Judy: The Only Dog to Be an Official Prisoner of War

Judy was born in Shanghai in 1936 and purchased by the crew of the HMS Gnat, a Royal Navy gunboat patrolling the Yangtze River. From the start, she proved her worth, using her keen senses to detect approaching aircraft and warning the crew of incoming threats before the human lookouts could see anything.

When the Japanese invaded China, Judy was transferred to the HMS Grasshopper, a gunboat operating in Singapore. She quickly became beloved by the crew, who appreciated both her early warning abilities and her companionship during long patrols.

In February 1942, as Singapore fell to the Japanese, the Grasshopper attempted to evacuate civilians and sailors to safety. The ship was attacked by Japanese aircraft and sank. Judy swam to a nearby island, where she helped the survivors by locating a freshwater spring—without which they would have died of thirst.

The survivors eventually built rafts and sailed to Sumatra, only to be captured by Japanese forces. Judy was initially separated from the crew, but she managed to find them again, trekking through the jungle to reach the POW camp where they were being held.

In the camp, Judy became a crucial morale booster for the prisoners. She was smart enough to hide when Japanese guards came around, and the prisoners worked together to protect her, knowing that the Japanese might kill her. She survived on scraps and whatever food the prisoners could spare from their meager rations.

It was in the camp that Judy met Leading Aircraftman Frank Williams, who would become her closest companion. Williams shared his small rice ration with Judy and worked to get her officially registered as a POW, believing it might protect her from being killed. Remarkably, the Japanese camp commandant agreed, and Judy was entered into the records as "POW 81A Medan."

This registration made Judy the only dog to be officially recognized as a prisoner of war.

Despite her official status, Judy's life was in constant danger. Japanese soldiers frequently tried to shoot her, and at one point, the camp commandant ordered her killed. Williams hid her in various places around the camp, sometimes inside sacks or under buildings. Fellow prisoners risked severe punishment to help conceal her.

When the prisoners were transferred to Singapore, Williams smuggled Judy aboard the transport ship in a rice sack. The ship was torpedoed by a British submarine, which didn't know it was carrying POWs. As the ship sank, Williams pushed Judy through a porthole, hoping she could swim to safety. He was convinced he would never see her again.

Williams survived the sinking by clinging to debris. When he washed up on shore, he was taken to another POW camp. For weeks, he mourned Judy, believing she had drowned. Then one day, he saw a familiar shape in the distance—thin, bedraggled, but unmistakably Judy. She had survived the shipwreck and somehow found her way to the same camp.

The two remained together for the rest of the war.

When the war ended, Williams was determined to bring Judy home to England. This required navigating complex quarantine regulations, but with help from sympathetic officials, Judy arrived in Liverpool in 1946. She was awarded the Dickin Medal, the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross, for "magnificent courage and endurance in Japanese prison camps."

The citation noted that she had "saved many lives through her intelligence and watchfulness" and that her presence had "helped maintain morale among the POWs."

Judy lived out her final years with Williams in England, finally enjoying the peaceful life she had never known. She died in 1950 at the age of 13. Williams was devastated by her loss. He built a memorial for her, inscribed with the words: "A remarkable dog... a brave and faithful companion."

Judy's story is remarkable not just for her survival, but for what it reveals about the bond between humans and dogs. In the most horrible circumstances imaginable—years of starvation, disease, and brutality—Judy's presence gave the prisoners something to hope for, something to protect, something to love.

The prisoners who survived the camps often credited Judy with helping them maintain their sanity. By caring for her, they retained a sense of humanity that the Japanese could not take away. She was more than a dog to them—she was a symbol of everything they were fighting to get back to.

Today, Judy's Dickin Medal is displayed at the Imperial War Museum in London. Her story continues to inspire, a reminder that courage and loyalty know no bounds—not even the walls of a prison camp.