Antrim man auctions medals won by his family's 'parachuting dog' during WW2

AN Antrim man has told of how he learned to walk by holding on to the tail of his family dog - who won awards for gallantry for his exploits during the Second World War.

‘War Dog Rob’ received the PDSA Dickin Medal for Gallantry, otherwise known as the ‘VC for animals’, and the RSPCA Red Collar for Valour, for his gallantry and outstanding service during the Second World War, during which he undertook 20 parachute descents while serving with Infantry in North Africa and the 2nd SAS Regiment in Italy.

Both accolades will be offered for sale by Noonans next month.

Rob, a black-and-white collie-retriever, was bought as a puppy from Colemere Farm near Ellesmere in Shropshire in 1939 for 5 shillings, and lived his early years with the Bayne family of nearby Tetchill as their farm dog and pet.

Rob’s owners volunteered him as a War Dog in 1942 and he was signed up on 19 May of that year.

Following action in the North Africa campaign, from September 1943, Rob served with the Special Air Service Regiment (SAS), the first war dog to do so. With the regiment, he took part in operations in Italy, parachuting in on sabotage missions.

Christopher Mellor-Hill, Head of Client Liaison at Noonans commented: “Rob the Parachuting Dog” is the most famous of all the Dickin Medal recipients and we are delighted to be offering his medals on behalf of the family who owned him.

“Rob was the first War Dog attached to the SAS to be awarded the ‘animal VC.’, and was reportedly the only War Dog to have been nominated for the Dickin Medal by the War Office.”

He continued: “Demobilised on 27 November 1945, Rob led the Wembley Parade of 32 war dogs on 16 July 1947 in front of 10,000 spectators, being the only dog present to hold both the Dickin Medal and the RSPCA. Red Collar and Medallion for Valour.

“Over the years books have been written about him and he even featured on the front page of the Radio Times, we believe this to be the most important Dickin Medal to ever be sold at auction.”

Instituted by Maria Dickin, C.B.E., the founder of the People’s Dispensary for Sick Animals, in 1943, the Dickin Medal has since been awarded on 71 occasions - 32 of them going to pigeons, 34 to dogs, 4 to horses, and 1 to a cat. The vast majority (and all those awards to pigeons) were granted in respect of acts of bravery in the Second World War, but more recently a number of awards have been made to Arms and Explosives Search Dogs of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps for their gallantry in Iraq and Afghanistan.

At the time of receiving the award, his owner, Edward Bayne, told the Oban Times how caring he had been as a farm dog: “He used to help settle the chicks in their houses at night, picking them up in his mouth when they had strayed away - he had a wonderful mouth - and tucking them in under their mothers.

The Baynes’ son, Basil, who lives in Antrim, and is selling the medal, had learnt to walk by holding onto Rob’s tail or clutching his coat, and if the child was crying Rob put his front paws up on the pram, soothed him and made him laugh. Basil is a fellow of the prestigious Harper Adams College.

He recalls: “Following his wartime exploits, Rob was returned to us and settled back into life on the farm, occasionally making public appearances to help raise funds for returning Prisoners of War and their families. In February 1948 he disappeared for five days with his companion, our other dog, Judy, a spaniel.

“Rob returning in an emaciated condition without his collar - his collar was what we called his everyday collar.

“It had red white and blue ribbon all around it. Several years later a local farm worker out rabbiting with spade found the collar hooked around the root of a tree. Rob had strained and lost weight until he was able to slip the collar over his head.

“This dilapidated collar, now missing all ribbons, is among the items in the auction and the strain on the holes in the collar is obvious!”

Rob died in 1952, aged 12.

Back in 1947, the Daily Mirror visited Rob at home in Shropshire - exclaiming ‘If only dogs could write!’ and describing the pet as ‘demobilised’.

“The parachutists in the plane skimming low over enemy territory wait, slow and expectant, for their turn to into the darkness. The green light glows. The signal !

