Bamse

He was the family dog of Captain Erling Hafto of the Norwegian navy, a St Bernard of about eighty kilos, and when Hafto's minesweeper Thorodd was requisitioned in 1940 the dog went with the ship. He was formally enrolled as a crew member on 9 February 1940, and when Norway fell the Thorodd sailed for Scotland, where she spent the war based at Montrose and Dundee. In action he stood in the forward gun tower wearing a steel helmet made for him, which the crew said steadied everybody who could see him. Ashore he had two habits. When a crewman was attacked on the quay by a man with a knife, Bamse went in and pushed the attacker into the sea; another time he went into the water after a sailor who had fallen and pulled him back to the dock. And on his own initiative he rode the bus into Montrose — he had a bus pass around his neck, paid for by the ship — to round up men overstaying their leave in the pubs, taking hold of a sleeve and walking them back to the quay. He collapsed on the dockside on 22 July 1944 and died of heart failure. Six hundred schoolchildren lined the route of his funeral, and he was buried with full military honours in the sand dunes at Montrose, facing Norway. Both towns raised a bronze of him.

Loved by · Erling Hafto

Honours

• 1940Enrolled as a crew member of the minesweeper Thorodd on 9 February
• · Pushed a knife-wielding attacker off the quay to save a crewman, and pulled another from the sea
• 1944Buried with full military honours at Montrose; the local schools closed for the funeral
• 2006PDSA Gold Medal for gallantry and devotion to duty, awarded posthumously
• 2006Bronze unveiled at Montrose harbour, facing Norway; a second raised at Honningsvåg in 2009

Their kind

Bred at the Great St Bernard Hospice from Alpine mastiff stock for weight, scenting ability and a tolerance for deep snow — a rescue dog before the phrase existed.

A life in seasons