Audio transcript

Interview with Lilias Ward, the daughter of Jet's owner

Jet's work during the war:

"He was stationed in a barracks in Chelsea, and there was another dog who worked with him called Irma. The two of them did quite a lot of work. I went to work in London in 1946, and when I got there everyone knew the black dog that came if there had been a direct hit"

How Jet won his medal:

"The reason why he got his medal was one particularly outstanding situation where a hotel had had a direct hit, they thought they’d got everybody out, that needed to come out, and everything was clear. And Jet had been there, and the handler said ‘I’m sorry, there’s someone there, up high and you’ll have to go’, ‘ it can’t be’, ‘well I’m sorry, this is important, if Jet says that person’s there, and they’re alive, by his behaviour’. Because if they weren’t alive, he would just point to where they were. So that was what they did, they, they waited until they could get ladders and everything ready to get up. And the woman was not only alive, but she lived, so that was lovely. I think that was the story that hit the newspapers at the time, because Jet stood there and wouldn’t go, and it was evidently about eleven and a half hours that he was there, and I think it was that determination that got the imagination of the newspapers. And the PDSA gave him a medal, for all his work, but that was the outstanding one that probably attracted attention, and that was exciting."

A chance encounter:

"Jet led the way to a house and he stood there watching and he went nearly frantic, because he could point in the direction, and he said something there, and he was digging, trying to get, and it was this man’s wife, and she was alive, so it was a lovely story. And funnily enough, some years later, my mother took him to Birmingham, to an exhibition, and someone came up to her and said ‘that dog saved my life’, and put a pound in her hand, collecting for the PDSA."

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