SHIP’S MASCOT DEAD
N.Z. NAVY BULLDOG The Royal New Zealand Navy’s only officially-recruited dog has died. Known as “Bill England,” he was a pedigree bulldog presented to H.M.N.Z.S. Philomel when he was a year-old puppy four years ago and appropriately entrusted to the base gunnery officer, for “training and welfare.” He did not always respond to naval discipline. When not sitting moodily outside the gunner’s store near the entrance to the barracks, he made earnest efforts to break ashore and on several occasions the ship’s resources had to be mobilised to search for him in the city. Not long before he developed pneumonia on one of his escapades from the base, it had been decided to retire him to a handsome kennel, but he did not live to enjoy it. In spite of the administration of penicillin and sulphanilamide, he died on Thursday. It is proposed to sew the late “Bill England” in a weighted tarpaulin shroud and bury him at sea from one of the Navy’s harbour defence launches.
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Bibliographic details
Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22440, 22 September 1947, Page 4
Word Count
170SHIP’S MASCOT DEAD Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXIV, Issue 22440, 22 September 1947, Page 4
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