http://ifieldsociety.org.uk/index.php/2024/11/15/november-24-2024-ifield-wood-conservation-volunteers-re-form-for-walks-to-ifield-court-farm-and-beyond-starting-tomorrow-saturday-nov-16/
‘WAR HORSE WALK’ – CRAWLEY OBSERVER – LETTERS – NOVEMBER 13 2024
Dear Editor
Following last Sunday’s Remembrance Day, a ‘War Horse Walk’ is planned this Saturday [Nov16] in memory of the unknown number of Parish horses sent to the Western Front in WW1 – and never returned.
We will meet at 11am opposite the Plough in Ifield village, planning to return by 1pm.
All welcome.
Richard W. Symonds
The Ifield Society
NB A visit to Twiglets Riding School in Ifield Wood is also planned (see below):
‘Lest We Forget The Animals Too’
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2045816/Unshakeable-courage-real-War-Horses-The-million-forgotten-animals-killed-frontline.html
His book contains accounts of the military impressment squads which would descend on a village, just like the naval press gangs of yesteryear, and round up all the horses for service.
Of the one million horses which left the UK for the Western Front only 60,000 returned.
While more than a million dogs no were also killed during the First World War.
https://www.westernfrontassociation.com/world-war-i-articles/finding-the-horses-and-mules-for-the-british-army-during-the-first-world-war/
My nan was in service at an estate near London and the lady of the house had her horses shot rather than send them to war
Photo by Janice Prior [location unknown]
Photo by Colin Bertram – Morecambe War Memorial
http://ifieldsociety.org.uk/index.php/2024/11/04/this-saturday-november-9-2024-in-remembrance-of-william-frederick-drughorn-1895-1916-killed-in-action-aged-21/