives home just how cherished their mascots are.
Lance Corporal Cruachan III had finally to be put to sleep as he was riddled with arthritis, was in constant pain and the condition was incurable. He had tendered 17 years of loyal service – first joining the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders in 1995 – and his honours included the Nato Former Yugoslavia Medal and the Iraq Medal.
Though he formally retired on the last night of the Royal Military Tattoo in September 2012, Cruachan III continued quite frequently to appear in public – not least because Corporal Wilkinson found him invaluable in training his successor, with his ‘stern demeanour’ and occasional nip. (Wilkinson presumably played ‘good cop’ with the Polo mints.)
‘I will always be in debt to him for giving me the opportunity to meet so many people, both civilian and military,’ said Corporal Wilkinson, tearfully. ‘The Queen always asked for him and everyone always smiled when they saw him – this is a testament to how loved he was.
‘He had been challenged with numerous health problems in his later years, which he has always been able to beat. Unfortunately this one was too much.’ Not that Cruachan III or his successor were strictly the most important regimental mascots in Scotland – or even the oddest.
Wojtek the bear – a faithful servant of the Polish Army in Second World War exile – is still fondly remembered in Edinburgh.
But let the laurels of sheer improbability rest on the brow of Brigadier Sir Nils Olav, mascot and Colonel-in-Chief of the King’s Guard – ceremonial protectors of Harald V, King of Norway. In the case of Brigadier Sir Nils Olav, his role in the monarch’s security is nominal – partly because the Brigadier resides in Edinburgh Zoo but largely because he is a penguin.
Norway presented the zoo with its first king penguin when it opened in 1913.
It was in 1961, though, that an officer in the Norwegian King’s Guard, Nils Egelian, grew interested in Edinburgh’s much-loved penguin colony when he and comrades were performing a drill display at the Military Tattoo.
When they returned to the Tattoo 11 years later, in 1972, it was at his instigation that the King’s Guard formally adopted one of the penguins, named Nils Olav after Egelian himself and their then-sovereign, Olav V.
Three successive stately king penguins have so far served as Nils Olav, rapidly amassing honours as the bird is formally promoted every time the King’s Guard visits Edinburgh Zoo. On August 15, 2008, the penguin was officially knighted.
‘The knighthood was approved by King Harald V,’ Wikipedia pants, adding that ‘Nils was the first penguin to receive such an honour in the Norwegian Army’.
A crowd gathered at the zoo as the King’s citation was read aloud, that Nils Olav was ‘in every way qualified to receive the honour and dignity of knighthood’.
Brigadier Sir Nils Olav even boasts two big bronze statues of himself – at the zoo and in Oslo – and has never embarrassed either the zoo or his distant King.
WHICH could not be said for William Windsor, a Kashmiri goat who, from 2001 to 2009, served as mascot of the 1st Battalion of the Royal Welsh – but was for three months in 2006 demoted from lance corporal to fusilier after misbehaving on parade at Cyprus.
William Windsor – who had, among other outrages, tried to headbutt a drummer – was charged with ‘unacceptable behaviour’, ‘lack of decorum’ and ‘failure to obey a direct order’.
Through the weeks of demotion and ignominy and until he was forgiven, other fusiliers were no longer obliged to stand to attention as he trotted by.
The late Cruachan III was of sterner stuff.
‘An animal first but soldier second, he held all values and standards we would expect in a Scottish soldier coming into work,’ sighed Corporal Wilkinson.
‘Nothing was ever a chore and I will miss not seeing his face covered in feed every morning.’
‘Always smart and never failing on parade, he represented the Regiment loyally and steadfastly for many years,’ read an official statement. ‘He embodied the traits of the Scottish soldier; steady, hardy and even- tempered.’
Though the Royal Regiment could not resist adding: ‘His sense of mischief was well-known and admired, except perhaps by the pony majors, who often would have to stand on their guard.’