CORPORAL JACKIE

Corporal Jackie was a baboon in the South African army during World War I. He was the official mascot of the 3rd Transvaal Regimen when his owner, Albert Marr was drafted into war, and would not leave Jackie at home. He asked his superiors if Jackie, too, could join the army and they said yes. Given an official style uniform, ration set, and his own pay book, Jackie saluted superiors officers and lit cigarettes for soldiers of the South African army— he even trained to stand at ease in the style of a trained soldier. 

Early in the Somme Campaign, Jackie and his owner, Albert Marr, survived a battle together with a casualty rate of 80%. When Marr served in Egypt at the Battle of Agagia in 1916, he was shot in the shoulder— Jackie licked the wound as they awaited medical assistance. Jackie spent time in the trenches in France where he frantically tried to build a wall around himself during heavy enemy fire. A piece of shrapnel from an explosion flew over the wall, and tore Jackie’s leg clean off. 

Jackie was awarded a Medal of Valor for the event of his injuries, and promoted from private to corporal. After the war was over, Jackie was discharged with papers and went back to South Africa. He tragically died in a house fire in 1921.