“One by one they jump until there is one man left - and a dog. The dog looks expectantly at the man, who grins and says, ‘Off you go, Rob’. And Rob. the Parachutist Dog, War Animal Hero Number 1, jumps through the floor of the plane and floats down to earth to join his comrades below.

“Now that is where our story should begin, but Rob can’t write of his experiences, and many of his comrades were killed in action.

“We do know, though, that he was in the thick of the North Africa landings then crossed to Italy to make over 20 parachute drops. Rob saved his friends’ lives many times by warning them when the enemy was about. What a shame he cannot write about his adventures!”

“He’s just the same old Rob,” said Mr Bayne, when we wondered whether his war service had toughened him up and made him fierce, “but there is a number tattooed inside his ear which he will not let ‘outsiders’ examine.

“He works silently, too (that's his Army training) and will not bark at strangers, but watchfully escorts them if they go upstairs while the children are in bed.

“The old war hero loves these two children and never tires of ‘shaking hands’ and ‘asking for it’ with a gentle wow !”

The writer said that after a public engagement: “Rob will be pleased to get back to his fireside and dream, with his head on his paws, of the days when he was a parachutist stalking Germans, not cattle, as he does now . In his dreams, Rob again drops into enemy territory!”

Rob’s story was also told by Telford author Pete Hawthorne in his book The Animal Victoria Cross. He told how Rob was initially detailed to guard a warehouse.

“One day he was taken up in a plane and loved it so the Army then designed a small parachute for him with a timer cord so it would activate automatically. Rob loved it,” said Mr Hawthorne.

“The SAS managed to take Rob with them on missions. The big advantage was that Rob could round up men in the dark when they parachuted behind enemy lines.

“Rob was then used to take messages between members of SAS teams, stand guard when the men laid low in the day and gave early warnings if danger approached.

“He was involved in sabotage missions in Italy and was taken back to England but had to enter quarantine.”

Mr Hawthorne noted that unlike other dogs which served, he had not become savage and did not have to be put down.

However, picked up one habit which proved a handicap back on the farm.

Mr Hawthorne said: “The only problem was that he wasn’t much good at rounding up cattle and pigs as he would try to lead them from the front, as he did with the men in the SAS. He would often look back and bark, unable to understand why the cattle and pigs would not follow him.”

In 2015, the Pets In Peril blog discovered film footage of Rob in the Imperial War Museum film archive.

It described an ‘an army message dog in action’ in Guelma, Algeria, in early 1943, one of four belonging to the Royal Irish Fusiliers in North Africa – two for patrol and two for messages.

“Company Sergeant Major Garrett was filmed ‘laying flat, writing a message for his platoon sergeant. He hands the message to Lance-Corporal H Evans, with his dogs, Rob and Boy.

“Lance-Corporal Evans places the message in a collar around Rob’s neck and releases him. Rob heads for his other kennel man, Fusilier Williams, who is on the other side of the field. Rob negotiates a stream.

“After running a mile, Rob dashes to Fusilier Williams, who hands it to Platoon Sergeant M T McHugh, who extracts and reads the message and runs off to give orders to his platoon hidden in the undergrowth. Rob is petted and fed by his master.’

The film ends with a: ‘Close up of Rob looking as happy as a dog can be that knows his own, not underestimated, importance.’

The blog continued: “In fact this canine curiosity is of huge historical doggy importance – a film record of the dogs that were shipped the desert for Operation Torch – from which so very few came home.

“The disaster was not to be mentioned, officially buried, an epic of canine courage that has long stayed hidden. When the Irish Fusiliers moved out for action in Italy, Rob was left behind in Tunisia to be adopted by the Quartermaster of 2 SAS, the newly raised elite desert raiders.

“But was the dog in the film really Rob? Seventy two years later on a winter’s day in a Shropshire farmhouse, Pets in Peril showed a clip of the movie (on a Smartphone) to his owners’ daughter, Heather Bayne who had been a baby when Rob returned home in triumph from his adventures.

