Stirring Visions of Reckless Cavalry: Portraying the Soldier’s Horse in the War Illustrated, 1914-1918

Mary Tefft White Cultural Center, University Library

Horses were an integral part of the Great War’s landscape. This was reflected in almost every edition of The War Illustrated; whether they were included as the subject of a specific article, or simply because it was difficult to avoid taking a photograph without at least one horse in it. As the War progressed, traditional portrayals of the soldier’s horse (that often exploited the excitement and glamour of the cavalry charge) evolved to suit the imaginative opportunities of modern warfare. Portrayals of the soldier’s horse often revealed tensions between a demand for news in the present and the reassurance provided by more familiar portrayals of war. That public feeling was at times at odds with current military practice was a problem identified by Colonel Mark Lockwood who, in an article for The War Illustrated, argued that although ‘to think of warfare was to conjure up stirring visions of reckless cavalry charges’ this was ‘a fallacy’. The ability of Britain to equip its military forces was a matter of hard, rational necessity, but the horse also connected British identity, with the country’s history, the land, and its people. The War Illustrated was in the business of selling newspapers, and nothing sold newspapers like a spot of horse-related drama and romance.