Bamse (St. Bernard)

Bamse (Norwegian for "teddy bear") (1937 - 22 July 1944) was a St. Bernard that became the heroic mascot of the Free Norwegian Forces during the Second World War. He became a symbol of Norwegian freedom during the war.

Pre-war life
Bamse was bought in Oslo in Norway by Captain Erling Hafto, the master of the Norwegian whale catcher Thorodd, and he was taken to sea from an early age. In her childhood memories of pre-war Honningsvåg Captain Hafto's daughter Vigdis remembers Bamse as a very kind dog that would look after the children while they were playing.

Military service
At the onset of the Second World War, Thorodd was drafted into the Royal Norwegian Navy as a coastal patrol vessel, based in Hammerfest, and Bamse was enrolled as an official crew member on 9 February 1940. After the Nazi invasion of Norway on 9 April 1940 the Thorodd was part of the naval opposition to the Germans and had as one of its uses POW transport. Shortly before the 10 June 1940 capitulation of mainland Norway, Thorodd was one of 13 Norwegian naval vessels to escape to the UK, arriving 17 June 1940. She was converted to a minesweeper in Rosyth from June 30, 1940 and stationed in Montrose and Dundee in Scotland, where she remained for the rest of the war.



Bamse and his crew
Bamse lifted the morale of the ship's crew, and became well known to the local civilian population. In battle, he would stand on the front gun tower of the boat, and the crew made him a special metal helmet. His acts of heroism included saving a young lieutenant commander who had been attacked by a man wielding a knife by pushing the assailant into the sea, and dragging back to shore a sailor who had fallen overboard. He was also known for breaking up fights amongst his crewmates by putting his paws on their shoulders, calming them down and then leading them back to the ship. One of Bamse's tasks in Scotland was to round up his crew and escort them back to the ship in time for duty or curfew. To do this, he travelled on the local buses unaccompanied, and the crew bought him a bus pass which was attached to his collar. Bamse would wander down to the bus stop at Broughty Ferry Road and take the bus down to Dundee. He would get off at the bus stop near his crew's favourite watering hole, the Bodega Bar and go in to fetch them. If he could not locate his friends he would take the bus back to base.

Patriotic symbol
From his ship's mascot, Bamse became mascot of the Royal Norwegian Navy, and then of all the Free Norwegian Forces. An iconic photograph of him wearing a Norwegian sailor's cap was used on patriotic Easter cards and Christmas cards during the war. The PDSA made him an official Allied Forces Mascot.

Death
Suffering from heart failure, Bamse died on the dockside at Montrose on 22 July 1944. He was buried with full military honours, and his funeral was attended by hundreds of Norwegian sailors, Allied servicemen, schoolchildren and townsfolk from Montrose and Dundee. His grave site in the sand dunes has been looked after by local people and by the GlaxoSmithKline factory. The Royal Norwegian Navy holds a commemorative ceremony every ten years.

Post-war honours
Bamse was posthumously awarded Norges Hundeorden on 30 September 1984 for his war service. In 2006, he was also awarded the PDSA Gold Medal (sometimes known as the "animals' George Cross") for gallantry and devotion to duty, the only World War II animal to have received this honour.

A larger than life sized bronze statue of Bamse, made by Scottish sculptor Alan Herriot, was unveiled by HRH The Duke of York at Wharf Street in Montrose on 17 October 2006. On the Norwegian side the Norwegian consul in Edinburgh, Bjørn Eilertsen, was present bringing greetings from the Norwegian king, Harald V. Also in attendance were Lathallan School Pipe Band, representatives of the Royal Norwegian Navy, Hans Petter Oset, director of the Royal Norwegian Navy Museum, and the daughter of Bamse's owner, Vigdis Hafto. A smaller bronze version of the statue has been purchased by the Royal Norwegian Navy Museum (Marinemuseet) at Horten in Norway.

In August 2008 a new book, Sea Dog Bamse was published. Written by author and columnist Angus Whitson and Andrew Orr of the Montrose Bamse Project, the book draws upon extensive source material and new eyewitness accounts. It charts the life of Bamse from prewar days in Honningsvåg, through the five years of war until his heartfelt death. Stories of the Hafto family, the Norwegian Campaign, the minesweeper Thorodd and its crew, the naval war off East Scotland, and the bonds between the Norwegians and the Scots are threaded together by Bamse's tales. The hardback book has become a Scottish best-seller, and has been reprinted. It was released as a paperback in October 2009.

The media attention has also renewed interest in Bamse in his birthplace Honningsvåg. The mayor of Nordkapp municipality, Kristina Hansen, and project manager Sigurd Berg-Hansen visited Montrose in November 2008. They launched a campaign to raise funds to purchase and install a duplicate bronze statue of Bamse on the waterfront at Honningsvåg, where it will be seen by many of the 250,000 annual visitors. In December 2008 the Norwegian Minister of Defence, Anne-Grete Strøm-Erichsen announced that her ministry supported the Bamse project in Honningsvåg and would grant NOK70,000 to the memorial statue. On 16 May 2009 the statue of Bamse was collected from the Port of Leith, Scotland, by the Royal Norwegian Navy cutter MV Leikvin for transportation to Honningsvåg. On 19 June 2009 the statue was unveiled by schoolchildren from Honningsvåg and from Montrose on the harbour front. The combined bands of the Skolekorps and the pipe band of Lathallan School played in front of a large crowd. Amongst those present were many supporters from Scotland, from Norway, Sweden and from Canada. The new statue of Bamse at Honningsvåg is looking south west towards Montrose, where the Scottish statue is looking north east towards Honningsvåg.