Warrior the War Horse | Survival Against the Odds

What happened to the animals who served in the First World War? 

Uncover the extraordinary story of Warrior the war horse who survived the Western Front. General Jack Seely's horse, Warrior, was anything but ordinary. He carried his master through some of World War One's most brutal battles, including the Somme, Ypres and Passchendaele. Despite more than eight million horses, donkeys and mules losing their lives during the war, Warrior somehow survived. Join General Jack Seely's grandson and broadcaster, Brough Scott and historian, James Grasby, to retrace Warrior's incredible journey.


 
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Production

Host : James Grasby
Producer and sound designer: Nikki Ruck

Contributors
Brough Scott

 Discover more
 
To visit Mottistone

Mottistone

To find out more about Warrior

Warrior The War Horse

If you would like to follow in the footsteps of warrior check out the 
 Warrior Trail
 
 
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Episode Transcript

JAMES GRASBY (00:34):
Easter Saturday, March the 30th, 1918. At Moreuil
Wood near Amiens, the CanadianCavalry Brigade prepare for
action.
The Germans hold the ridge. Ifthey break through, the allied
front could fall.
Leading the signal troop ridesGeneral Jack Seely on his horse,

(00:56):
Warrior. He turns to his men,raises his voice above the wind,
and commands, "Fire on bothsides! We are going in!"
Chaos ensues, shells explode,bullets scream through the air.
General Jack Seely and his horseWarrior ride into the storm, red
pennant in hand, the squadronthundering close behind.

(01:20):
The battle that follows will beremembered as one of the
deadliest cavalry charges of theFirst World War.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (01:38):
Millions of animals served in the First
World War, but few becamelegends. Warrior, the horse who
carried General Jack Seelythrough some of the bloodiest
battles of the war, was one ofthem. Welcome to Wild Tales. I'm
Rosie Holdsworth, and in thisepisode we hand over to
historian James Grasby forWarrior the War Horse.

JAMES GRASBY (02:05):
The First World War raged from 1914 to 1918,
drawing in nations across Europeand beyond, where more than 65
million soldiers faced the mud,the blood and the misery of
trench warfare.
Alongside them, millions ofhorses, mules and donkeys went
to the front, hauling supplies,carrying the wounded and

(02:27):
charging into battle. Few evercame home. Among them was
General Jack Seely and hislegendary horse, Warrior.
Together, they would ridethrough some of the bloodiest
battles of the war.
And in today's episode, we headto the Isle Of Wight to follow
in their footsteps.

(02:53):
It is a glorious spring Aprilday, and I'm standing in the
grounds of stunning MottistoneManor on the Isle Of Wight. Now
this place is nestled in a verysheltered valley, not far from
the sea, but surrounded byrolling, lush, greenery.
Mottistone Manor was firstrecorded, I believe, in the
Doomsday Book in 1086.
And today I'm here to walk anunusual and surprising trail.

(03:16):
One that traces the steps of aforgotten hero from the First
World War. Someone who returnedfrom the Western Front against
all odds and unscathed.
But before I set out, I'm goingto step inside the manor to meet
somebody who one wouldn'tnaturally associate with this
story.
I'm just going to come inthrough the front door with a

(03:36):
two-centred arch, pass somegothic lettering, a wonderful
inscription, and through anotherlow door into an ancient room
with magnificent timberedceiling.
In front of me is the moststriking picture. What a
beautiful horse! A beautifulhorse with a gallant, what looks
like a general in uniform. Andbehind, chalky cliffs, which I

(04:00):
guess are the Isle Of Wight. Idon't know. It says 1920s. But I
wonder who this chap is.
As I stand there pondering, Ihear footsteps behind me.
I recognise your face, BroughScott. What a pleasure to meet
you.

BROUGH SCOTT (04:15):
It's lovely to be here because obviously I've
known this picture since I canremember pictures. And that's
Grandpa on his horse Warrior,which has become quite famous
really as a sort of symbol ofthe First World War.

JAMES GRASBY (04:26):
Brough, it's an astonishing story. I mean, to so
many people, you are the face ofBritish racing, TV presenter,
writer. I had no idea that youas well are the grandson of
General Jack Seely. And I've gotthis relationship with
Mottistone.

BROUGH SCOTT (04:41):
In fact, Grandpa, who is an extraordinary
Victorian, Edwardian figure thatyou couldn't invent now, but he
went to the Boer War with awhite horse of his called a
Maharaja when he got to theport. Sir you can't take that
white horse, it'd be bad forcamouflage. So he took it round
the back and... dyed it brown. Imean, literally. And it went
right through the war with him.

