Old Bill was a wire-haired Terrier that was the mascot of the H.M.S. Falmouth, a British cruiser in the First World War. But he didn’t start his duties on that ship. He was “captured” from a German fishing trawler that the Falmouth sank. When he and the crew of the trawler were picked up he had a collar that said Fritz, but that was too German. So he was renamed after an English WWI soldier comic character. Old Bill was wounded 3 times during the famous Battle of Jutland, and survived the Falmouth’s demise when it was torpedoed. After the war he continued his service at the British Navy’s Plymouth Naval Barracks and lived to a ripe old age.
