Page 152 - The History of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps 1962–2021

THE HISTORY OF THE ROYAL ARMY VETERINARY CORPS 1962 – 2021
relationship with other Government dog employing agencies such as the Royal Hong Kong Police Force, the Correctional Services Department, and the Hong Kong Customs and Excise, DASU’s trainers and handlers often arranged and offered bespoke training to the mutual benefit to all concerned.
During 1988, dogs were introduced to assist the Hong Kong Customs and Excise Department at the Man Kam To border crossing point to search vehicles and their cargo for anyone attempting an illegal crossing. The Border Detachment had many friends amongst the troops, Police, Customs Officers and Immigration Department as they all worked so closely but it worth remembering a useful saying that ‘a dog makes more friends than a man because he wags his tail instead of his tongue’. Consequently, the trust placed in the dogs was well rewarded. They remained extremely effective and consistent in their role at the border with no second guessing required from their handlers.
The dogs were very much in demand and from the mid-1980s the Sek Kong kennels accommo- dated approximately seventy dogs divided into three platoons. The Guard dogs were used for patrolling eleven separate locations such as 70 QGE compound, 660 AAC and the RAF airfield, 50 Hong Kong REME Workshops, the Training Depot (Brigade of Gurkhas), Perowne Camp, San Wai Ammunition Depot, the Ordnance Depot at Kowloon and the Royal Signals detachment at the top of Tai Mo Shan plus another detachment at the listening post based on Hong Kong Island.
A small RMP detachment at Osborne Barracks in Kowloon had a couple of Police dogs which they used mainly for patrolling the barracks and married quarters, as well as the odd high-profile night patrol near the night club areas of Hong Kong. A team of seven AES dogs were used for search related training with the RE and on VIP searches as required.24
There was still a small Section of Indian Sikhs on Stonecutters Island – their descendants having arrived from Northern India’s Punjab region in 1841. In April of that year, three months after the British landed on Hong Kong Island, Captain William Caine, the first police magistrate, organised his version of a ‘police force’ comprising thirty-two ‘policemen’ – twenty of the men were Indians, discharged from the 51st Madras Native Infantry, stationed in Hong Kong. The non-smoking or drinking Sikhs, also known for
24 Lecture Notes provided by Ex RAVC WO2 Mr Paul Anderson – March 2021.
25 Soldier Magazine ‘Island of Snakes’ dated 1st February 1986.
26 Soldier Magazine dated 6th August 1990.
their loyalty, appealed to Captain Caine and so the Army Department Police (ADP), as they were known, saw continuous service on the island during the British era.
In the 1980s, the Sikh police, with a handful of well-maintained Protection dogs, guarded the ammunition compound on the Island.
Another feature of Stonecutters Island that many veterans will instantly recall was the snake population. Soldier Magazine captured the how and the why of the snake residents in the article, ‘Island of snakes’:
Snakes... Stonecutter’s scaly slithers, are something of a legend. Because snakes are found throughout the tropical and sub-tropical regions, the Japanese are said to have bred them in pits on the island during the Second World War to provide anti-toxins.
In the wartime chaos of 1945, the snake population seemed to have dispersed voluntarily though how, no one knows and it was said (based on a university survey) that there were an estimated ten thousand snakes on the island. Many of the venomous snakes were content to sun themselves in quiet spots in the summer and to take to their holes during the winter so they were self-con- tained. Possibly why, up to the mid-1980s, no one had been bitten for twenty years. However, the snakes still had a tough time on Stonecutters. Two Chinese soldiers from the HK DASU visited periodically to keep the population down; the catch was killed, cooked and eaten.25
Snakes, rats and a variety of insects plagued anyone on duty on the border. Combating the indigenous wildlife was all part of life on detachment capturing illegal immigrants.
The Beginning of the End – 1990s
The HK DASU in 1990 was the largest Unit within the RAVC at the time. Not only based at Casino Lines, Unit HQ and main kennels were at Borneo Lines in Sek Kong in the New Territories.
The plush, well-designed kennels housed approximately eighty dogs. They were used to patrol areas such as ammunition compounds or barracks with a secure perimeter fence. The Guard dogs from Sek Kong patrolled specifically out of working hours, at a time when no person was allowed within the area. The majority of the dogs were Guard dogs and mustered into three platoons to provide around the clock availability. The total strength of the entire Unit during the mid – 1990s was two hundred and fifty personnel with one hundred and thirty-eight Army dogs.26
The set-up at the main kennels reflected the
144