大象传媒

We had a pet Labrador called Bruce who had been with us about a year when my mother heard on the radio an appeal for dogs to be lent for the war. She eventually decided that we should offer him as it was the right thing to do.
[Gordon: He had to go through a test, and then he was taken for training. The Army used the dogs for a variety of purposes, carrying messages and so on. Bruce was trained for sniffing out bombs and landmines.]
My mother had letters from the War Office from time to time to say where he was, and that he was doing all right. Eventually he was due to be demobbed and they wrote to my parents that they would like to keep him for breeding purposes since he was so good, and my parents could name their price. But my parents said no he was our pet, he had done his war effort and he deserved to come back home, although then he had to go into quarantine in Potters Bar for six months.
He was sent home by rail in a large wooden crate and my parents went to meet him and collect him from the station. He wouldn鈥檛 eat at first but they left food out for him and after a while they heard him eating. And in the morning my mother was aware of something and she opened her eyes and there was a golden Labrador chin on the bed just looking at her face, not touching her or anything.
He had his army number in his ear, and we had his handler came to see us, and he said that they had been in Belgium, Germany and Holland. We didn鈥檛 have that officially from the army, but he said that was where they had been.
[Gordon: When we were on the beach in Hornsea he would dig all round a largish circular stone, and then try to pick it up in his mouth and carry it away. He was obviously very lucky he didn鈥檛 get blown up by the landmines.]

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