Pigeons have been vital in communications through history – for war, finance, and news – and could even be so again
Pigeons have ruffled a few feathers in the press lately. Last week, a pigeon skeleton was found down a chimney in Surrey. The bird had been carrying a coded message during the second world war, and code-breakers are currently at work trying to decipher the missive; one thought is that the pigeon had been released to report the D-Day landing. Until the code is cracked, we're left wondering if the undelivered message could have changed the course of history.
Pigeon Paddy was the first pigeon to arrive back to England with news of of the D-Day invasion success. Paddy is one of 32 pigeons that received the Dickin Medal – the equivalent of the Victoria Cross – for bravery. Indeed, more medals have been awarded to pigeons than to any other animal. Countless pigeons successfully delivered messages and saved thousands of lives during war times. It is therefore sad that today, their contribution to both world wars has been forgotten, and that pigeons these days are often regarded as vermin.
In wartime, messenger pigeons faced many dangers: they were away from their home loft for long periods, shot at by enemy marksmen, had to fly enormous distances, and were a source of food for starving soldiers who couldn't resist a meal (at least in England, authorities helped them by shooting falcons – so pigeons could get through with their messages without threat of predator attack). It looks like the Surrey pigeon got through the worst of it but was overcome by exhaustion. Many pigeon-fanciers who gave their beloved birds to serve the country never saw them again.
Eccentric ideas for the use of pigeons during war include Project Pigeon, which was an attempt to make pigeon-guided missiles. Pigeons were put inside a missile, where they pecked at a screen showing images of the targets they had been trained to recognise, and thereby steered the missile towards the target. Pigeons have also been used as spies. Cameras were attached to them and the pigeons flew across areas of interest, collecting footage.
In China pigeons are still used by the army, which has 10,000 pigeons ready to be used if modern communications collapse. Indeed, the use of pigeon-aided communication in today's world should not be underestimated: I've used pigeons to deliver videos and data on USB sticks – download time three hours, pigeon delivery time 32 minutes – better bandwidth!
But pigeons are not only useful in times of war. Their ability to carry news, financial information and post has been exploited to our benefit for a very long time. In the Bible, it is a white pigeon (or dove) which brought Noah the news that the flood was over. The Greeks used them to carry information about the Olympic Games: every athlete taking part would take a pigeon from their own village, which would be released carrying the results of their event back to their home.
In the early 1800s the Rothschild family set up a network of pigeon lofts around Europe. The speed with which pigeons could carry information enabled the family to make informed financial decisions before anyone else; they are said to have profited by learning of Wellington's victory at Waterloo before the British government.
And it doesn't stop there: the news agency Reuters has used pigeons to transport news from remote places – most recently in 1980, when Alan Cowell was reporting on Zimbabwe's independence. Cowell was in a remote encampment in Matabeleland where there was no radio, phone, fax or other way of sending stories to the news agency ... but there were pigeons. He took a basket of pigeons from a fancier in Bulawayo which he released from Matabeleland to fly back to the loft with news for Reuters.
Those who grumble about pigeons proliferating in our city centres should realise that we owe them more than we ever thought. I hope the discovery of the Surrey messenger pigeon will remind us all of the importance of these amazing creatures.
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