IN REMEMBERING the 100th anniversary of the outbreak of the Great War this week, much has been written and spoken of the devastation caused by the conflict.

But today Looking Back is taking a closer look at a touching story to emerge from the First World War with a happy ending to boot.

It’s a real life tale to rival the fictional War Horse and centres on the bond between a Dorset colonel and his faithful animal servant from the frontline.

Kenhelm Digby, of Minterne Magna, near Dorchester, became a colonel in the Coldstream Guards.

On his arrival in France he acquired a horse called Kitty.

On Wednesday, January 27, 1915 he wrote home saying: “Now that I command a company I am entitled to a charger I have got quite a nice German one.

“I am jolly pleased to have a charger to ride about on, it makes it much easier for me.

“With all my love. Your loving son, Kennie.”

Kenhelm served throughout the war, and attained the rank of Colonel. He was later the 11th Lord Digby of Minterne Magna, Lord Lieutenant of Dorset and chairman of Dorset County Council.

Kenhelm was injured twice in the course of hostilities, but Kitty never missed a day’s service.

At the end of the war, Kenhelm bought her at auction, and she lived a long and peaceful life at Minterne.

In the mid 1930s, a fundraising campaign was launched by the Royal Veterinary College, Camden, to raise money to maintain the Hobday building, named after Sir Frederick Hobday, who was in command of the veterinary hospital at Abbeville, France in the early part of the Great War.

Kitty was one of 24 old war horses who took part in the campaign, appearing at Olympia in her special saddle cloth and collecting for the World’s Largest Nose-bag, as the campaign became known.

Then, as now, these horses stirred sympathy, and the campaign raised the equivalent of £16million.

Before the First World War, horses in Dorset were part of everyday life in a way that is hard for us to imagine just 100 years later.

Goods were transferred to shops and homes by horsedrawn carts or wagons. Many people rode, whether their own horse or a borrowed mount, and agricultural work relied on the strength of mighty plough horses.

From beer to butter, if it was not delivered by a horse, it probably did not arrive.

At the start of the First World War, the British Army owned just 25,000 horses and 80 motor vehicles, so mobilisation of horses for transport and warfare was one of the top priorities in the first days of the conflict.

The folk of Dorset, an agricultural county, had an enormous pill to swallow when their horses were commandeered.

There must have been a lot of patriotism and trust to lead farmers and gentry alike to hand over their mounts.

In all, 165,000 horses were impressed from throughout the British Isles, and the history centre has a number of telegrams and orders evidencing Dorset’s contribution to this number.

However, it is estimated that overall eight million horses died in the course of the war, mainly from disease, starvation and gas attacks. Most of these horses came from throughout the empire, and from allies such as North America.

Finding fodder at the Western Front was a constant problem.

The daily ration for a horse was 20lbs of grain a day – nearly 25 per cent of what a horse in Britain would be normally fed. The first hay nets were made of hemp in Bridport as part of the rope-making industry, but hungry horses ate these and a new design was produced in cotton.

For more information on Dorset horses’ role in the First World War, see dorsetforyou.com/dorsethistory centre or visit the Dorset History Centre in Dorchester.