We were very fortunate that Martin Jones was able to step in at short notice when our scheduled speaker was unable to present to the society in September. In a follow-up to an earlier talk, Martin continued telling us about the army remount depot established near Ormskirk in 1914. In March last year we heard how Martin had become interested in this fascinating piece of history on his doorstep and tonight, he described how Lathom House firmly established its place in military history.
He explained the history of the Stanley family of Lathom and described the magnificent castle they built in 1496. The castle was destroyed and replaced by a beautiful house with its own deer park in 1740 and later, in 1880, the first Earl of Lathom was created. We then skip forward to 1910 when the 2nd Earl died young, leaving all his property and land to his son who became the 3rd Earl, but being a minor, a trust fund was established for him, one of the trustees being Lord Derby.
At the outbreak of war the British army only had 19,000 horses it was realised that substantially more animals would be needed. A notice went out to requisition horses from farmers and hauliers and within just 12 days, 165,000 horses were available. If a horse owner objected to his animal being taken, he could challenge the decision but this process could take several weeks and in the meantime, the horse was taken and underwent training before being sent abroad. In 1914, the 3rd Earl along with Lord Derby in his capacity as trustee of the Lathom Park Estate, offered the use of the estate to the War Department. This was established as a remount depot which was where animals could be trained to replace war horses which had died or become too tired to work.
The remount depot at Lathom clearly needed many workers, including men to build the facilities, and later to train the horses and to grow additional produce to feed everyone. Horses were brought from all over the world, with the first 1,600 arriving from Canada in October 1914 on eight trains from Liverpool docks. These horses were wild and took many weeks to train sufficiently for army work. A local circus owner not only donated huge tents to provide shelter for the animals in winter, but he also offered the services of his Mexican trick riders to help train the horses! A railway branch line was built from Skelmersdale station into the Lathom estate to help deliver the horses and by the end of 1918, a total of 330,000 horses had passed through the depot.
At the end of the war, 5,000 remaining animals were sold off and all the buildings auctioned. Although the estate is still there, only one building remains from this time. It was initially built as a theatre so the 3rd Earl could promote his plays and invite well known people, which included Noel Coward and Ivor Novello, to visit the Lathom Club and perform musical evenings for invited guests. Then in 1932, it was used by the local Women’s Institute and later in 2000, the Ormskirk Scouts took it over. It was refurbished and extended in 2017.
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