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In Minsterley in 1914 the army were requisitioning horses to serve at the Front. They were offering market value for those they took. And they were careful in their choice, only buying the best animals for use in the cavalry and the heavier farm horses for pulling munition wagons, artillery and ambulances.

Beauty was probably destined for the cavalry. He would have been loaded into a wagon at Minsterley railway station and taken to a remount centre. The largest one in Shropshire was at Whixall Moss but there was a closer one in Craven Arms. After training he would have been sent overseas.

History doesn’t relate what became of Beauty but it’s unlikely he was returned to his owner. On the Western Front alone over 256,000 horses and mules died. Repatriation for horses that survived was unusual – a great many were shot, and some were sold abroad as workhorses or for meat.

Location: Minsterley, Shropshire SY5 0BA
Image of Beauty, the warhorse, courtesy of Ron Davies