“‘It’s Rob all right’, she said. ‘There’s no mistaking those black and white markings’. Rob is buried in the garden with a splendid memorial plaque. Visitors come from all over the world to see it. Now there is a movie marking the actual combat debut of the nation’s most celebrated military canine.”

But of course, there are always doubters.

Back in 2006, the Daily Mail attempted to debunk the story of the celebrated canine.

“He was an ordinary farm collie who became a celebrated war hero. Drafted in to help Britain's Second World War effort, black and white Rob went from life on the farm to remarkable feats of canine courage. Or did he?” asked an article.

“For according to one insider account, the heartwarming tale of SAS Rob could all be a bit of a shaggy dog story.

“As history tells it, Rob parachuted from countless planes during the height of the war, and famously licked the cheeks of commandos on duty in Italy and North Africa to wakes them at signs of danger.

“Awarded the Dickin Medal for Gallantry - the animal equivalent of the Victoria Cross - the dog's story forms part of an exhibition at the Imperial War Museum, London, featuring a host of courageous animals.

“But it seems that war dog No 471/322 may owe his place in the history books to the affectionate attempts of an SAS quartermaster to keep the faithful creature at his side.

“The apparent hoax was revealed by former SAS training officer Quentin ‘Jimmy’ Hughes, who was awarded the Military Cross and Bar for a raid and subsequent escape in Italy, in his autobiographical account of the SAS, Who Care Who Wins?

“In his book he described the dog as a ‘tousel-headed Welsh sheep dog’ who was seconded to the 2nd SAS from a family in Shropshire.

“He was stunned when he saw a documentary that described Rob completing more than 20 parachute jumps on operations in North Africa, writing: “These can only have been training jumps because the Regiment was not on operations in North Africa.

“For the SAS a parachute jump was always a means to an end and not an end itself. No-one did more jumps than were necessary to train one to land safely behind enemy lines. Twenty for a dog seems excessive and unlikely.’

“The officer, who died in 2004, then revealed how Rob became a companion to quartermaster Tom Burt, when based at Wivenhoe Park, in Essex.

“’One day he received a letter from the dog’s owners asking if we had no further use for it, could it be returned to its home in Shropshire. Tom was very depressed by this letter because he had become attached to the dog, and he came to me with a worried look on his face.

“‘Don’t worry’, I said, ‘We will take him up in a plane and throw him out on a parachute. Then I can write a report on how indispensable he is and you can keep him until the end of the war’.

“Apparently a strong wind blew up that prevented the mission.

“But Hughes resolved to write the letter anyway, telling the owners the dog had done ‘lots of parachute jumps’ and assisted the regiment in operations behind enemy lines.

“It was that letter, along with another from an anonymous SAS trooper, that was subsequently forwarded by Rob's owners to the People's Dispensary for Sick Animals (PDSA), which on February 3, 1945 awarded the dog with its gallantry medal.

“The citation read: ‘For service including 20 parachute jumps while serving with Infantry in North Africa and SAS Regiment in Italy’.

“Both the medal and an oil painting of the collie feature prominently in the dog section of The Animals’ War exhibition

“What is not in dispute is that Rob was loaned to the war effort by the Bayne family from their farm, answering call by the War Office in 1942.

“He was a star pupil at the newly created War Dog School, where he was trained as a parachute dog.

“It is also true that many dogs did complete numerous parachute jumps with their handlers during the war, helping with vital operations behind enemy lines.

“The secrecy in SAS assignments meant that Rob’s family received a progress note from the War Office that read simply : ‘Rob is fit and well and doing a grand job’.

Back in 2006, the Imperial War Museum told the Daily Mail that its source had been the PDSA and information had been given in good faith.

“This is only one source, and until there is more evidence we won’t be changing it.” they said.

Rob’s awards will be offered for sale by Noonans on Wednesday, October 12, 2022 in a sale of Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria.

It is estimated at £20,000-30,000 and it is being sold with an extensive archive including his collar, a portrait painting, photographs, certificate, manuscripts, books and letters.