A Real War Horse: The Extraordinary Life of Nobby Clarke

(Originally Published in Wiltshire Society, September 2014)

“We found him almost buried, with his left arm blown off at the shoulder. We got him out but to no avail. He was only a youngster too, not long out of England and his last word was just ‘mother’. It was moments like this that brought home the ghastliness and horror of war.”  Charles Frederick “Nobby” Clarke

You wouldn’t knock someone for laying back and having an easy life after witnessing the terrifying brutality that Nobby Clarke saw during the bloodshed of the First World War. Twice wounded, continuously shelled, and once thrown thirty feet by the power of an explosion –Mr Clarke felt the full force of The Great War.

Yet this awfulness didn’t deter Mr. Clarke from making further hard-fought advances in the Wiltshire community. As if defending his country wasn’t enough, Nobby went on to make significant contributions to the local riding community and the provisions to help disabled children learn to ride horses.

The full extent of his contribution has only recently come to light with the discovery of a 50 page first-hand account of his time on the Western Front. Not even his family knew about the documents existence. Like many ex-servicemen who had returned from the front, Nobby refused to discuss the war with his family.

“He didn’t once mention the war, not even a wink”, his daughter Kathy Mary ‘Mick’ Clarke says. “It was quite moving to have discovered it and found out all these things about him. He had two dimples on his face, which people always thought of being quite attractive. It was only later that I discovered that they’d been caused by a shell during the war.”

Nobby saw more than his fair share of the war’s nightmares: The Battle of the Somme, the bloody slaughter of Passchendel, and the terrifying experience of gas exposure. To have survived all of these events is a minor-miracle, and Mr. Clarke didn’t come through the war without a number of brushes with death. One event, which left him with his characteristic dimples, occurred after he and some colleagues decided to take a short cut back to their base:

“I remember a terrific flash and a bang and being flung through the air and oblivion. I came to my sense five days later in a hospital down the line, with a wound in the left lower jaw. Afterwards I heard that a shell had burst practically under us, killing the other fellow and his horse and my horse as well.”

Another stupefying escape occurred during the muddy dogfight at Passchendel.  Nobby, in the centre of a huge bombardment, was lucky to leave with his life:

“Just as we got to a bend in the track a shell fell right in front of us. There was a whistle and a flash and I remembered nothing until I came round with someone forcing some rum down my throat. That shell had blown me right from the track on a S.2 battery about 30 yards away. Of the mules and the fellows who were with them we never found a trace.”

The news of her father’s heroics came as a surprise to Mick Clarke. “He categorically wouldn’t kill anything”, she says, “He was a lovely man who always gave everyone a good turn.” Although he didn’t speak about his time at the front, the experience clearly influenced his later life and his attitudes.

“He was an incredibly popular man”, Mick Says, “He was a superb man whom I loved to bits. He had a tremendous influence on me, my niece, and countless other people.”

Charles Frederick Clarke grew up in a small village on the outskirts of Oxford at a time when ‘the horse was king and the motor car only a dream’. Like many other Clarkes, he gained the nickname ‘Nobby’ during his time in the armed forces. He worked as a nagsman before the war and continued to work with horses on the western front.

Following the wild success of Michael Morpurgo’s book War Horse, and the subsequent film and theatrical adaptations, the role of horses during the First World War has risen in the public consciousness. Of the 1 million horses sent to the front from Britain, only 60,000 returned.

“Horses were used because they were still the best and most available technology at the time”, Dr. Gene Tempest of Boston University says. “In 1914, they were dominant in rural work across Great Britain, and at the front they are the military 'motor' of preference. It is a myth that horses were anachronistic, technologically speaking, during the war.”

In actual fact their contribution can’t be understated. “Horses were vital in artillery”, Dr. Tempest says. “Almost every single gun was moved into place by teams of horses. Horses were responsible for the transport of mass tonnages and they were used as beasts of burden for the supply of ammunition, food, forage and mail. Daily life in the trenches and all along the front was made possible by horses and mules.” Servicemen like Nobby allowed this system to operate. 

Many of the men who worked with horses during the war built an incredibly strong attachment to the animals. “The emotional history of the war really must include animals”, Dr. Tempest says,” and this is something that you see as incredibly important to all types of soldiers.”

Nobby’s sustained love of horses was evident in his founding of Grovely Riding School in Wilton, which is still in operation today. He also established the regional Riding for the Disabled group, with which his granddaughter is still heavily involved. This group grew out of Nobby’s work at Heale House Recovery Centre during World War Two.

“He wholeheartedly dedicated himself to helping people during World War II”, Mick says, “and from this work the Riding for Disabled people group grew”. Nobby was adamant that the therapeutic benefits of riding could help wounded soldiers and disabled people gain confidence and self-esteem.

A committed love of animals was also something that illuminated his life. “Throughout all his jobs” , Mick says, “he retained that inner feel for any animal-birds, ferrets, rabbits, dogs-and his healing hands were always ready to cope with any neighbourhood casualty.”

Nobby died shortly after his 82^nd Birthday. Many of the people whose lives he had transformed came to pay tribute to him at his funeral. Before he died his final words were: “the party is nearly over, my dear-but what a party it has been!”

At a time when the world is mourning the many servicemen who died during the Great War, it is edifying to read about the men who lived through the war and used their experiences to positively change the society that welcomed them back.

If Nobby Clarke had fallen during the war, Wiltshire would have been a lesser place.