Notebook dated January 1916 containing nominal rolls, list of officer's chargers and veterinary notes

This page of Captain Siegfried Sassoon's notebook deals with the frontline care of horses and addresses issues like cracked heels, mud fever and probles caused by ill-fitting saddles.

Sassoon is best remembered now as a soldier-poet who protested against war. To his men he was known as 'Mad Jack' for his recklessly brave exploits on the Western Front during World War One (1914-1918). He was awarded the Military Cross (MC) for bringing back a wounded Lance-Corporal under heavy fire, and was recommended for the Victoria Cross (VC) for capturing a German trench single-handed. In some ways, at the beginning of the War, Sassoon was a typical officer - a young gentleman, keen on sports and dabbling with poetry, he volunteered for service before war was even declared. But his experiences and the death of a close friend changed his mind. His brave exploits became suicidal. While recovering from a wound, he threw his MC into the Mersey, and wrote a very public letter to 'The Times' condemning the fact that the War was 'being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it'. He was sent to a hospital for shell-shock sufferers, but guilty about leaving his men, Sassoon eventually returned to the front. He was wounded again in 1918, but survived the War.

From a collection of papers belonging to Captain Siegfried Sassoon, World War One, Western Front (1914-1918).