{"id":40606,"date":"2022-02-07T19:04:44","date_gmt":"2022-02-07T19:04:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/library\/?p=40606"},"modified":"2024-07-23T19:40:19","modified_gmt":"2024-07-23T18:40:19","slug":"war-horses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.canterbury.ac.uk\/library\/war-horses\/","title":{"rendered":"War Horses"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A notebook belonging to W.B. Maxwell, playwright and novelist, details his time serving in France with the Royal Fusiliers in 1916. As the Regimental Transport Officer, Maxwell lists the names of horses and their riders, as well as information about feed, harnessing and care of the horses. This extraordinary little notebook is part of a collection of Maxwell\u2019s diaries, letters and manuscripts held at Augustine House Library.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

William Babington Maxwell (1866\u20131938) was born in London, the son of John Maxwell and Mary Elizabeth Braddon<\/strong><\/a>. He grew up in a family that loved riding and described it as introducing \u201ca cheerful element to life\u201d (Maxwell, 1937, p.40). His first pony was \u201ca round-barrelled mouse-coloured friendly creature\u201d called Daisy whom he rode around Richmond Green accompanied by his riding instructor Knight (Maxwell, 1937, p.40).  His mother was a keen although somewhat absentminded rider who hunted twice a week during the Spring. In his autobiography, he writes: \u201cShe had a truly magnificent grey mare called Vixen and a stockier, less interesting brown mare called Peggy\u201d (Maxwell, 1937, p.141). Maxwell felt a wave of anxiety every time his mother rode out as both rider and horse seemed to never tire. He describes Vixen as \u201cthe one perfect horse that, as it proverbially alleged, comes to each of us in a lifetime\u201d (Maxwell, 1937, p.141).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When war broke out Maxwell felt instinctively that he should be doing something, but his lack of military training meant that he wasn\u2019t entirely sure what. He rushed off to his tailors to order a uniform imagining that he might make a \u201cgallant and dashing\u201d (Maxwell, 1937, p.216) aide-de-camp based on reading the stories of Charles Lever. When his tailor asked him his rank, he didn\u2019t know, so he came away with a pocketful of badges, stars and crowns just in case.<\/p>\n\n\n

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\"Poster<\/a>
Lumley, Savile, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Maxwell then purchased riding boots from Peel\u2019s of Oxford Street and a saddle from Champion and Wilton, but when asked whether he wanted a regimental officer\u2019s saddle or a Staff saddle, he wasn\u2019t sure, so he sensibly asked for the most comfortable one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kitted out, Maxwell now sought some useful employment within the military but knew that as a 50-year-old man, he would struggle to be accepted into a fighting unit. He was initially given a role as a recruitment officer and later Regimental Transport Officer for a battalion of men from the city of London.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Responsible for 50 or 60 men, of whom only two had any experience of horses, it was Maxwell\u2019s job to teach them how to look after them. Flynn (2012) explains that the mechanisation of public transport in the cities had resulted in a dearth of men who could actually handle a horse. Maxwell writes in his autobiography: \u201cThe fact that we had no horses available made riding lessons difficult to organise. I, therefore, bought some more horses again, trusting to the Government or the Lyon Fund to defray the cost in the end\u201c (Maxwell, 1937, p.223).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even with the horses, Maxwell found that the work was difficult, and the men became dispirited, he writes: \u201cI laboured intermittently with my section, teaching them all I could, but, unluckily teaching them a good deal that was altogether useless. We had been given mules and horses but no wagons.\u201d (Maxwell, 1937, p.226). Eventually, Maxwell discovered, after receiving word from France, that limbered wagons were being used and his efforts to teach long rein work had been wasted. Maxwell continued to write in his spare time and contributed to The Times’ Red Cross story book<\/a><\/strong><\/em> (1915) by famous novelists serving in the armed forces. In 1915, the regiment received orders for France; Maxwell\u2019s notebook outlines the tasks that were undertaken for transporting the horses:<\/p>\n\n\n\n