Source: File: 1915:
Allied cavalry troops' horses are lowered down in a sling onto quayside: Salonika,
Greece. jpeg, [online] see original at: <http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/0/ww1/25401273>
Accessed: 9 December 2015].
Still caught
within traditions,
When cavalry
charges took
Place on
horseback; military
Boffins held onto
their beliefs.
Hoping for day
when a breakthrough
Of lines, would
enable a grand cavalry
On horses - sabres
raised to charge -
In non-stop gallop
to Berlin and Kaiser.
While evidence's reality was
A war of
attrition, being held,
In lines of
trenches and bullets -
Under artillery devastation.
Still held onto were the army's needs
Of horse
supplies, for future wants
Of military -
made by issued report
8 December from the 1914 committee.
The powers set
and led by
Chairman Lord
Middleton,
Instructed the
Agricultural
Board of steps to
be taken.
Supplies of horse
had to be ready -
Both England and
Wales would
Need horses,
sufficient in military
Requirements for
mobilisations.
Receipt of war
office letters
Depicted a
current situation,
Of a state menace
to come,
From hunting and
racing.
Yet restrictions
were then placed
To halt racing of
horses, with Ireland
And Newmarket
exempt - hunting
While not banned,
had its difficulties.
A state of war would
likely
Affect the horse
breeding -
To deplete
thoroughbreds
And loss of sires
in supplies.
9 July 1915, a
war office letter spoke
How, in recent
military mobilisations,
A fact came to
light for many numbers
Of horses
unsuited to frontline work.
Words of
Kitchener, sent
To Earl of
Selborne, told of
Military needs
for supplies
Of 'light draft'
for cavalry.
Also was need good 'stamp' in artillery -
Should the
country be every ready
For continued
state of war - British
Numbers of horses
were still inadequate.
Since 1914, £12,000,000 had
Been spent, to buy more mounts
From USA - good home breeding
Would have saved
monies.
Kitchener
therefore requested Selborne
To do his best for
getting state aid funds,
To ensure the
quality of more well bred
Sires - for mares
to produce good foals.
In order to breed
light horses,
Various
recommendations
Would instruct
the Agriculture
Board, in controlled
legislations.
This was to be
alongside five issues
From the war
officer; to purchase
Horses from
breeders, remounts
And select
fillies, across the Isles.
by Jamie Mann.
Anon.,1915. Inadequate
Supply of Army Horses - An Urgent Problem - Earl Kitchener's Plea. The Daily
Telegraph, [online] 9 December. P.10.
Col.6. Available at:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/ww1-archive/12031744/Daily-Telegraph-December-9-1915.html
[Accessed: 9 December 2015].
Mann, J., 2015. 100 years Ago - Poems by Jamie Mann. [letter] (Personal
communication, 9 December 2015).
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