JAMES GRASBY (04:58):
Between 1899 and 1902, the Boer War raged in
South Africa. It was here thatJack Seely learnt the realities
of battle on horseback.

BROUGH SCOTT (05:09):
And when he was looking for a replacement to
that horse when he got very old,he saw a thoroughbred mare and
he galloped down after it andbought it there and then off the
man. She was called Cinderellaand she was incredibly sweet.
She used to walk round behindhim like a dog. My mother can
remember sliding off her back,she was really sweet and her son
was Warrior.

JAMES GRASBY (05:30):
From the day he is born, Warrior is Jack Seely's
constant companion in both warand peace. They cross the
channel together in 1914, andfor the following four years,
they endure the mud andhardships of the Western Front.
Two decades later, in 1935, JackSeely publishes a book about him

(05:52):
called My Horse Warrior. Bythen, Warrior is 27 and a living
reminder of the bond they share.

BROUGH SCOTT (06:01):
That book, My Horse Warrior, it's a love
letter to this horse. He wouldhave remembered the last canter
he did alongside his son who gotkilled, Frank. He remembered him
with his first wife who died. Heremembered him through that
picture there of the wholefamily. The horse was his
connection. It's a testament toa quite unique equine life and

(06:24):
therefore I'm really proud thathe recorded it.

JAMES GRASBY (06:28):
But Warrior's story isn't just published in
books and remembered inportraits. It's written into
this very landscape. And todaywe set out to trace his hoof
prints on a circular footpatharound Mottistone, known as the
Warrior Trail.
Brough, we're just rising up outof the valley from that ancient

(06:50):
house, up a deep and sunkentrack. This is the beginning of
the trail, I guess.

BROUGH SCOTT (06:56):
It's a footpath now, but of course... Warrior
and Grandpa would have ridden uphere to the Downs. You can
uplift yourself and your mood bygoing up on the Downs and when I
come down here which I still doa lot I go up on the Downs and
then my spirit lifts.

JAMES GRASBY (07:12):
And that moment on the Isle Of Wight famously
where the chalk Downs stopbeside the sea where they've
been broken away into thoseincredible cliffs that appear in
the background of that picturewe're just looking at

BROUGH SCOTT (07:24):
That particular Chalk Cliff is called Tennyson
Down because that's whereTennyson used to walk up,
purportedly reciting somebody'sgreat verse.
We're walking up towards theDowns, but actually down below,
a little bit south of here, isthe Yafford Mill where Warrior
was born. We're talking about1908, and Grandpa was a minister

(07:46):
then, and there was a verystuffy private secretary.
And the guy at the stables, senta message to Grandpa, which was
handed over by this very stuffycivil servant. The message was,
Cinderella had a booming boytoday, mother and son really
well. Lovely phrase that Grandpasaid, well, Yafford is one of

(08:10):
the most delightful places onecould possibly choose to be
born.

JAMES GRASBY (08:14):
Lovely. And before us, a bridal way. We're
into the shade of a SBorycamorein flower. Which way are we
heading, Brough?

BROUGH SCOTT (08:24):
We're going south-west, up onto Brook Down,
and out ahead of us we'll seethe totemic chalk cliffs of
Freshwater Down.

JAMES GRASBY (08:34):
And it's chalky underfoot, isn't it?

BROUGH SCOTT (08:36):
you can see the chalk.

JAMES GRASBY (08:41):
Brough, the view is beginning to open.

BROUGH SCOTT (08:43):
Below us is Sidling Paul, which is where a
Warrior ran with his motherCinderella as a yearling and a
two-year-old. And indeed, whereGrandpa got on him the first
time and he immediately buckedhim off. And then you go on down
past the church. Where actuallyin 1917 Grandpa came back from
the war and Cinderella - he wasparticularly close to the mother

(09:07):
of Warrior- and he went to seeher, she'd gone got pretty old
by then.
When he whistled, she camerunning up to him and very
obviously recognised him. Thenext day was a Sunday. They'd
walk up there to the church, andwhen they walked up, Cinderella
was lying there dead, and shehad kept herself alive to see

(09:27):
him again.
I know my mother was very struckby that image, and so was my
grandfather. Again, it's alwaysa danger, this anthropological,
putting human sentiments intohorses, but they still have
sentiments and that one was avery much I think stay alive for
something and then it's over andI like to think of that.

