Simon was the ship's cat on HMS Amethyst of Yanktze Incident fame. In 1949 he was awarded PDSA's Dickin Medal, the animal’s VC.

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. 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 recovered soon found favour with the crew and officers, particularly as he was adept at catching and killing the rats which infested 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.

The crew viewed Simon as a lucky mascot, and when the ship's commander changed later in 1948 the outgoing Ian Griffiths left the cat for his successor Bernard Skinner, who took an immediate liking to the friendly cat. However, Skinner's first mission in command of the Amethyst was to travel up the Yangtze River to Nanking to replace the duty ship there, HMS Consort. Halfway up the river the ship became embroiled in the "Yangtze Incident", when Chinese communist gun batteries opened fire on the frigate. One of the first rounds tore through the Captain's cabin, killing Skinner and seriously wounding Simon.

The badly wounded cat was rushed to the medical bay, where the ship's surviving medical staff cleaned his burns and removed four pieces of shrapnel from Simon. He was not expected to last the night. He did manage to survive however and returned to his former rat catching duties. Whilst beached in the river the ship had become overrun with rats and Simon took on the task of removing them with vigour, as well as being regular visitor to the sick bay where his presence greatly comforted and raised the morale of wounded sailors.

Following the ship's escape from down river to open sea, Simon became an instant celebrity, lauded in British and World news and presented with the "Animal VC", the Dickin Medal as well as a Blue Cross medal, and Amethyst campaign medal and the rank of "Able Seacat".

Thousands of letters were written to him, so much that an Amethyst officer had to be detailed to answer Simon's post huge post bag. At every port Amethyst stopped at on its route home, Simon was presented with honour, 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 spent his time in an animal centre in Surrey.

Tragically, Simon contracted a virus there and despite the attentions of medical staff and thousands of well-wishers, Simon passed away on the 28 November 1949 from a complication of the viral infection caused by his war wounds. Hundreds, including the entire crew of Amethyst attended his funeral in Ilford in East London, and his gravestone reads:

In honoured memory of Simon, DM
HMS Amethyst
Died November 28, 1949

See the excellent Purr and Fur web site for further details. Well worth a visit. Also the Cat-alogue web site which has a very good account.