Isabel George - Prisoner of War - Judy

When the order was given to abandon ship, Frank hoped the bombing had scared the sharks well away as he realized he had a 300-yard swim to shore ahead of him. But the sharks weren’t the only danger in these waters. Two other ships, HMS Kungwo and HMS Kuala , came under Japanese fire. Suddenly the water between ship and shore was alight with burning oil and littered with debris and bodies and people swimming for their lives, as the Japanese planes circled the area releasing their bombs. Many of the passengers on the Kungwo were women and children being evacuated from Singapore. Their burnt bodies mingled with those of the military personnel from the other ships.

Frank and his friends tried to get as far away as possible by capturing a local boat and heading for Padang. Picking up supplies of water and coconuts they headed off in their junk. Like the crew of the Grasshopper , they hoped to board a ship to India from there. Unfortunately, their craft did not last the distance down the Indragiri River and had to be abandoned for a truck. By the time they reached Padang, Frank and his friends could go no further. The boat had left for Ceylon and the smaller civilian boats they took from Padang harbour were intercepted by the Japanese. Some did make it to Ceylon but Frank was finally cornered with others planning to escape the grasp of the Japanese. Finally they were rounded up, detained for three months in barracks in Rengat and then transferred north to the POW camp in Medan, where Judy had arrived just days before.

Unsure if anyone had taken the dog under their wing, Frank observed Judy for a while. He saw her wandering and scrounging for food, seemingly half-forgotten and never attached to anyone in particular. Frank remembered first setting eyes on Judy in March 1942 in Rengat; it was now August and he decided he had watched enough of this mournful dog’s suffering, and so decided to adopt her. The next afternoon, while the prisoners lined up for their daily ration of rice to be slopped out, Frank decided he would share his with Judy. He took his turn in the queue and headed for his usual place to sit and eat. Judy was around, always, sniffing the ground as she weaved in and out of the crouched figures, heads down and hands in their palm-size bowl, scooping up the grey slop that masqueraded as food. Each person took their ration and, before taking a spoonful, searched through it for signs of life, mainly wriggling maggots. Judy would often move in for the kill when a maggot was flicked to the floor. Making her usual rounds she made her way to Frank’s side. Since he arrived, Frank had always been one to save her the odd crumb, so she was used to getting a morsel of food and lots of attention from this fellow prisoner. She eagerly wagged her tail as she swaggered towards him and then did her usual ‘sit and stay’ pose, which would usually get her a treat. But instead of offering her a grain or two to lick from his fingers, Frank held out the rice bowl. ‘Come on Judy…this is yours,’ he said. And without hesitation, Judy buried her muzzle into the bowl and lapped up the contents in seconds. Frank held tight to the bowl as Judy licked it cleaner than clean. She nuzzled Frank’s arm as if to say, ‘Thank you’, then lay at his feet and stayed there all day.

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