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The first waves of troops
On 21 August 1914, a squadron of 120 cavalrymen belonging to the 4th Dragoon Guards were sent forward to reconnoitre the land ahead of the advancing British Expeditionary Force.
The first wave of troops of the BEF had landed on the continent up to a week before, yet no contact had been made with the enemy. However, as British forces advanced deeper into France and then Belgium, unmistakable reports were being received from civilians that large numbers of German troops were advancing through Brussels towards the Belgian town of Mons.
Among the cavalrymen that day was a 16-year-old boy, Benjamin Clouting, the son of a groom working on a large estate in Sussex. Ben had grown up around the stables and had learned to ride from an early age. A boyhood interest in all things military, and a love for horses, brought Ben to the attention of several army officers who visited the big house. One of the officers, Adrian Carton de Wiart, who was later to win the Victoria Cross in the war, encouraged the young boy to enlist and so in August 1913, Ben joined up despite being just 15 years old.
'...he was about to be involved in the first engagement undertaken by British soldiers on continental Europe since the Battle of Waterloo...'
One year later, he was still well underage when the war broke out. Nevertheless, he was a fully trained cavalryman and was allowed to travel to France, although only after adamantly refusing to be left behind in England. Now, three weeks after war had been declared, he found himself riding, on a warm summer evening, in an advance guard towards thousands of enemy soldiers.
Unbeknown to him, he was about to be involved in the first engagement undertaken by British soldiers on continental Europe since the Battle of Waterloo, 99 years earlier. In an interview given shortly before he died in 1990, Ben recalled the first British contact with the enemy and the opening shot - the first of billions fired in the four-year war.
Published: 2002-03-26
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