This song is a track from the forthcoming new album Castles. This track is about a dog that was awarded the Dickin Medal. The Dickin Medal, instituted by Mrs Maria Dickin, founder of the People's Royal Dispensary for Sick Animals, was popularly referred to as "the animals' VC". It was awarded to any animal displaying conspicuous gallantry and devotion to duty associated with, or under the control of, any branch of the Armed Forces or Civil Defence units during World War II and its aftermath. The Dicken Medal was awarded to Rifleman Khan on 27th March 1945. "For rescueing L/Cpl Muldoon from drowning under heavy shell fire at the assault of Walcheren, November 1944, while serving with the 6th Cameronians. (SR)".

Nick found out about the award given to Rifleman Khan when he told his uncle about the Lanarkshire Songwriters CD, ‘The Fourteen Gallant Men’. His uncle, Alex Simpson, who served in the war with the Cameronian Regiment, told him that there was another ‘VC’ awarded, then explained that it was to a dog. It has been an ambition of Nick to write the song ever since hearing about the story. The full story can be viewed here.

The track lasts for 5 minutes. It is stored in mp3 format, which will download and play on most computers. The download time may be long (many minutes) over a slow connection and most computers won't begin to play the song until it has downloaded completely. But IT IS WORTH WAITING FOR. Click here to begin the download. You can also listen to a short extract of around 1 minute.

Copies of the new album will be available soon via Nick's website www.nickmusic.co.uk. You can also find out more at www.myspace.com/nickmusicscotland