MILITARY FUNERAL

Auckland Star, Volume LXXIII, Issue 173, 24 July 1942, Page 2

MILITARY FUNERAL

FOR MONGREL DOG

THE STORY OF "SHYLOCK" LONDON. Officers and men of the Army Ordnance Corps carried a cedarwood casket, draped in a Union Jack, to Hampstead Heath and there scattered to the winds its contents—the ashes of a mongrel dog. On the box was engraved: "In Loving Memory of 'Shylock.'" The story began 20 years ago, when a unit of the R.A.O.C. was exercising on the Heath. Into the operations ran a frightened puppy, lost and dejected, very anxious to "make friends." Someone suggested they should adopt him as pet of the regiment They did.

"You've no idea how fond we got of him," a member of the unit told the Sunday Dispatch. "We called him Shylock because he was always so eager for his 'pound of flesh.' " Later the unit was drafted to India. Shylock went too. He was loved by everybody. Three years ago he died. The regiment mourned his death and had him cremated. They sealed the ashes in the casket. Some day, they said they would send the ashes home to Shylocks native Heath.

Last week an officer returned to this country with the casket. Two original members of the unit a colour-sergeant and a corporal who were present when Shylock was adopted 20 years ago, were traced and asked to be present at the ceremony.

The casket, empty, will soon be on its way back to India to occupy a place of honour in an R.A.O.C. mess.