only a dog

[sabine72]

hello,

just bought this book and it tells the story of private rice 678962 and his dog army

well it brought me into tears.

a nice story it is, but is it a true one since I cann't find a Rice with that number on sdgw,

maybe someone out here can help me out.

kind regards

sabine

[Guest kowalczukm]

Hi,

I'm historian for the Irish Terrier Club of America and this story is especially dear to us Irish Terrier fanciers. As many people have commented, "Army" the Irish Terrier is our Greyfriar's Bobby! In trying to find out whether this tale is true or not, I do have a few clues and could use whatever knowledge the WWI enthusiasts out there can provide.

My first question is, what WWI cemeteries would be considered in the Armentieres area? This is where Rice is supposedly buried with Army. I do have one potential clue from the CWGC website. There is a cemetery in the area called the Cite Bonjean Military Cemetery. In going through their records there is a Private E. Rice buried there. He was of the Royal Dublin Fusiliers, 2nd Bn. His date of death was 06/11/1914. That's important as Only a Dog was published in 1917 so our potential candidates would have to have died prior to that time. The recorded service number doesn't match the one in the book. It's 6528 and not 678962. That's obviously a problem. Sabine, if you are in the area and can check the grave out, the grave reference is IX.B.88.

One further bit of information provided by the author in her Preface was the source of the story. She credits a Major Edgar, R.A.M.C. ( of Montreal). Can anyone shed light on this critical player?? Perhaps that means Pvt. Rice was Canadian? Hard to tell.

In the story he is referred to as Jack of the Famous 42nd. I've always assumed that's an embellishment and not one to give too much weight to. I guess you could look at it as a possible clue but not one that would exclude other possible first names.

Thanks for whatever leads you can provide. If you haven't read the book, I really recommend you do so. It's a very quick read but one that tugs at your heart strings from page 1! To prove this story is true would be remarkable. To get a photograph of the actual headstone showing the names of Private Rice and Army (as related in the book) would be so meaningful to us lovers of the Irish Terrier.

Mike

[Guest kowalczukm]

By the way, the book is on Google Books. Here a link to the digitized copy:

http://books.google.com/books?id=Sa1HAAAAI...=result#PPP1,M1

Mike

[Guest]

Very much looking forward to the answer on this one.

Ta to Sabine for the heads up.

Kim