Birchington, Kent: The Terrier Coastguard

Available for over a year

All the evidence of Jim the Dog`s talent has vanished except for a photo from the archives of the Imperial War Museums, which captures him standing alert and proud on a cliff top at Eppel Bay on the coast of Birchington near Margate. It’s here that men based at a series of coastguard stations spaced three miles apart and in view of each other were given the role of being the eyes and ears of the Kent coastline. It was only once the likes of Jim had proved themselves unofficially that Col Edwin Richardson, a soldier, breeder and dog lover, fought to create the very first War Dog School. As the number of German Zeppelins increased, Jim and his coastguard masters could no longer stop the attacks alone. With the ability to fly higher than the first planes of their time and to cut their engines to a tick over before dropping their bombs and then floating off into the sky, the Zeppelin appeared to be the ultimate terror weapon. And so a more formal watch was created along the coast from Thanet to safeguard our valuable harbours. Location: Birchington, Kent CT7 9JX Image shows Jim, the Airedale Terrier who was a trained war dog Photograph courtesy of Imperial War Museums Presented by Jo Burn