Welcome to our new monthly blog, sharing untold stories and highlighting the interesting and unusual items from The Tank Museum’s Archive and Object Collection.
For our first ever post, we’ve picked out a colourful piece from our art collection that tells a fun, if forgotten, ‘tail’.
At first glance, you might miss the special guest featured in Trooper Sandford Handley’s oil painting of the 61st Reconnaissance Regiment. Just below the usual suspects of Universal Carriers and Humber Armoured Cars you will spot a soldier walking a fox on a lead on the left-hand side. This soldier was Captain Terence Richard Compton-Bishop, and the fox was his pet Sam – the Regiment’s mascot.
Two-week old Sam was discovered abandoned in a field in England during Regimental manoeuvres by then Lieutenant Compton-Bishop. Compton-Bishop would hand rear and adopt Sam, with the peculiar sight of the officer walking him on a lead becoming a nightly and welcome ritual for the troops.
Sam would even travel with the Regiment and take part in the Normandy Campaign. Undisturbed by gunfire, he would regularly sit up front in Compton-Bishop’s armoured car during patrols.
During his brief service as Regimental Mascot, Sam became quite the celebrity. In an interview with the Couldson & Purley Times in 1944, Compton-Bishop revealed that Sam liked “beer, cider, whiskey, tinned meat, bootlaces, bandages and “anything sweet”. His dislikes apparently included dogs and raw meat.
Unfortunately, Capt. Compton-Bishop needed to rehome Sam at the end of the Second World War. While we and the donor’s family have few details who the new owner Margo was, we do have a photograph of her and Sam that she sent to Compton-Bishop in 1945.
On the back is a personal message: “With our best love, Sammy & Margo 1945 x”
We hope you enjoyed Sam’s story, and look forward to sharing our next blog with you.
