The Soldier-Horse Relationship in the Great War
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Sense and Sentimentality: The Soldier- Horse Relationship in the Great War. Item Type Thesis Authors Flynn, Jane Download date 30/09/2021 20:13:01 Item License http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ Link to Item http://hdl.handle.net/10545/621040 University of Derby Sense and Sentimentality: The Soldier-Horse Relationship in The Great War. Material removed for Reasons of Copyright. Jane Flynn Doctor of Philosophy 2016 Contents List of Appendices Introduction p. 1 Chapter One: “The Most Vital Question of All” The Soldier-Horse Relationship, The Boer War, Military Reform and Social Change in Britain 1900 to 1914. p. 14 Chapter Two: “Humanity, Efficiency and Economy” The Remount Department and The Army Veterinary Corps during the Great War. p. 36 Chapter Three: “For Want of a Nail” The British Army’s Drive for Military Efficiency, Sympathetic Consideration, and The Soldier- Horse Relationship. p.66 Chapter Four: “For King and Country” How the Soldier-Horse Relationship was Portrayed in Britain during the Great War. p. 91 Chapter Five: “Mortal Immortals” Remembering and Forgetting the Soldier-Horse Relationship of the Great War, 1918 to 1939. p. 116 Conclusion p. 136 Appendix p. 142 Bibliography: Primary Sources p. 162 Bibliography: Secondary Sources p. 175 List of Appendices Front Page ‘How the War Horse Travels to “Do His Bit”’, The War Illustrated, 13 th February 1915. Title and Abstract ‘Blue Cross Workers Tending Wounded Horses’, The War Illustrated, 12 th December, 1914. Figure 1 Charlton J., from a photograph by Thiele R., ‘The Price of a Forced March: Artillery Horses Break Down’, The Graphic, 9th June 1900. Figure 2 ’60 Pounder Moving up in Support’, War Bond Campaign Post Card, From Material supplied by the Ministry of Information, A.M. Davis & Co., London, undated, Private Collection. Figure 3 Edwards L., illustration in Galtrey Capt.S., The Horse and the War, Country Life, London, 1918, p.25. Figure 4 Loudon Lieutenant Colonel A.W.B., ‘Worn Out French Horses Going for Slaughter’, Fismes, September 1914, IWMQ50286. Figure 5 Table of horse shipment information compiled from, Barrett E.G., Military Service Diary, France 1915-1916, IWM7707. Figure 6 ‘Our Voluntary Army’, Punch, 3rd March 1915. Figure 7 “Glad to see you walking, my lad.”, Punch, 23 rd December 1914. Figure 8 “What in thunder have you been doing all the morning?”, Punch, 14 th October 1914. Figure 9 ‘Army Service Corps Recruits at Riding School’, IWMQ34110. Figure 10 ‘Danger! ’, Pratchett W., Private Royal Army Service Corps Horse Transport, Memoir, Liddle Collection, Leeds, P14. Figure 11 For King and Country, colour postcard, Henry Frowde and Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1914/1915, Private Collection. Figure 12 ‘Unveiling of the famous horse memorial in February 1905.’, www.stgeorgespark.nmmu.ac.za, accessed 01.05.2016 Figure 13 Berkley S., ‘English Cavalry Watering their Horses during the Madhist War’, http://www.gettyimages.fr, accessed 01.05.2016. Figure 14 Caton Woodville R., ‘The War in South Africa, A Critical Moment’, double page feature, The Illustrated London News , 1894., www.allposters.com., accessed 01.05.2016. Figure 15 Supplement to The War Illustrated, 3rd October 1914. Figure 16 ‘The Pitiable Martyrdom of Man’s Faithful Friend’, The War Illustrated, 3rd October 1914. Figure 17 Wood S.L., ‘Sharing Rations: The Trooper’s Christmas Box’, The War Illustrated, supplement to Christmas edition, 23 rd December 1916. Figure 18 Matania F., ‘“Good-Bye Old Man!” – The Soldier’s Farewell to his Steed. A touching incident on the road to a battery position in Southern Flanders.’, The War Illustrated, 15 th July 1916. Figure 19 Photograph of Sergeant Major Harry Poole and Songster., Loughborough Carillon Museum Archive. Figure 20 Moore J., Animal Veterinary Service in War, H & W Brown, London, 1921, p.179. Figure 21 Spencer S., The Resurrection of the Soldiers, churchonthecorner.org.uk, accessed 02.05.2016. Statement of Intellectual Ownership So far as I am aware, the connection made in this thesis between sense and sentimentality in relation to the soldier-horse relationship has not been made elsewhere. Apart from the guidance of my supervisors, I have worked entirely alone and there has been no collaboration with any other person. Where I have commented on work by published artists and authors, references have been given throughout. Title Sense and Sentimentality: The Soldier-Horse Relationship in The Great War. Abstract During the Great War, the horse was essential to military efficiency. Horses hauled artillery guns, transported vital supplies and ammunition, and carried men into battle. The military horse was, in fact, a weapon. Many thousands of horses were purchased and supplied to the British Expeditionary Force at great expense, because