The Lost War Horses of Cairo

by Grant Hayter-Menzies

  Reynard, John. Friends of God: Islamic Images of Piety, Commitment, and Servanthood. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2006.

  Richard, Susan. Chosen by a Horse: How a Broken Horse Fixed a Broken Heart. New York: Harcourt, 2006.

  Rodenbeck, Max. Cairo: The City Victorious. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999.

  Saunders, Marshall. Beautiful Joe. Edited by Keridiana Chez. Peterborough ON: Broadview Press, 2015.

  Searight, Sarah. Oasis: 60 Years of the Brooke Hospital for Animals. Wiltshire, UK: Westernprint, 1993.

  Soueif, Ahdaf. Cairo. London: Bloomsbury, 2012.

  Spooner, Glenda. For Love of Horses: Diaries of Dorothy Brooke. London: Brooke Hospital for Animals, 2014.

  Steele, Zelma. Angel in Top Hat. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1942.

  Summerhays, R. S. Encyclopaedia for Horsemen. London: Frederick Warne, 1959.

  Taylor Smith, Kathleen. Speaking of Palm Trees: Letters from Egypt, 1946–1947. Norwich, UK: Greenridges Press, 2007.

  Tooley, Sarah A. The Life of Florence Nightingale. London: Cassell, 1904.

  van Emden, Richard. Tommy’s Ark: Soldiers and Their Animals in the Great War. London: Bloomsbury, 2010.

  von Tunzelmann, Alex. Indian Summer: The Secret History of the End of an Empire. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart, 2007.

  Wallach, Brett. Understanding the Cultural Landscape. New York: Guilford Press, 2005.

  Woodward, David R. Hell in the Holy Land: World War I in the Middle East. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 2006.

  Index

  Abbas Pasha I, ref1

  Abd-Elhay, Mohammed, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4

  Abdul Moneim Rushdi Effendi, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Abu Simbel, ref1

  Abu Tamim Ma’ad al-Mu’izz Li-Dinallah, ref1

  Afghanistan, ref1

  Ahmad, Shawqi, ref1

  Ahmed (butler to Dorothy Brooke), ref1, ref2, ref3

  Alexander, Florence, ref1

  Alexander, George, ref1

  Alexandra, Queen, ref1

  Alia bint Al Hussein, Princess, ref1

  Ali Pasha Sherif, ref1

  Allenby, Edmund, ref1, ref2, ref3

  al-Moezz. See Abu Tamim Ma’ad al-Mu’izz Li-Dinallah

  Al-Sisi, Abdel Fattah, ref1

  American Humane Education Society, ref1

  Anthony, Lawrence, ref1

  Arab Spring, ref1

  Armistice, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5

  Ashorne Hill, ref1

  Aswan High Dam, ref1

  Babson, Henry, ref1

  Baghdad Zoo, ref1

  Baines, Honor, ref1

  Baring, Evelyn (Lord Cromer), ref1, ref2

  Barrow, George de Symons, ref1, ref2

  Battle of Gaza, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Battle of Jerusalem, ref1, ref2

  Battle of Romani, ref1, ref2

  Beaton, Cecil, ref1

  Beersheba, ref1, ref2

  Bekoff, Marc, ref1

  Bell, Joseph, ref1

  Bentham, Jeremy, ref1

  Black Beauty (Sewell), ref1

  Bonser, H. P., ref1, ref2, ref3

  Bosche (dog), ref1, ref2, ref3

  Bouazizi, Mohamed, ref1

  Bowyer, Mo, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Boyd, Alexander Keown, ref1

  Boyer, Joseph McLeod, ref1

  Branch, Alfred E., ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8; as Arabian horse expert, ref9; arrival of, in Egypt, ref10; as director of Cairo Zoo, ref11; Dorothy Brooke’s pseudonym for, ref12; education of, ref13; and epidemic (1928), ref14; friends of, in Egyptian royal family, ref15, ref16; marriage of, to Ada Loomis Hill, ref17; and rescue of ex–war horses, ref18, ref19, ref20, ref21, ref22; turning against Dorothy Brooke by, ref23, ref24, ref25, ref26

  Branch, Newton Kemal, ref1

  British Cavalry Brigade, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Brooke (Action for Working Horses and Donkeys), ref1, ref2

