Carterton District Historical Society
Discover, understand, respect, value and share in our community’s yesterdays.
Bess the Wairarapa War Horse
Bess was one of 10,000 New Zealand horses who served in World War I. Sadly, she was one of only four to return home to New Zealand pastures at the end of the war.
Bess began life as Zelma, owned by Fred Deller, an accountant in Carterton, who purchased her as a two year old. When Fred enlisted in the Canterbury Mounted Rifles he offered Zelma for the war effort.
Captain Guy Powles of the same regiment was impressed by Zelma and described her as, “an ideal charger, a sound hunter, and could see at night like a cat.” He selected her as his mount and renamed her Bess.
Deller family lore suggests that it was when Fred Deller was sent with the Mounted Rifles reinforcements to Sinai that Powles recognised his name. He appointed him as Bess’s groom and the three served together throughout the war in Sinai, Palestine and France.
Bess faced many trials during active service with Powles. Typically, New Zealand horses were used for reconnaissance in the desert war arena and also during battle charges. Unlike many other countries, New Zealand mounted rifle troops were also trained to dismount and fight as infantry in the heat of battle and at this point holders led the horses away from the front line to shelter. Despite this Bess did receive a shrapnel wound to her hindquarters on the Western Front in 1918. She recovered and was part of the victory parade in Berlin, Germany. In the desert she had also survived the harsh climate, the scream and thud of artillery, shortages of food and water, plus the endless biting flies.
Many horses died in these conditions from wounds, disease and exhaustion. Tragically, those that did survive were not able to return to New Zealand due to strict quarantine laws and lack of transport. Most were sold locally and left in Egypt, acquired by the British Army, or shot, often by their distraught riders who saw it as a preferable end to being maltreated by new local owners.
Bess survived and returned to New Zealand with only three other horses; Beauty, Dolly and Nigger. All four were the mounts of officers. In March 1919 they were repatriated from France to England where they spent 12 months in quarantine. In July 1920 they finally arrived back in New Zealand, the only four to return from the original 10,000.
After the war Guy Powles returned to New Zealand and became principal of Flock House Agricultural College near Bulls. He kept Bess and she was turned to pasture on a nearby farm. Powles rode Bess daily until, at the age of 24, she collapsed and died during one of these rides. Powles buried her in the paddock where she fell.
As a tribute to his faithful companion, Powles erected a cairn on a hill overlooking Bess’s resting place. This is now the site of an annual ANZAC service in commemoration of war horses, believed to be the only such service in the world.
In 2020 Bess was posthumously awarded the Blue Cross Medal for bravery.
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Bess the Wairarapa War Horse
Sources:
Brocker Susan, Brave Bess and the ANZAC Horses. A true story of courage and loyalty, Harper Collins, Auckland, 2014.
Brocker Susan, McGrath Raymond, Bess the Brave War Horse, Scholastic New Zealand Limited, Auckland, 2019.
Gill Maria, Ivancic Marco, ANZAC Animals, Scholastic New Zealand Limited, Auckland, 2018.