Dog collar: German messenger dog 'Mouche'

Brown leather dog collar with steel buckle and a steel D ring secured on the collar with a separate strip of leather, for the attachment of a lead, chain, or message container. A small round brass bell is attached to the leather below the buckle. The remains of stitching beside the bell may indicate that a second bell was once attached. There are five brass studs rivetted to the collar between the bell and the D ring. A further four are rivetted to the free end of the collar, although there were originally five to match the set on the opposing side. The fifth stud had been removed to allow a round aluminium identity disk to be attached between the remaining studs. The disc is embossed with the Prussian eagle and is further stamped 'E 1347'. A rectangular aluminium identity disc is attached on the other side of the studs. It too is embossed with the Prussian eagle and is stamped 'E 337'. A brass name plate, original to the collar, is rivetted to the leather between the rectangular disc and the D ring. It is unnamed.

This dog's collar was collected by Captain William Alexander Thompson of the 30th Battalion, AIF immediately after the end of the First World War, apparently from a German soldier who had been captured together with his messenger dog. According to Thompson the man explained that dogs who had been found suitable for war work were often lent to the German army by their civilian owners on the proviso that they should be returned to them after the war. Only those owners who registered their dogs annually could reclaim them at the end of hostilities. The man further explained that metal registration discs had been issued for dogs until 1918, when, because of wartime shortages, a registration card was issued instead. The identity discs on this collar represent the years 1916 and 1917.

The German soldier, who may have been the dog's owner in civilian life, retained the dog's 1918 registration card. In exchange for the collar Thompson recorded: 'I gave the owner of the dog a new collar with the dog's name inscribed'. He further noted that the dog had a French name 'Mouche [Fly]' which he thought was 'rather an appropriate name'.

Thompson, a school teacher before his enlistment, noted in his account of the war that his command of French was sufficiently good to ensure that he acted as the battalion's translator. It is not known if he was also conversant with German, or whether he communicated with the dog's owner in French or English. The other alternative is that the 'owner' of the dog was a French man who had given his newly acquired German army animal a French name. However, this seems unlikely given the detailed information about German dog registration that was related to Thompson.