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The Straw Ride by Lucy Kemp-Welch
Country Life UK
|October 14, 2020
John McEwen comments on The Straw Ride
IN the First World War, moving the army and its supplies was still horse dependent. The army had 25,000 horses in 1914; by 1918, more than 600,000. The Remount Department and police selected 130,000 horses in 1911, holding them ready to co-opt in an emergency. The 1912 Army Act legalised requisition ‘on payment of a fair price and subject to the owner’s right of appeal’. Inadequacy meant that stronger animals had to be shipped from abroad, including 422,000 horses and 275,000 mules from the US and Canada, plus 120,000 from Australia. Numerous women were employed at Army Remount Depots.
This story is from the October 14, 2020 edition of Country Life UK.
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