‘Galloper’ General Jack Seely
The noble steed in question, known as ‘Warrior’, was owned by John Edward Bernard Seely, 1st Baron Mottistone, also known as ‘Galloper’ Jack. Born in 1868, as a child Jack spent many holidays on the Isle of Wight where his family owned property including Mottistone Manor.
Enjoying many adventures as a young man, he sailed to the Antipodes, and also volunteered as a member of the local Brook lifeboat crew where he helped to save the crew of a French ship wrecked off the coast of the Isle of Wight in 1891. For his bravery he was awarded the “Medaille d’Honneur” by the French government.
Elected as an MP for the Island, he was friends with Winston Churchill but after the outbreak of the First World War in 1914, Jack was sent to the western front. Here he was involved in some of the defining moments of the First World War and led one of the last cavalry charges in history at the Battle of Moreuil Wood, on his war horse Warrior in March 1918.