Man’s best friend honoured for war role
● 22-tonne granite memorial to dogs of war to be erected in Angus
Scotland’s dogs of war are set to be commemorated with a 22-tonne granite memorial after a year of fundraising brought in more than £40,000.
The Airedale Terrier Club of Scotland is awaiting delivery of the sculpture, which will feature life-size dogs and their handlers.
The touching tribute to the four-legged troopers will take pride of place in the fishing village of East Haven, near Carnoustie in Angus – the location where the dogs of war were trained. Sculptor Bruce Walker, from Kirriemuir, has started work on a 30-tonne block of granite that he will transform into the memorial.
Margaret Thompson, the club’s life president, said the memorial became possible after a year of fundraising brought in more than £40,000.
Donations for the memorial, which will feature dogs of war on one side and dogs of peace on another, flooded in from around the world.
Ms Thompson said: “The villagers at East Haven have been right behind us. Over the last few months, they even planted poppies on the spot where the statue of the dogs will go.
“A lot of the people there, it was their fathers and grandfathers who actually helped in the training of the dogs.”
Ms Thompson will unveil the statue – anticipated in early April – around the time of her 92nd birthday.
Club secretary Wendy Turner said the story started with dog-lover and army lieutenant-colonel Edwin Hautenville Richardson who became interested in training the dogs at Panbride House in the early 1900s after witnessing how foreign forces used them.
“Airedales are the king of terriers,” Ms Turner said. “They’re not small and with their tenacity and intelligence they were just what he was looking for. They had the power, the brains and the agility he needed.”
The dogs were initially trained for service in the Red Cross where they were used to identify casualties and dead soldiers. Ms Turner said: “When they went out, if they found a body that still had life about it they lifted something such as a cap and ran back to the stretcher-bearers and guided them out to where the person was.
“Then the army got interested and had them trained up for sentry duty, putting messages through the trenches. They even worked with crates on their backs for carrier pigeons.
“East Haven and Barry locals all joined in to help train them.
“The dogs carried first aid panniers and the locals’ reward at the end of the training were the miniature bottles of brandy in the first aid packs.”