JAMES GRASBY (09:52):
As we leave Sidling Paul we follow the lane
past Brook House where Jack AndWarrior are based until 1925.
From here the path drops downtowards Brook Bay, a stretch of
coastline long associated withshipwrecks and treacherous seas.
And it's here that Jack firstrealises Warrior has the makings
of a warhorse.

(10:17):
Brough, we're down on the beachand this beach has a special
place in Warrior's story, hasn'tit?

BROUGH SCOTT (10:22):
It wasn't called Warrior entirely by chance. The
likelihood of him being acavalry horse was always there.
And If you're going to be acavalry horse, you're going to
have to be brave.
And so what he did from a veryyoung age, he went and stood him
in the waves. Grandpa had a veryvivid memory is that he was

(10:43):
trembling, but he would standthere, even though the waves
came in and hit him. One of themknocked him over.
But he realised then, he said,that this horse was brave
because he would stand and hewould face something. And of
course later in life he stoodand faced shells and rifle fire

(11:03):
with men behind him and wasinspiration as you can imagine.

JAMES GRASBY (11:09):
As the waves break over his horse's legs,
Jack Seely senses Warrior'sdestiny. At six, Warrior is sent
to military school in Rutland.Then in August 1914, as war
breaks out in Europe, Jack andWarrior set sail to Le Havre to
face t he battlefields ofFrance.

(11:31):
The following year, when JackSeely takes command of the
Canadian Cavalry Brigade,Warrior returns briefly to
England for further training,but by Christmas they are back
at the front, and from thenuntil the war's end Warrior
never leaves it, through thebattles at the Somme, the horror
at Ypres, and the endless mud ofPasschendaele.

(11:52):
There is traumatic and famousearly film footage of mules and
horses in the deep mud ofPasschendaele, getting stuck
down to the tops of their legsin mud, struggling to get out. I
mean, the mud was a dreadfulkiller of pack horses and
cavalry horses. Was thatsomething that Warrior

(12:12):
experienced at first hand?

BROUGH SCOTT (12:14):
Not for the first time he was lucky to be a
general's horse, or he certainlywouldn't have survived. Because
there was usually a hard areawhere you could probably be
alright. But if you strayed offit for any reason, you'd go into
the mud, it'd be so difficult,you couldn't pull the horse out,
it would take too many people.

(12:36):
Quite early on they woulddecide, relieve the pain, shoot
the horse, take the saddle off.Warrior went in, but he had the
general, and he had peoplearound him, and they really
heaved and pulled and they gothim out. But if he'd been an
ordinary horse he probablywouldn't have got out.

JAMES GRASBY (12:53):
For Warrior, it's a lucky escape.

BROUGH SCOTT (12:56):
I did count it up once I think it's seven times
when at least 50 - 50 he wouldhave got killed. I mean, very
early on, bullets comingthrough. The horse next to him
being shot, that happened twice.Him standing nose to nose with
another horse, and while he wasstanding there, the other horse
has a bullet through it.

JAMES GRASBY (13:16):
Time and again, Warrior defies death. Bullets,
collapsing buildings, shellslanding close by. By now, it's
becoming clear Warrior is noordinary horse.
Brough, take me to France in1918 and the charge at Moreuil.

BROUGH SCOTT (13:37):
The Canadian Cavalry were basically circling
the German advance. Big scarewas that the Germans got to
Amiens and fundamentally itcould be over.
Grandpa was in charge of theCanadian Cavalry, about a
thousand men and horses. And hewas told not to get too
involved, and he saw the Germanshad broken through. So he

(14:00):
decided, regardless of anyinstructions, he needed to take
it back.
The important thing, you had asignal group, which were the
people to go up in front - aspearhead of 16 people - and you
planted a big pennant.
Because then the units cominggalloping up behind would know
one lot had to go left of thepanel, the other would go right

(14:21):
the pennant. Of course, beingGrandpa and Warrior, Warrior led
it.
Anyway, they came up and six ofthe guys got shot. You are
literally galloping intobullets.
Imagine the scene you've gotfive hundred six hundred horses
galloping up behind you and allgoing round and then actually
entering this wood, leave yourhorses. You then march in with

(14:44):
bayonets fixed, you know,thrusting and disemboweling,
things like that. It washand-to-hand fighting.
And one of the German reports,it was hell in Moreuil Wood, and
I bet it was. But, you know, thefact is, Warrior survived it.

JAMES GRASBY (15:02):
The battle at Moreuil Wood becomes one of the
last great cavalry actions ofthe First World War. Later,
General Seely would write, "Iknew that moment to be the
supreme moment of my life."
Warrior is one of the luckyones. Over eight million horses,

(15:22):
donkeys and mules perish in theFirst World War. Many drown in
the mud, are hit by gunfire, orsimply die of cold and
exhaustion.
A month later, General JackSeely is gassed, and as he
recuperates, Warrior stays byhis side.

