The recent commemoration of the
centenary of the First World War has focused many people’s thoughts on the
service men and women who fought, died and survived the conflict. But millions
of animals and birds also died alongside the troops.
The memorial to ‘Animals in War’ in
Park Lane was unveiled on 24 November 2004. An inscription
reads, ‘They had no choice.’ However, Kilburn is home to a much earlier memorial
to the nation’s service animals.
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| The Kilburn Clinic at 10 Cambridge Avenue (Dick Weindling) |
Horses, dogs and donkeys were the
most commonly used animals – mainly for transport and haulage, but camels,
elephants, pigeons, bullocks, dogs and goats were all pressed into service.
They suffered from exposure, lack of food and disease, dying alongside their
human companions.
The Park
Lane memorial was the fulfilment of an idea that
dates as far back as the early 1920s when the RSPCA proposed a memorial for
animals that had served in WWI. A committee was set up, funds were raised and
the site chosen was Hyde Park corner. In 1925
photographs of the proposed memorial were submitted to Westminster City Council
but there the project appears to have stalled.
Instead the RSPCA decided on a more
practical commemoration, in the form of the Animal War Memorial Dispensary,
where, ‘the sick, injured or unwanted animals of poor people could receive,
free of charge, the best possible veterinary attention, or a painless death.’
It took many years to find a suitable site. The
RSPCA acquired 10 Cambridge Avenue
Kilburn, in March 1931 and that May, the freeholders allowed a change of use
from a private house to a ‘free dispensary for sick and injured animals.’
The memorial inscription on the
Kilburn building is echoed by that in Hyde Park:
‘To all animals who suffered and
perished in the Great War knowing nothing of the cause, looking forward to no
final victory, filled only with love, faith and loyalty, they endured much and
died for us.’
Thirty-one sculptors entered the competition
for a memorial design for the main facade of the building. Frederick
Brook Hitch of Hertford was the winner and his wonderful bronze plaque is
above the main door.
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| RSPCA plaque above the Kilburn Dispensary (Dick Weindling) |
A local paper recorded the official opening on 10 November 1932, by the Countess of Warwick. But the dispensary had been at work for over a year, during which time 6,000 animals had been treated. The ceremony was preceded by a meeting at St Augustine’s School in Kilburn Park Road, presided over by the Chairman of the RSPCA, Sir Robert Gower.
By the mid-1930s, more than 50,000
animals and birds had received attention at the Kilburn Dispensary.
At the rear
of the well-equipped premises were glass fronted kennels and catteries with a
loose box for horses. There was accommodation on site for
a vet and an assistant, providing 24-hour care. In 1936 alone, 9,756
animals passed through the doors.
Unfortunately, the clinic
in Cambridge Avenue was closed in 2016 as part of the RSPCA
reorganisation of its London
veterinarian services.
The main door is flanked by two
marble memorial panels. They record that 484,143 animals were killed by enemy
action, disease or accident and that 725,216 animals were treated by the RSPCA
during WWI. We now know the overall mortality figures were far higher, with an
estimated 8 million horses dying in WWI.
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| Dead horses in 1918 (The Imperial War Museum) |
The horse is the animal most often
associated with the European conflict. In 1914, the British and German armies
had a cavalry force of some 100,000 men.
The
development of trench warfare made cavalry charges redundant, but horses and
mules were still needed to transport materials and supplies and to pull guns
and ambulances.
Dogs accompanied sentries on
patrol, carried messages and worked as scouts, ‘sniffing’ out the enemy ahead.
Others acted as medics, sent onto the battlefield equipped with basic supplies
that allowed a wounded man to tend to his own injuries. They might also stay
with a fatally injured soldier until he died.
Pigeons were very reliable when it
came to sending messages. It has been calculated that they had an astonishing
95% success rate getting through to their destination. The Government even
issued a special ‘Defence of the Realm Regulation’ to prohibit the shooting of
homing pigeons. Offenders were warned they faced six months imprisonment or a
£100 fine.
A pigeon named ‘Cher Ami’ was
awarded the Croix de Guerre for work in the American sector around Verdun
in 1918. On her last mission, Cher Ami was shot but delivered a message that
gave the co-ordinates of 194 soldiers cut off behind enemy lines. The men were
rescued. Cher Ami recovered and was sent back to the USA
where she died in 1919. Her body was put on display at the Smithsonian museum, Washington
D.C.
There is newsreel footage of
animals in service during WWI; but be warned many of them make for unpleasant
viewing.
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