Home Lad Home - St Barbe Museum, Lymington

[E Wilcock]

Has anyone travelled to see this exhibition about the equestrian background to the First World War?

It was reviewed in The Times 8 March and we wondered whether it was worth going. It is quite a drive for us from London.

I thought someone might have suggested a meet? But searching the Forum hasnt come up with anything.

[Steven Broomfield]

I'm intending to wander down in the next few weeks, but trying to persuade wife and/or daughter(s) to accompany me.

All I know is what I also saw in the Times, plus the fact that HorsePower Museum has loaned some stuff.

[E Wilcock]

Thanks Steven.

We visited today. A 2 hour journey but we are pleased we went.

This is small display, just 2 rooms. Wall plaques offer a succinct and I think accurate explanation of how the horses were obtained and how they were used by the cavalry, artillery and other units, their importance in transport, the sicknesses and casualties suffered and their veterinary care. The academic source quoted for the information is J. Singleton's article, “Britain’s Military Use of Horses 1914-1918,” Past & Present 139 (1) (1993): 178–203.

The story is illustrated by an art exhibition and by small displays of items belonging to individual men who worked with horses in the war, for example, in the veterinary service or the Hussars.

In line with current thinking, place is found for the significant role of women in the remount service, and for paintings and drawings by women artists working in the UK whose work has perhaps been unjustly neglected.

This was exactly the right exhibition to please me. As our Brigade site reveals, I am particularly interested in the horses and the care of horses used by a territorial Brigade of the RFA. Though this exhibition did not add to what I know, at least it did not infuriate me by misrepresenting what took place. I have devoted my retirement to learning to ride and it was a treat to see the story of the horses used by the British army in World War 1 so clearly set out and to discover the work (much of it on loan from private collections) of women equestrian artists previously unknown to me.

This is a World War 1 Forum. But I hope it is permitted to mention that, although the British and American armies abandoned most of their horses in the 1930s, both the Russian and German armies remained reliant on horses, particularly for transport. When the Germans invaded Poland one of their major aims was to take over the Polish National Studs. More horses were used and died in the Second World war than in the First. Horses have long determined the outcome of major conflicts and played a part in Stalin's victory over Hitler. It is a mistake to sentimentalise their use on the Western Front or to imagine that their suffering then caused lessons to be learned. I believe the loss of men in war to be far more significant than the loss of horses.

[Steven Broomfield]

Thanks. Look like I'll have to go now.