Page 19 - DATR Open Day 2023

TRLC LIVING HISTORY
he Royal Logistic Corps Horse-Drawn Heritage Team are delighted to have provided the Mark X GS Wagon and
the Mark II Horse Ambulance here today for the DATR Open Day. The Team are a voluntary group of service personnel and civilian horse men and women, who are dedicated to maintaining and preserving as many as possible of the horse-drawn transport types used by the British military. Based at the RLC Museum in Worthy Down, Hampshire, the Horse-Drawn Heritage Team are able to display and maintain their vehicles in the Museum, but also attend many county shows and events around the country.
When the British Army went to war in August 1914, it was entirely reliant on horsepower. In July 1914 the peacetime Regular Army had 25,000 horses, by December of that year it had 250,000. The requisitioning, purchase, and training of so many horses in such a short period of time was arguably the most extraordinary achievement of the transition to war.
After the war the British Army mechanized rapidly, but still used large numbers of horses and mules during WW2, and it was only in 1970 that the last Horse Transport Companies
disbanded. Royal Logistic Corps Horse- Drawn Heritage, in association with the Regimental Museum, aims to preserve some of the traditions and skills which Officers and soldiers had to learn a hundred years ago, at a time when moving everything depended on four legs.
Many of the trainees on parade today will complete training in the near future and will find themselves on state ceremonial duties such as the Edinburgh Tattoo, Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance and the King’s Birthday Parade.
Find out more about the Team at: rlcheritage.co.uk or follow us on Facebook: @rlc.heritage
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