Milford Yarn Bombers pay tribute to the Dickin Medal

Perched on some of the town's post boxes are some beautifully knitted pigeons and some pink and red poppies in honour of the Dickin Medal which was awarded to animals that carried out essential and often life-saving work during the wars.

The medal is the animal equivalent to the Victoria Cross and, since its inauguration in 1943, it has honoured 34 dogs, 32 messenger pigeons, four horses and one cat.

This was a captain's cat called Simon, who served as a rat-catcher on the HMS Amethyst.

Simon, the captain's cat (Image: The Dickin Medal)

The ship came under attack on the Yangtze River in China, it was holed and the captain was killed. The ship was then trapped on the river by the Chinese for 100 days before the crew managed to make it to freedom. In times of terrible uncertainty, Simon's recovery from his own injuries and his presence on the ship gave the remaining crew companionship and a reason to keep going.

The first animals to receive the Dickin Medal were pigeons, as thousands were used as carriers and messengers during the Second World War.

During communication black-outs they could carry messages home silently, and usually unspotted, by the enemy.

One of the first three recipients was Winkie, a messenger pigeon on an aircraft which had to ditch due to engine trouble. As the aircraft hit the water, Winkie broke free.

Arriving at her loft in Scotland, her owner was able to roughly tell from the state of her oiled and bedraggled feathers how long she had been flying for and how many miles she may have covered.

One of the most recent recipients of the Dickin Medal was Buster, a Springer Spaniel who played a vital role alongside the troops serving in Iraq in 2003.

Buster (Image: The Dickin Medal)

In March 2003, the unit he was with was conducting a dawn raid on some premises where caches of arms and explosives were thought to be held by extremists.  When a thorough search by the men revealed nothing, Buster was sent in.

Within minutes he'd located an extremely well hidden cache of arms which would have been used to devastating effect against the armed forces. Removing this material meant attacks on the troops in the area ceased and with this threat removed, the soldiers were able to replace their protective steel helmets with berets.

The medals cameinto being as a result of the suggestion of Maria Dickin who had founded the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals in 1917.

During the Second World War Maria felt inspired by the displays of bravery shown by animals used in active service to introduce a medal to recognise their efforts.