  Brooke, Dorothy (née Gibson-Craig): appeal letters of, to the Morning Post, ref1, ref2; appearance of, ref3; as author, ref4; background of, ref5, ref6; children of, ref7, ref8; death of, ref9; and formation of buying committee, ref10; as founding member of International League for the Protection of Horses (World Horse Welfare), ref11; and horse Jordan, ref12, ref13, and horse Jorrocks, ref14, ref15, and horse Old Bill, ref16; and horse Ransome, ref17, ref18, ref19; and horse Valiant, ref20, ref21; marriage and divorce of, ref22; and Old War Horse Memorial Hospital, ref23, ref24, ref25; parents of, ref26; and Pyramid horses, ref27, ref28; siblings of, ref29, ref30; visit of, to Cairo SPCA, ref31

  Brooke, Geoffrey Francis Heremon, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9; appearance of, ref10; as author, ref11, ref12; background of, ref13; death of, ref14; and horse Alice, ref15, and horse Combined Training, ref16; as officer in Sixteenth Royal Lancers, ref17, ref18; service of, in Great War, ref19

  Brooke, Peter, ref1

  Brooke Alexandria, ref1, ref2

  Brooke Aswan, ref1, ref2

  Brooke Edfu, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Brooke Hospital for Animals (Cairo), ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8; descriptions of, ref9, ref10; founding of, ref11; sequestration of, ref12

  Brooke Luxor, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Brooke USA, ref1

  Bryant, Mrs. George, ref1, ref2

  Burnett-Stuart, John, ref1

  Burrill, Mr. (Brooke Hospital treasurer), ref1, ref2

  Butler, Patrick, ref1

  Cab Drivers’ Union (Cairo), ref1, ref2

  Cairo, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5

  Cairo Manure Company, ref1

  Cairo SPCA, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11; Dorothy Brooke’s first visit to, ref12; and Dorothy Brooke’s plan to save ex–war horses, ref13; establishment of buying committee at, ref14; founding of, ref15; and Murad Raghib, ref16; rescue of Old Bill at, ref17; in World War I, ref18

  “Cairo Vets,” ref1

  Cairo War Memorial Cemetery, ref1

  Cairo Zoo, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Calcutta, ref1, ref2

  camels, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9

  Camel Xiangzi (Lao She), ref1

  Camilla, Duchess, ref1

  Campbell, Ronald, ref1

  Carr-Ellis, Mary, ref1

  Chauvel, Harry, ref1

  Chewie (donkey), ref1

  Christie, Agatha: Death on the Nile, ref1

  Churchill, Winston, ref1

  Clarke, Francis E., ref1

  Clarke, Travers, ref1

  Cole, Ada, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Cromer, Lord. See Baring, Evelyn (Lord Cromer)

  Cupid (horse): in Beirut, ref1; birth of, ref2; in Cairo, ref3; death of, ref4; at Deir al Belah, ref5; at El Arish, ref6; at El Shatt, ref7; entry of, into war, ref8; at Gaza, ref9; in Haifa, ref10; at Helmieh (Egypt), ref11; hoof of, ref12; at Romani, ref13

  Daily Telegraph. See Morning Post

  Daisy, Princess, ref1

  Damascus, ref1

  Dauntless (horse), ref1, ref2

  Death on the Nile (Christie), ref1

  Dennis, Meade Edward, ref1, ref2

  Derflinger. See ss Huntsgreen

  Donkey Sanctuary, ref1, ref2

  Durham, J. A., ref1

  Eden, Anthony, ref1

  Edward VII, King, ref1, ref2

  Egypt: social problems of, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4; as sovereign state, ref5; under foreign rule, ref6

  Egypt Equine Aid, ref1, ref2

  Egypt Horse Project, ref1

  Egyptian Expeditionary Force, ref1

  Egyptian Revolution (1952), ref1

  Egyptian Society for Mercy to Animals (ESMA), ref1, ref2, ref3

  Egyptian Society of Animal Friends (ESAF), ref1, ref2

  El Gilban, ref1

  El Nahas, Mostapha, ref1, ref2

  Ethiopia, ref1

  Eugénie, Empress, ref1

  Fahmy, Salah Wahib, ref1

  Farouk, King, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4,
ref5

  Ferdinand, Franz, ref1

  Flashlight (horse), ref1, ref2

  Flaubert, Gustave, ref1

  Foda, Sherif, ref1

  Fouad Abaza Pasha, ref1

  Fouad I, King, ref1

  George V, King, ref1, ref2, ref3

  George VI, King, ref1

  gharry horses, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9

  Ghazi, Dr. (vet at Cairo SPCA), ref1

  Gibson, George, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12

  Gibson-Craig, William, ref1

  Gillies, Harold, ref1

  Goodall, Jane, ref1

  Great Depression, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Great War. See World War I

