Simon (cat)

Ship's cat on HMS Amethyst

Simon (c. 1947 – 28 November 1949) was a ship's cat who served on the Royal Navy sloop of war HMS Amethyst. In 1949, during the Yangtze Incident, he received the PDSA's Dickin Medal after surviving injuries from an artillery shell, raising morale, and killing off a rat infestation during his service.

Simon was found wandering the dockyards of Hong Kong in March 1948 by 17 year old ordinary seaman George Hickinbottom, a member of the crew of the British frigate HMS Amethyst stationed in the city in the late 1940s. At this stage, it is thought Simon was approximately a year old, and was very undernourished and unwell. Hickinbottom smuggled the cat aboard ship, and Simon soon ingratiated himself with the crew and officers, particularly because he was adept at catching and killing rats on the lower decks. Simon rapidly gained a reputation for cheekiness, leaving presents of dead rats in sailors' beds, and sleeping in the captain's cap. Following the ship's escape from the Yangtze, Simon became an instant celebrity, lauded in British and world news, and presented with the "Animal Victoria Cross", the Dickin Medal; as of 2020, Simon is the only cat to win the award. He was also awarded a Blue Cross medal, the Amethyst campaign medal, and the fanciful rank of 'Able seacat' ( Able seaman) after disposing of a particularly vicious rat known as "Mao Tse tung" ( Mao Zedong). Thousands of letters were written to him, so many that one Lt. Stewart Hett was appointed "cat officer" to deal with Simon's post. At every port Amethyst stopped at on its route home, Simon was honoured, and a special welcome was made for him at Plymouth in November when the ship returned. Simon was, however, like all animals entering the UK, subject to quarantine regulations, and was immediately sent to an animal centre in Surrey.