Sir Winston Churchill started his military career in the cavalry allegedly because the grade requirement for cavalry officers was lower than infantry and did not require him to learn mathematics, which he disliked.
But with famous words such as "There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man." we all know that Churchill had a great fondness for horses and in 1919 after the end of World War 1 he demonstrated that fondness by acting to save ten's of thousands of war horses.
Britain was heavily dependent on horsepower in WW1 to carry men, supplies and artillery, and spent some £36 million during the war buying up 1.1 million horses from Britain, Canada and the United States. After the war ended tens of thousands of these horses were stranded on the continent as officials failed to meet quota's for the return of the horses to Great Britain.
Churchill, Secretary of State for War, was furious when he discovered what was happening, war office documents show that thousands of horses were at risk from starvation, disease and buthery by the French and Belgians.
On February 13, 1919, Churchill told Lieutenant-General Sir Travers Clarke, Quartermaster-General:
"If it is so serious, what have you been doing about it? The letter of the Commander-In-Chief discloses a complete failure on the part of the Ministry of Shipping to meet its obligations and scores of thousands of horses will be left in France under extremely disadvantageous conditions."
This resulted in an increase in numbers of horses being returned from some 4,000 a week to 9,000 a week.
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