without them an Army could not function. Although the British Army was the most modern of all the belligerent forces during the Great War, the horse was nevertheless favoured because of its reliability and versatility. For example, horses coped much better than motor vehicles where the going was difficult. It was horse-power that ensured the Army’s lines-of-communication were maintained. Indeed, without an adequate supply of horses it is probable that the British Army would not have achieved victory in 1918. However, the military horse was also a weapon which quickly broke down when it was not properly maintained. The British Army had learned this to its cost during the Boer War, when more horses had been killed by bad management than by enemy action. Good horse management in the field depended upon the soldier. It was essential that he had received adequate training, and it was also essential that he take responsibility for his horse’s well- being. During the Great War, all soldiers given ‘ownership’ of a horse were taught to put their horse’s needs before their own, and to always think first of their horse. They were taught to see their horse in the same way as an infantryman would his rifle; as something he may have cause to rely upon and which it was therefore in his best interests to look after. The soldier-horse relationship developed once the soldier’s care became one of sympathetic consideration. Soldiers and their horses spent most of their lives together when on active service, and it was this close proximity which helped to bond them into a unit. Many soldiers came to see their horses as comrades; they named them, and went to great lengths to protect their horses from harm. From the Army’s perspective, the soldier-horse relationship ensured that an expensive military asset was properly maintained. At home, portrayals of the soldier-horse relationship extended its vital contribution to the war effort beyond the battlefield. For example, images and stories that told of the soldier’s kindness to his horse bolstered a positive illusion the British had of themselves as a people capable of both strength and compassion. Images of the soldier-horse relationship played an important part in helping the British people to imagine war. They also provided much- needed comfort and reassurance when friends and loved ones were in danger. Importantly, by studying these portrayals dispassionately, we find that they were never entire flights of fancy, and often bore more than a passing resemblance to the soldier’s actual experience. Indeed, it becomes possible to question whether sense and sentimentality ever did entirely part company in the British imagination. Like their flesh and blood inspiration, portrayals of the soldier-horse relationship have not received the attention they merit. By rectifying this oversight, this thesis not only contributes to study of the horse-human relationship, but also to our knowledge of the Great War. Not least, because we achieve a better appreciation of what it was like to live in the War’s shadow. Material removed for Reasons of Copyright. Acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to thank my directors of studies; Dr Ian Whitehead and Dr Ruth Larsen for their advice, help and support over the last several years. Especially for knowing when I needed a good shove in the right direction! The staff at Kedleston Road library, who have always been helpful. Especially ordering Inter-Library Loans! Thank you to Captain Mike Holtby at Prince William of Gloucester Barracks Grantham for allowing access to their archives. Thanks also to Mel Gould at the Loughborough Carillon Museum for his help during my hunt for Songster, and to Mike Galer at Derby Museum. Thanks also to the very helpful staff in Special Collections at Leeds University and Sheffield University, the Imperial War Museum in London and The British Library at Boston Spa. Thanks to my family and friends, so many of whom have helped to keep me sane, and especially my friends at Oakdene Farm. Also thanks to the horses, who always know how to bring you back down to earth! Lastly, and by no means least, thanks to my husband Andy, without whom I would never have got this far. For My Husband & A Horse Called Toby Introduction The Horse, even more than Literature, is the expression of the society in which he exists. … The history of the horse is the history of the human race; for the horse is the personification of the aristocracy of blood - the warrior caste ... I strongly advise all Professors of History to open their ears attentively. ... If we follow the fortunes of the horse, the panorama of the successive phases of the human race will unfold itself before our eyes. ... The war horse has told us of days that are past ... it will just as easily explain to us the spirit of the present time, and perhaps, if we entreat it earnestly, the spirit of the time that is yet to come.