Sergeant Stubby

He wandered onto the Yale campus in 1917 while the 102nd Infantry were drilling there, attached himself to Private J. Robert Conroy, and learned to sit up on his hind legs in something close to a salute. When the regiment shipped for France, Conroy hid him in the ship's coal bin, and produced the salute when the commanding officer found him. The dog stayed. He served eighteen months and seventeen battles with the 26th Yankee Division. He was gassed early, recovered, and afterwards could smell it before the men could — running the trench and barking the line awake ahead of an attack. He found wounded men in no man's land and stayed with them, barking until stretcher parties came, and he learned to tell an American accent from a German one in the dark. In the Argonne he found a German soldier mapping the Allied trenches, took hold of him by the seat of the trousers, and held on until help arrived. That was the capture that got him his stripes. He was wounded by a grenade at Seicheprey, patched up, and returned to the line. Home, he became the most famous animal in America: three presidents, a gold medal from the Humane Education Society presented by General Pershing, and life as the mascot of Georgetown. He died in Conroy's arms in 1926, and his obituary in the New York Times ran to half a page — longer than most generals got.

Loved by · J. Robert Conroy

Honours

• 1918Warned his trench of gas attacks before the men could smell it
• 1918Held a German soldier by the trousers in the Argonne until troops arrived
• 1921Gold medal from the Humane Education Society, presented by General Pershing
• 1926Half-page obituary in the New York Times
• 1956Preserved and given to the Smithsonian, where he is still displayed

Their kind

The Boston is an American breed made from bulldog and terrier stock in the 1870s, compact, front-heavy and famously fond of people.

A life in seasons