Adorable Jackapoo dog Scrumpy who "enjoys biscuits" becomes new HMS Queen Elizabeth Royal Navy mascot

Scrumpy the Jackapoo has become the newest member of HMS Queen Elizabeth’s crew. The pooch has fully ingratiated themselves into life aboard the Portsmouth-based 65,000 tonne warship.

They were presented to the world in a statement on social media. “Meet the newest member of the QNLZ Command Team, Scrumpy the Jackapoo,” the post said. “Scrumpy particularly enjoys helping our CO conduct rounds, where he gets to meet our sailors and see what biscuits are left over from stand easy.”

History of Royal Navy mascots

Mascots have been a traditional part of Royal Navy ships over the years, including exotic creatures many would not expect. The Portsmouth destroyer HMS Velox in the First World War era had a pet monkey called Winnie which was popular with sailors.

Jason the jaguar was a mascot kept on the aptly named HMS Jaguar in 1963. The warship was presented with the animal during a visit to Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - he eventually ended up in London Zoo.

One of the most famous Royal Navy animals was Barbara the polar bear. The Arctic animal was rescued from a drifting ice floe near Greenland during the Second World War. Initially kept aboard a light cruiser, Barbara was eventually moved to the Royal Navy zoo on Whale Island due to her increasing size. This zoo was complete with spacious cages, marsupials in grass paddocks and birds in aviaries by 1935.

Despite many appeals from sailors at the time, most of these animals were shot during the Second World War due to fears of the more dangerous creatures - including big cats - escaping during the intense bombing raids in Portsmouth.

HMS Queen Elizabeth has spent the past few months alongside HMNB Portsmouth. Her sister ship, HMS Prince of Wales, is currently on an eight-month deployment to the Indo-Pacific region - Operation Highmast. Various military exercises and diplomatic drills, involving the UK Carrier Strike Group, will take place.