An invaluable comrade: Cork soldier's dog followed his owner overseas to the Western Front
Prince, a collie/terrier, belonging to a Cork soldier in the British Army at the outbreak of the First World War, followed his owner to the trenches in France.
There are incredible stories about pets travelling huge distances to be reunited with their owners, one of the most incredible, is detailed in a new book by a renowned academic, which recounts the story of an Irish soldier’s dog who pined so much for his master, he made an unprecedented journey across land and sea to find him in the trenches during the First World War.
Prince, a half collie/Irish terrier, belonged to Cork soldier James Brown, and military archives detail that, as a puppy, he "romped" alongside Brown's regiment on manoeuvres in Buttevant in 1913.
The following August, Brown, initially based at Victoria Barracks, Cork (now Collins Barracks) was mobilised with the 1st North Staffordshire Regiment to sail for France. Prince then went to live with Brown’s wife in London.
“However, one day the dog bolted out of the house and, incredibly, made it all the way to the trenches in Armentieres in France in November 1914 where he was reunited with James,” said author Dr Richard Sugg, an accomplished British-based academic who has written many books on unusual history, his latest, detailing incredible events involving animals.
“James was returning to his quarters in Armentières one day when a friend said Prince had turned up and the pair reunited in a frenzy of delight.
"Because this seemed such an impossible story, the commanding officer had James and Prince paraded in front of him the next morning as evidence that Prince really had found his way from Hammersmith to be reunited with Brown.
"He became the regiment’s mascot, a coat was made from an old army jacket, and he had his own identity disc,” Dr Sugg added.
Prince was an invaluable comrade for the troops in the trenches. Rats became public enemy number one as they feasted on corpses and spread serious diseases.
Dr Sugg said Prince gained heroic status after killing 137 rats in a single day.
Prince must have hopped on a ship to get to France.
“But how did Prince know where to go? Not all dogs can do this, but experiments have shown that successful homing dogs seem to go into a kind of trance.
"They make no attempt to sniff, and fare better at homing in on mist or darkness, as though they are using, not vision but some kind of sixth sense,” Dr Sugg said.
His book also details how this year sees the centenary of ‘Bobbie the Wonder Dog’: another collie cross that made an epic journey home.
After getting lost on holiday with the Brazier family in Indiana in August 1923, Bobbie made the journey back to Oregon, covering 2,800 miles through the depths of winter.
“Many similar stories show that dogs can navigate their way home. But what makes Prince and Brown's story special is that the dog found his owner in a completely unfamiliar place.
"How do dogs do it? So far, the most precise answer we have is simply, love,” Dr Sugg said.
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