  Grey Button (horse), ref1

  Guatemala, ref1

  Gulf War, ref1

  Hanstead Park, ref1

  Hastie, Louise, ref1

  Heliopolis, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7

  Heveningham, Roland, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7

  Hill, Ada Loomis, ref1

  Hodgkins, John, ref1, ref2

  Hogue, Oliver, ref1

  Hore-Belisha, Leslie, ref1

  Hornby, Paul, ref1

  horse slaughter, ref1

  Hull, Richard, ref1

  Hussein, King, ref1

  Hussein, Saddam, ref1, ref2

  ibn Killis, Yaqub, ref1

  Illustrated London News, ref1

  Imperial Camel Corps, ref1

  India, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9

  International League for the Protection of Horses. See World Horse Welfare

  Iraq War (2003), ref1

  Isma’il (khedive), ref1

  Jerusalem, ref1, ref2

  Jordan, ref1

  Kabul, ref1

  Kantara, ref1

  Kemal El Dine Hussein, ref1

  Kenya, ref1

  Khalil, Mona, ref1, ref2

  Kitchener, Herbert, ref1

  Kitty (horse), ref1, ref2

  Kress von Kressenstein, Friedrich, ref1

  Kuwait, ref1

  Kuwait Zoo, ref1

  Lao She: Camel Xiangzi, ref1

  Laurie, Ranald, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7

  Laurie, Vernon, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6

  Lawrence, T. E., ref1

  Loraine, Percy, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Lordy (goose), ref1, ref2

  Lush, Sarah Searight, ref1, ref2

  Mahmoud, Ammr, ref1

  Main, Arthur, ref1

  Marseilles, ref1, ref2

  Mary, Queen, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Masefield, John, ref1

  Massie, Christopher, ref1

  McCullock, Farrier Sergeant, ref1

  Meade-King, E., ref1

  Mena Camp (Cairo), ref1

  Mitzi (mule), ref1

  Mohammed Ali (khedive), ref1

  Mohammed Ali Tewfik, ref1, ref2

  Mohammed Aziz, ref1

  Mokattam Hills, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4

  Moore, A. Briscoe, ref1

  Moreuil Wood, ref1, ref2

  Morning Post, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4

  Mubarak, Hosni, ref1, ref2

  Mulebbis (Peta Tikvah), ref1

  Munroe, Graham, ref1, ref2

  Murad, Ahmad, ref1

  Mussolini, Benito, ref1

  Naguib, Mohammed, ref1

  Nasser, Gamel Abdel, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5

  National Bank of Egypt, ref1

  Nepal, ref1

  Nesbit, Lynne, ref1, ref2

  Nicaragua, ref1

  Nightingale, Florence, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4

  Nile River, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4

  Nimrod (horse), ref1, ref2

  Nowzad, ref1

  Ogilvie, William Henry, ref1

  Old Bill (horse), ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6

  Old War Horse Fund, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7; Alexandria branch of, ref8; Alfred Branch’s defection from, ref9; British support of, ref10; eviction of, from Royal Agricultural Society, ref11; ex–war horses returned to England by, ref12; founding of (1931), ref13; move of, ref14; threatened closure of, by Egyptian government, ref15

  Olympia International Horse Show, ref1, ref2

  Omar Toussoun, Prince, ref1

  Order of the Blue Cross, ref1

  Ottoman Empire, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Our Dumb Friends League (Blue Cross), ref1, ref2, ref3

  Pakistan, ref1

  Palmyra, ref1

  Petra, ref1

  Polly (horse), ref1, ref2, ref3

  Port Said, ref1, ref2

  Pyramids of Giza, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4

  Quicksilver (horse), ref1, ref2

  Raghib, Murad, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Ragtime (horse), ref1

  Ramses Station (Cairo), ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4

  Rawalpindi, ref1

  Reed, Karen, ref1

  Riccarton House, ref1

  Roberts, Douglas, ref1

  Rommel, Erwin, ref1

  Rosie (horse), ref1

  Royal Agricultural Society (Cairo), ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5

  Royal Army Pay Corps, ref1

  Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (London), ref1

  Royal Veterinary College of London, ref1

  RSPCA (Cairo), ref1

  RSPCA (Leamington), ref1, ref2, ref3

  RSPCA (London), ref1, ref2

  Sadat, Anwar, ref1

  Salza, Vera von, ref1

  Sami, Hassan, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Sayyida Zeinab (Zaynab bint’Ali), ref1

  Sayyida Zeinab district (Cairo), ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7

  Searight, Ann, ref1

  Searight, James Gerald Lamb, ref1

  Searight, Pamela (“Pinkie”), ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5

