Service with the Remount Squadron & Royal Army Veterinary Corps

[Carliol]

I have the WW2 service record of a soldier who served with the Remount Squadron & the Royal Army Veterinary Corps in Palestine, Greece, Iraq and France. There is no mention in the record of him being directly engaged in any military action. I would be interested to learn whether soldiers of the Remount Squadron & RAVC solely looked after the horses, etc. or were also actively engaged in combat.

[philipsearching]

There seems to be very little information online on the Army Remount Service in WW2.  Wiki has only two lines: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Army_Remount_Service.  There is much more information about the Service in the Great War (before widespread mechanisation) - the Service probably did a similar job in WW2 but with far less demand for animals.

Piecing together the scarce information on the websites I have found, I think it is fair to say that the Service was a specialist unit, not involved in frontline service.  Its function was to obtain, train, care for, and supply, animals for transport use - particularly pack mules and horses.  Although the soldiers would have been armed in case they ran into trouble it was not expected that they would need to use weapons.

Philip

[Carliol]

Many thanks Philip. There are several entries on his record of him being hospitalised, but no reasons are given, apart from fractured metatarsals and synovitis. No mention is made of wounding. This supports your conclusion that he was not a frontline soldier. He was awarded the 1939-1945 Star, France & Germany Star, Defence Medal, The War Medal 1939-1945 and Africa Star. Your assistance is much appreciated.