Pages tagged with: mascots

New Zealanders have one of the highest pet-ownership rates in the world. Wartime was no different. Take a tour through this menagerie of military mascots: dogs, cats, donkeys, monkeys, pigs, goats and birds. There's the famous bull terrier Major Major, along with the less well-known, but very cute, slow loris adopted by 1 RNZIR in Borneo.

First World War mascots from Freda the Dalmatian to Pelorus Jack

Second World War mascots, including the dogs Major Major and Colonel Ben and Rommel the cat

Representatives from the Army, Navy and Airforce can be seen holding their puppy mascots in Vietnam.

The Solomons Island parakeet Private Hunt, mascot for 37 New Zealand Infantry Batalltion, 3 New Zealand Division in the Pacific, poses with his trainer.

The New Zealand Army rugby team mascot, Floss, was famous for performing tricks.

A Maori Battalion soldier and Paddy, the mascot, share some pork from the hangi on Christmas Day, 1943 at Maadi Camp, Egypt.

The New Zealand Army Special Air Service Headquarters Troop poses with a goat called Angus, which was the squadron's mascot.

Private T.P. Noonan is pictured with Bruno, the mascot of the No. 1 Platoon, New Zealand Army Services Corps.

A New Zealand soldier, N.H. Boswell, carries his unit's mascot, Pooch, during amphibious training in the Pacific in the Second World War.

Mascot of 162 Battery of the 16th Field Regiment, Korea

A jungle owl mascot perches on the hand of an RAF helicopter pilot attached to 1 RNZIR.

A slow loris is held by platoon commander Lt Tony Looparg in Borneo, 1965.

Shrapnel, the monkey mascot of the Mortar Platoon 1 RNZIR, is pictured with Platoon Commander Lieutenant Tony Loorparg in Borneo.

Butch was found as a puppy and adopted by the 1 NZIR, Signals Platoon as their mascot in Borneo.

Bubs Holmes holds a tree fox (name unknown) outside the Regimental Aid Post in Borneo.

Shufti, a white fox terrier, was the mascot of the No. 1 Mobile Dental Unit of the Dental Hospital at Yamaguchi in Japan.

Jack was a mascot dog attached to the main body of the New Zealand Engineers serving in France during the First World War.

Paddy, wearing a coat with his name and sergeant's stripes on it, looks around at the inspection of a Wellington Regiment by Prime Minister William Massey in Vauchelles, France on 30 June 1918.

Nan, an Egyptian goat, was a mascot of the New Zealand Engineers. 

Moses, an Egyptian donkey, was the mascot of the New Zealand Army Service Company.

Soldiers of the New Zealand Tunnelling Company play with their mascot, Snowy the cat in Dainville, France.

Caesar the bull dog was a trained Red Cross dog and helped rescue wounded troops during the Battle of the Somme in 1916.

When the troop ship Empress of Britain left Wellington's Pipitea wharf carrying the Second Echelon on 2 May 1940, Borax the terrier managed to get on board.

Sergeant Noodles, a white Samoyed, marched with the men of the Second Echelon before they sailed overseas, but he was refused embarkation and never left New Zealand.

Duda was rescued at Ed Duda during an artillery barrage. The troops called her the 'happiest prisoner of war in the Middle East'.

Colonel Ben was promoted 'from time to time for meritorious behaviour in the field and reverted occasionally for conduct to the prejudice of good order and military discipline'.

The bulldog Pelorus Jack achieved the rank of leading sea dog before his final discharge in October 1919.

Freda was the Dalmatian mascot of the New Zealand Rifle Brigade.

Major began life as a dog of no rank, but when he joined the Special Force he was registered as No. 1 New Zealand Dog, and he eventually became a major.

Mascots we would like more information about, mainly from post-Second World War conflicts

Bluey, a fox terrier, was a mascot in Fiji during the Second World War.