Watch: Sir Nils Olav, the penguin promoted to Brigadier (and other illustrious military animals)
Creatures officially enlisted by different armies.
On August 22, Sir Nils Olav III was given the rank of brigadier. A routine military promotion, you’d think, except that Sir Olav is a penguin – a King Penguin, to be precise. Brigadier Olav III, an honorary member of the king of Norway’s guard at the Scotland’s Edinburgh zoo, was given the honour during a ceremony attended by 50 Norwegian soldiers from the unit. In the video above, Sir Olav inspects the guard taking part in this year’s Royal Edinburgh military tattoo.
Brigadier Olav III, as his name indicates, has two predecessors. The original Nils Olav was adopted by the Norwegian army in 1972 at the behest of one Major Nils Egelien. The penguin was named after him and after Olav V, then the king of Norway. The king penguin started out as the mascot and was promoted to Corporal in 1982. His successors have carried on since then with a knighthood in 2008, followed by the promotion to Brigadier.
In the video below, zookeeper Dawn talks of how Sir Olav prepared for his big day.
This is a report from 2008, when Sir Nils Olav II received his knighthood.
A similar tradition is seen in the 1st Battallion of the Royal Welsh, a regiment of the British Army, which has in its ranks a goat. The tradition dates back more than 200 years.
The story goes that during the American war of Independence (1775-1783), a goat wandered on to the battlefield and led the regiment. According to a report in the BBC “in 1884 Queen Victoria presented the regiment, then called the Royal Welch Fusiliers, with a goat from her royal herd, and the tradition has continued.”
The goats get a ration, receive promotions – in one instance, even a demotion. Fusilier Llywelyn was appointed regimental goat in January this year. The British army also has some other animal mascots who have held ranks.
Below is a video from 1962, which shows the 5th Battalion of the Welsh regiment getting its mascot Taffy.
The ranks of military animals also includes a bear. Corporal Wojtek served in the second World War in an Artillery unit of the Polish army, which later became known as the 22nd Artillery Supply Company of the Polish II Corps. He was adopted by Polish soldiers in Iran when still a cub and grew up with the soldiers as its caretakers.
A much celebrated military animal, Wojtek is the official emblem for his unit and has several plaques and statues built in his memory. In December 2011 he was the subject of a documentary Wojtek – The Bear That Went To War. Wojtek was very fond of unlit cigarettes, which he would eat, and enjoyed beer.
The video below gives details of Wojtek’s extraordinary life.
In the video below, from 2015, a professor of geochemistry and petrology, Wojciech Narebski, who served as a soldier alongside Wojtek the bear, talks fondly about him and World War II.