insideKENT Magazine Issue 30 - September 2014 | Page 98

DAYSOUT

The real story of War and the Horse
brought to life at Dover Castle
One hundred years ago, the First World War was already a month old. Soldiers and
horses were already on foreign shores ready to fight for King and Country. Now the
poignant story of the horse’s role in the First World War, made popular by the adaption
for stage and screen of Michael Morpugo’s War Horse, will be brought to life in a new
event at Dover Castle this September Saturday 20th and Sunday 21st.
The Great War marks a turning
point in the supremacy of the
cavalry on the field of battle and
this transformation will be vividly
charted in a series of arena displays
featuring cavalry horses and their
riders.
The show opens and it’s early
autumn 1914. Confidence abounds
as the cavalry, bold and proud in
their dress uniform, perform a skillat-arms show to display their
prowess on horseback and
discipline as a fighting force.
Later in the day, as the war
progresses, the mood of optimism
gives way to dogged resilience and
the cavalry adopts the sombre khaki
colours, now so resonant of this
‘war to end all wars’.
War and the Horse will take visitors
on an engaging journey back to
1914, shedding light on some
fascinating but less well charted
aspects of the war.
Dr Kate Vigurs will bring to life the
extraordinary story of the First Aid
Nursing Yeomanry in a live first-

person interpretation about this
group of gallant society gals who
were trained to rescue the wounded
on horseback, shedding light
on what they really did during the
Great War.

maelstrom of ‘the Front’. In the
stalemate of trench warfare, letters
to and from home were a vital
ingredient in maintaining morale. But
with the men off fighting and its
workload growing day-to-day, how
would the Post Office cope?
‘Letters Home’ tells the extraordinary
story of what happened - ‘men to the
trenches, women to the benches.’
Women played a vital role in keeping
the post moving and an amazing
wooden sorting office – the largest
wooden structure in Europe – was
built in Regent’s Park to make sure
that letters, bearing good news and
bad, got to their destination.
Using original, unpublished letters
and eyewitness accounts, ‘Letters
Home’ commemorates a day-to-day
story of ordinary heroism.

A stunning and meticulously crafted
replica bi-plane will take centre
stage and the story of the war in
the air will be told with the help of
falconry displays.
Kids can have a go at making early
twentieth century toys in the
toyshop. A recruiting station, as
well as musical favourites from the
time will evoke th