As Told By the Boys Who Fed Me Apples

R. Johns

• Publisher: Currency Press
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781760621223
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Drama
• Index: Literature

Sandy was the only Australian War Horse to return home from World War I. This is his poignant and fragmented war story. Through Sandy we experience the lives of three men who fought in the war.%##CHAR13##%%##CHAR13##%Major General Sir William Throsby Bridges is mortally wounded at Gallipoli, and Sandy is his charger. A veterinary officer is caught with Sandy behind the lines on the Western Front in a gas shell barrage. A 'permanently unfit' soldier becomes a groom and brings Sandy home. Each is affected by their symbiotic relationship with the horse.%##CHAR13##%%##CHAR13##%This unique, poetic piece of theatre captures the brutality of war and the heroism of the soldiers and horses who served.%##CHAR13##%%##CHAR13##%Sandy is the horse full of wattle who drank the waters of the Murray in bucketloads, and who danced with bogong moths.%##CHAR13##%%##CHAR13##%He is our connection to all those left behind.

PLAYWRIGHT’S NOTE

This project marries two opposing theatrical forms—mime and dramatic monologue.

The script explores the symbiotic relationship between horse and soldier. It is based on the true story of three men who cared for the war horse Sandy, the only horse to return from World War I out of the 136,000 that had originally left these shores.

Major General Sir William Throsby Bridges was the only Australian soldier killed in action whose body was repatriated from that war in 1915 (until the unknown soldier in 1993), yet more than 60,000 enlisted men were killed.

It is said the Major General’s dying wish was that his charger Sandy be returned home. However apocryphal the tale, it illustrates the strong bond between man and horse.

In this play Sandy’s story is explored through three sets of eyes: Major General Bridges, mortally wounded at Gallipoli; a veterinarian on the Western Front; and the groom who brings Sandy home from Calais. Each soldier is strangely affected by their relationship with the horse amidst the brutality of the war.

I was inspired to write this play because the story of Sandy found me. I went to the Australian premiere of War Horse (National Theatre of Great Britain / Global Creature, 2012), and a stranger accosted me in the foyer. She was very upset and told me how her grandfather’s beloved horse had been sold to the Indian army after World War I and that many of the other Australian war horses were either sold, shot (the soldiers couldn’t bear to leave them behind to be cruelly mistreated), or butchered for meat to feed the starving population in Europe. The possibility of disease and the expense of shipping were deciding factors in the horses’ fate.

I noted in the War Horse program that only one Australian horse, Sandy, made it home to Australia. I sat there wondering, as the lights went down, where that horse went.

In 2013, Marcia Ferguson, Artistic Director of Big West Festival, sought writers who were interested in writing plays for the Anzac Centenary, centered on Footscray and World War I.

As I was researching, I was amazed to discover Sandy spent his last days at the Maribyrnong Remount Depot outside Footscray, and that there was a community group called ‘Friends of Sandy and the Australian Light Horse’ (FOSALH). This group has two Order of Australia recipients and some ninety-year-old members. Member Alan Ross sadly passed away within a few weeks of our meeting. Alan’s father fought at the Battle of Beersheba with the 4th Light Horse Brigade.

FOSALH has fought long and passionately to have the historical remount depot land behind the Maribyrnong Community Centre recognised and preserved as a permanent memorial to the thousands of horses who went to war. It is also Sandy’s burial place.

With the blessing of FOSALH, this work allows an audience to imagine the story of Sandy and the forgotten men who served with him.

The production of War Horse, which began this journey, was epic in scale. Our Australian War Horse, the one who stands as the symbol of all the horses left behind, is an intimate piece. A horse created not by puppetry, but by an actor, powerfully and affectingly. The remarkable cast and creatives have created a very special storytelling in this Anzac Centenary, to remember the heroic lives of all those who served.

R. Johns
Melbourne, 2015

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