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Show Simon, the Cat, Is British Hero Receives Dickin Medal For Shipboard Heroism LONDON, ENGLAND. It's etiquette, eti-quette, when referring to Simon the cat, to call him Simon, D.M. The initials stand for Dickin medal, med-al, which is the very highest British Brit-ish honor any cat can win, or ever has won. Simon is the first. Simon, about 2 years old, distinguished distin-guished himself when the British sloop Amethyst was crippled on the Yangtse- river by Chinese Communist Commu-nist shell fire. Although wounded by shrapnel and singed by fire, the official dispatches said, Simon went right on with his duty of clearing the ship of rats. Simon's attachment to the ship and its crew was hailed as an example ex-ample of devotion which did much to bolster the morale of British sailors sail-ors when the vessel ultimately made its sensational dash to the sea and freedom. So Simon gets the Dickin medal, and when the Amethyst steams into Plymouth the bands will play, there will be a lot of gold braid about, and an admiral will make a formal presentation pre-sentation of the medaL It is about as big as a mouse, and about the same color and what Simon Si-mon will think of the fuss there will be no knowing. But he does join a distinguished company of birds and beasts who have received what the British call the "animals' Victoria cross." Fifty-three have received it. It takes its name from a 79-year-old lady Mrs. Mia Elizabeth Dickin Dick-in O.B.E. (Order of the British Empire) Em-pire) friend of animals and founder of the people's dispensary for sick animals. |