(15:42):
By Christmas that year, the waris finally over. Jack And
Warrior both return home toBrook on the Isle Of Wight. In
1925, they move to Mottistone,where Warrior spends the rest of
his days.
Brough, that was a wonderfulwalk. A wonderful walk, tracking
the story of Warrior and yourgrandfather. And we've now come

(16:04):
back to a really lovely,panelled room somewhere in the
north part of this great manorhouse. And we've got a pot of
tea.

BROUGH SCOTT (16:11):
Much needed.

JAMES GRASBY (16:12):
I've got the book that your grandfather wrote and
that you republished. Andthere's this lovely photograph
here of your grandfather onWarrior outside this house.
What's going on here?

BROUGH SCOTT (16:23):
It's typical in many ways. It's 1934. Grandpa is
in his 60s, Warrior is 26 yearsold, and Queen Mary's there. And
she would have been at Cowes,and Grandpa is in his Cowes
yachting kit, which is ayachting cap, blue blazer and

(16:43):
white slacks.
And what the Queen clearly wouldhave done is saying, "Oh, I'd
love to see Warrior." So theybrought Warrior out of the
field, and he would have said, "Look, here he is," and he would
have jumped up on him. So he'sriding Warrior bareback. And the
Queen is patting him.

JAMES GRASBY (16:58):
So Warrior, a great celebrity. And by the
sound of it, Warrior lived to anextraordinary age. He went on
and on.

BROUGH SCOTT (17:06):
It's one of the most extraordinary things of
all, really. And there's aterrific picture of Grandpa and
Warrior outside Mottistone Manorwith Grandpa riding him when
Grandpa's 70 and Warrior's 30. Imean, 30 is very old for a
horse. And he's had the saddestof ends.

(17:27):
In 1941, things are very, veryrough in England. And, you know,
it looks like we might well losethe war. And Warrior's getting
very ropey. And through thewinter, Warrior was having to
have a lot of oats, things tokeep him going. And Grandpa had
to decide, look, people arebeginning to grumble. So we're
going to have to put him down.

JAMES GRASBY (17:47):
During the Second World War, rationing means food
and fodder is desperatelyscarce. Non-essential animals,
retired horses, pets, even zooanimals were put down. As there
simply wasn't enough to keepthem alive. It was in this
climate in 1941 that Warrior, bythen 32 years old, is finally

(18:07):
laid to rest.

BROUGH SCOTT (18:09):
This is the saddest bit really. He said he
couldn't bear to be there whenthe vet came to put him down.
But he wrote in his notebook,Warrior had been put down. He
said to quote poet Byron abouthis dog, Boatswain, "I do not

(18:29):
believe he'll be denied inheaven the soul he had on
earth," which is rather a lovelything to have written in your
diary.

JAMES GRASBY (18:42):
After more than three decades at Jack's side,
Warrior's Death makes nationalnews with the Times publishing
an obituary and the EveningStandard running the headline,
The Horse... The Germanscouldn't kill. But Warrior's
story doesn't end there.
In 1935, Jack Seeley writes abook about his beloved charger,

(19:02):
My Horse Warrior, a love letterto their bond. And in 2012,
Brough republishes the book,keeping his grandfather's words
alive for a new generation. In2014, 100 years after the
outbreak of World War I, Warrioris posthumously awarded the PDSA
Dickin Medal. The AnimalsVictoria Cross.

BROUGH SCOTT (19:26):
It was an extremely proud moment for me
and my family because Warriorwas given this medal on behalf
of all the animals who sufferedin the first war. And it was a
wonderful thing and therecognition that that horse born

(19:48):
at Yafford two miles from hereat Mottistone who spent all of
his life, in the Isle Of Wight,with the minor exception of four
years when, according toGrandpa, he won the war
single-handed, that he should behonoured on behalf of all the
others, is something that we areall very, very proud.

JAMES GRASBY (20:11):
From the cliffs of the Isle Of Wight to the
battlefields of France,Warrior's story is one of
loyalty, courage and survivalagainst all odds. As we honour
the soldiers who never camehome, let us also remember the
animals who stood beside them.

ROSIE HOLDSWORTH (20:40):
Thank you for listening to this episode of
Wild Tales i hope you enjoyed itif Warrior's tale has inspired
you you'll find more historystories in our sister podcast
back when i'm Rosie Holdsworth,I'll see you next time.