Of the tens of thousands of New Zealand horses that served during WWI, only four returned home - including Bess.
In 1914 there were 400,000 horses in New Zealand, which were used on farms and to transport people and goods in cities. Between 1914 and 1916 the government acquired over 10,000 of these horses to equip its forces in the First World War.
Bess was one of the horses donated to the government for military purposes when WWI broke out. Bred by A. D. McMaster of Matawhero, near Martinborough, in 1910, she was by Sarazen out of Miss Jury. She was known as F. A. Deller's ‘Zelma’ prior to being presented to the New Zealand Army. The four-year-old black thoroughbred was allocated to the Wellington Mounted Rifles Regiment and selected by Captain C.G. Powles, who renamed her Bess.
Bess and Powles left New Zealand with the main body of the New Zealand Expeditionary Force in October 1914, bound for Egypt along with 3815 horses.
The horses were transported in rows of cramped stalls, some exposed to the weather. The men had to groom them, rub their legs to prevent swelling, and exercise them daily on coconut matting on the deck. About 3% of the horses died while being transported and their bodies were thrown overboard.
Nearly all of the 10,000 horses went initially to Egypt. More than half were riding horses, like Bess, used by the troops and officers. Nearly 4000 were draught horses or packhorses used for artillery and transport purposes. Many of these ended up on the Western Front.
Bess remained in the Middle East along with several thousand other New Zealand horses. They were assigned to the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade which, as part of the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) Mounted Division with Australian Light Horse brigades and Royal Horse Artillery batteries, served in the Sinai Campaign of 1916 and the Palestine campaign of 1917–18.
Riding horses were used throughout by the mounted troops. The men were not cavalry, fighting from their horses. Rather, the horses allowed the riflemen to move rapidly to new positions. The men operated in groups of four and, when they dismounted to take part in actions like infantry, one man would be left behind to look after the horses.
The conditions on the ground in both the Sinai and Palestine were physically trying for the horses. They carried heavy loads – a fully loaded horse carried about 130 kilograms – including rider, weapons, two bandoliers of ammunition, forage, blankets, food and water. They had to travel long distances on difficult terrain, putting up with ticks, fleas and biting flies, shortages of food and water, and challenging weather – from extreme heat, burning sand and blinding dust, to cold nights and driving rain.
Inevitably horses lost condition. Some died, others were too weak to continue and were evacuated to hospital. In 1917, immediately before the Battle at Ayun Kara, some horses went without water for up to 72 hours. Horses also died as a result of wounds from enemy artillery fire or aerial attacks.
The men became emotionally and physically dependent on their horses – and often used their shadows to get protection from the midday sun.
It is unclear exactly how many New Zealand horses survived to the end of the war. Records suggest some ‘original’ horses were still with their units. Bess was one such horse. Shortly before the Palestine campaign ended Powles and Bess joined the New Zealand Division in France. After France, she served with Powles during the occupation of Germany’s Rhineland.
At the end of the war an acute shortage of transport, and quarantine restrictions related to animal diseases prevalent overseas, prevented most horses from returning to New Zealand.
Bess was one of just four horses originally from New Zealand that were subsequently transported home. All four had belonged to officers associated with General Sir Alexander Russell: Beautiful to the late Captain Richard Riddiford, Dolly to General Sir Alexander Russell, Nigger to the late Lieutenant Colonel George King and Bess to Powles.
The horses were repatriated to England in March 1919 and subjected to 12 months quarantine. Bess apparently took part in a victory parade in Britain. The horses arrived back in New Zealand in July 1920.
After her return to New Zealand in 1920, Bess helped Powles perform his duties as commander at the GHQ school at Trentham and then headmaster at Flock House, an agricultural training school for the dependants of war veterans.
Bess produced several foals, and died on land close to Flock House in 1934. Powles buried her at this site and erected the memorial. Square in shape and topped by a large rock, the memorial has two plaques. One lists the countries in which Bess served during and after the war. The other bears a text in Arabic: ‘In the Name of the Most High God’.
The private memorial near Bulls has become a de facto memorial to all the New Zealand horses and other animals that served during the First World War.
After the war Bess was the model for the sculpture of a wounded New Zealand horse on a memorial to the Anzac mounted troops at Port Said in Egypt. That statue was destroyed in the 1956 Suez crisis, and copies were made and erected at Albany in Western Australia and in Canberra.
In 2020 Bess was posthumously given the Blue Cross Medal. The medal is awarded by Blue Cross, a United Kingdom charity that treated more than 50,000 horses during WWI. Originally only for people who saved animals, it is now given to animals that demonstrate bravery or heroism. Bess is only the second New Zealand animal to be awarded the Blue Cross medal.
Bulls Museum have a permanent display on Bess and the other horses, including King's saddle.
'Memorial to Bess the horse', URL: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/photo/memorial-bess-horse, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage).
'Bess the horse Great War Story', URL: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/media/video/bess-horse-great-war-story, (Ministry for Culture and Heritage), updated 20-Apr-2015