Their presence is traditionally believed to protect the Crown and the tower; a superstition holds that "if the Tower of London ravens are lost or fly away, the Crown will fall and Britain with it".
During World War II, only one raven was able to survive the hardships of the bombing during the Blitz, so the Prime Minister, Sir Winston Churchill, ordered more ravens to be brought in, in order to bring the flock up to the correct size. The Tower ravens are enlisted as soldiers of the Kingdom, and were issued attestation cards in the same way as soldiers and police. As is the case with soldiers, the ravens can be dismissed for unsatisfactory conduct.
Most Londoners are fond of the ravens, but sometimes an individual bird will fall out of favour because of inappropriate behaviour. For example, "Raven George" lost his appointment to the Crown, and was retired to Wales for attacking and destroying TV aerials. A special decree was issued about the incident:
On Saturday 13th September 1986, Raven George, enlisted 1975, was posted to the Welsh Mountain Zoo. Conduct unsatisfactory, service therefore no longer required.
In 1996, two more ravens fell out of favour and were dismissed from the Tower for "conduct unbecoming Tower residents."
Despite having their flight feathers clipped on one wing, sometimes the Tower ravens desert their duties. In 1981, Grog the raven decided to leave the surroundings of the Tower for those of a pub, after 21 years of faithful service to the Crown. In contrast, a raven named Mabel was kidnapped from the Tower soon after World War II, a mystery that has never been solved.
Another story concerns the two ravens named "James Crow" and "Edgar Sopper". James Crow was a much-loved and long-lived raven. After noticing the commotion surrounding the other raven's death, Edgar Sopper decided he could "play dead" in order to bring more attention to himself. His trick was so convincing that the ravenmaster fully believed that Edgar Sopper had died. When the ravenmaster picked up the "corpse", Edgar bit the man's finger and "flapped off croaking huge raven laughs".
In 1990 a chaplain named Norman Hood died in his chamber on the Tower grounds. Former Assistant Ravenmaster Tom Trent has reported that the ravens appeared to be aware of the death, for they soon gathered on the Tower Green near the chapel, called out, and then became quiet, as though to pay their respects. The idea should not be discounted, as corvids have been widely reported to hold "funerals," in which they mourn and then cluster around a dead bird in silence.
I wonder how our local crows stack up, intellectually?