The Chimp who went to War: This chimpanzee accompanied a skirt-wearing, tattooed commander on an epic World War I mission

This article originally appeared on Culture24.

Meet Josephine, the chimpanzee who followed a First World War journey from Twickenham to an Africa lake

On June 12 1915, the eccentric Commander Geoffrey Spicer-Simson – wearing his uniform with a skirt as its centrepiece – set off to requisition two gunboats, named Mimi and Toutou, from Twickenham to Lake Tanganyika in East Africa.

After hauling their 16-tonne vehicles from Tilbury Docks via Marseille by rail and ship, the crew arrived in Cape Town two months later, moving on to Northern Rhodesia and Belgian Katanga before using traction engines and oxen to travel 150 miles across wild bush country and mountains.

The gunboats seized the lake from the German army, capturing an enemy gunboat and sinking another in December 1915. But the lesser-known tales of the triumph revolve around Commander Spicer-Simson’s unusual charisma, tattooing his arm with curling snakes and choosing a pet chimp, Josephine, to accompany him.

In newly-released photos from the National Archives, the monkey can be seen having her hair tended to and eating alongside soldiers with a spoon. Spicer-Simpson, who is said to have held divine status with natives, left Josephine in South Africa when he returned to Britain in 1917, in the care of a doctor who found her a home in Cape Town Zoo.

A community artist will lead sessions at the archives next month, including the chance to create recycled sculptures of the chimp, flamingos and elephants, design a skirt uniform, see more photos and make a giant map of the route Mimi and Toutou took. The epic story, experts say, demonstrates the scale of the First World War.

The story of Commander Spicer-Simson and the two gunboats

• At the beginning of the war, the Admiralty authorised a scheme to seize control of Lake Tanganyika which was occupied by the German Navy.
  
  
• After rejecting Commander Spicer-Simson’s original request to name the two gunboats Dog and Cat, the Admiralty were content to name them Mimi and Toutou (only later was it discovered that they meant ‘Meow’ and ‘Fido’ in Parisian slang.
  
  
• The gunboats finally arrived at Lake Tanganyika on October 26 1915. In December 1915, the British vessels captured the German gunboat Kingani and sank the Hedwig von Wiessman two months later. The Germans scuttled their other ship, the Graf von Gotzen.
  
  
• The British forces were in command of the lake, safe from a ship-borne counter attack when they began the invasion of German East Africa in May 1916.

• The Chimp who went to War takes place on October 3 2015. Admission free. Part of Fun Palaces, October 3-4 2015.
  

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Three museums to discover unusual First World War stories in

Riverside Museum, Chester
Exhibition The First World War: Returning Home complements the museum's existing collection of curiosities from the world of medicine, nursing, midwifery and social work. Open to the public on the first Wednesday of the month between 1pm and 4pm.

IWM North, Manchester
Horrible Histories: Blitzed Brits explains why war was woeful for those who stayed at home and how they survived being blitzed by bombs. Step into a 1940s house, brave the Blitz experience, sniff your way through stinky smells and get hands on with intriguing interactives. Until February 1 2016.

China Hall, Stoke-on-Trent
The exhibition Resonate: Remembering the lost Soldiers of North Staffordshire is dominated by a monumental clay head by artist Stephen Dixon, made using a ton of clay sourced from the WWI battlefield sites of Passchendaele. Part of the British Ceramics Biennial, until November 8 2015.

Source: http://www.culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/military-history/first-world-war/art537132-chimp-who-went-to-war-first-world-national-archives