  Searight, Philip, ref1, ref2

  Searight, Richard, ref1, ref2, ref3

  Searight, Rodney, ref1, ref2

  Senegal, ref1

  Serhal, Asad, ref1

  Sewell, Anna: Black Beauty, ref1

  Shepheard’s Hotel (Cairo), ref1, ref2

  Sidhom, Petra Maria, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4

  Sidqi, Isma’il, ref1

  Simon the Tanner, ref1

  Sinai and Palestine Campaign, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5

  Six-Day War, ref1

  Smith, Douglas, ref1

  Society for the Protection of Nature (Lebanon), ref1

  Solly-Flood, A., ref1

  Soueif, Ahdad, ref1

  Speaking of Palm Trees (Taylor Smith), ref1

  Speed, E. J. L., ref1

  Spencer, C. R., ref1

  Spinks, Charlton Watson, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4

  Spooner, Glenda, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4

  Spooner, Hugh “Tony,” ref1

  Spooner, Winifred, ref1

  ss Huntsgreen, ref1

  Stevenson, Marjorie, ref1, ref2

  Stevenson, Ralph, ref1, ref2

  Suez Canal, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8

  Suzette (horse), ref1

  Sykes-Picot Agreement (1916), ref1

  Taffy (horse), ref1

  Taylor Smith, Kathleen, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5; Speaking of Palm Trees, ref6

  Tel Aviv, ref1

  Transjordanian Frontier Force, ref1, ref2

  Ukraine, ref1

  Veterinary College of Edinburgh, ref1

  Wavell, Archibald, ref1

  World Horse Welfare, ref1, ref2

  World Organisation for Animal Health, ref1

  World War I, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6, ref7, ref8, ref9, ref10, ref11, ref12, ref13, ref14; animal service in, ref15, ref16; and Cairo War Memorial Cemetery, ref17; cavalry in, ref18; commemoration of equine service in, ref19; eastern theatre of, ref20; end of, ref21; equines abandoned at end of, ref22, ref23, ref24, ref25, ref26; Imperial Camel Corps service in, ref27; outbreak of, ref28; shunning of maimed survivors of, ref29 />
  World War II, ref1, ref2, ref3, ref4, ref5, ref6

  Yeomanry Mounted Division, ref1

  Yule, Gladys, ref1, ref2

  Yule, Henrietta, ref1, ref2

  zabaleen (“garbage people”), ref1

  Zulfikar, Dina, ref1

  Picture section

  1. Portrait of Dorothy Brooke by Olive Antrobus. Searight Collection.

  2. Riccarton House in Edinburgh, home of Dorothy’s Gibson-Craig ancestors. From a 1904 postcard. Courtesy of Ben Jackman.

  3. Dorothy Searight with infant son Rodney, pre-1914. Searight Collection.

  4. Geoffrey Francis Heremon Brooke, Dorothy’s second husband, with canine companion. Searight Collection.

  5. Geoffrey Brooke and Combined Training. Searight Collection.

  6. Dorothy Brooke on board a ship, likely going to or from Egypt. Searight Collection.

  7. Felucca on the Nile River. Behind this exotic beauty lay human and animal misery. Myron Bement Smith Collection. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.

  8. A view to the cliffs at the Mokattam Hills. It was near here that Dorothy saw the lonely skeleton of an English horse and conceived her letter to the Morning Post. Myron Bement Smith Collection. Freer Gallery of Art and Arthur M. Sackler Gallery Archives. Smithsonian Institution, Washington DC.

  9. Dr. Alfred Branch, wearing his habitual fez, sitting at Dorothy’s left at the buying table in happier days. It is easy to see that amour propre was of great importance to him. Richard Searight Collection.

  10. Two elderly patients at the Brooke Hospital, Cairo, showing the friendship so often bred in adversity. It is believed this is a photograph of the two horses Dorothy accidentally separated and later reunited. Searight Collection.

  11. A pair of working horses that look to have been brought to the Brooke Hospital too late. It was images like this one that Dorothy assiduously kept from the public eye. Unfortunately these sights are still a daily reality for animal welfare charities. Searight Collection.

  12. That a horse would have been allowed to suffer, let alone work, with this kind of injury is unthinkable to today’s world. But this (and worse) is what Dorothy Brooke faced every week at her hospital, and it is faced by her vets’ successors even today. Richard Searight Collection.

  13. Ransomed, a watercolor of a rescued war horse feeding on the floor of the Brooke Hospital stable in Cairo by Pamela Searight, daughter of Dorothy Brooke. Searight Collection.