Soldier, jockey and one of the first British deaths in the Great War

Soldier, jockey and one of the first British deaths in the Great War

Arthur Hughes-Onslow was born in 1862. He joined the 10th Hussars at Lucknow, India and stayed in the regiment for 20 years. Along the way, he acquired the nickname of 'Junks', although he had no idea why it was given to him. It soon became the name by which he was known by family, friends, the racing public and fellow soldiers alike. Everyone who served in the Cavalry had to be competent in the saddle, but Hughes-Onslow seemed to have exceptional skills at a horseman. He was a longstanding member of his regiment's polo team and a renowned steeplechaser. At Sandown Park in 1888 he rode the winner, Bertha, in the Grand Military Gold Cup, the most prestigious race for gentlemen jockeys and an event he was to win on two further occasions. In 1914, and in spite of being retired from the Army for over a decade, Arthur Hughes-Onslow knew where his duty lay. 'Immediately upon the outbreak of war,' reported the Grantham Journal, he 'placed his services at the disposal of the War Office and was appointed as Remount Officer based at Southampton.' As a Remount Officer, his role was to find and prepare horses and mules for the war. The term used was 'impressment', but effectively this meant seizing the animals – a form of press gang for horses. For a man who had already been through two brutal campaigns and who knew what lay ahead for the animals he was taking, it must have been hard to bear. He was given command of Advanced Remount Depot Number 1, in Le Havre. On 8 August 1914, 4 days after war was declared, Junks made his will. 9 days later, with the British Expeditionary Force gathering on the Continent, Arthur Hughes-Onslow left England for the last time, on a troopship bound for France. On 17 August 1914, on board the SS City of Edinburgh, he shot himself. His death - one of the first fatalities among the British Expeditionary Force in the Great War - was widely reported, but the circumstances were not made public. Nor were they revealed to his family. The Government's Press Bureau announced the news alongside two victims of a car accident. Obituaries talked of his 'collapse', of his 'falling ill', but not of his suicide. He was buried in Sainte Marie Cemetery, Le Havre. (Grave reference: Div. 64. VI. B. 1.)

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  • Born 1862

    Died 1914

    British Army Major Hussars