Item details: A silver-plated pony’s hoof measuring. The silver top is engraved with “COAL BOX”, the name of the pony, with the dates “1914-1920” underneath.

About the Item

This is one of the four hooves of ‘Coal Box’, a German pony befriended by bandsmen of the 2nd Battalion, The King’s Royal Rifle Corps (2 KRRC), during the First World War. After Coal Box’s death, the hoof was plated and kept as a memento, and later donated to the Museum.

About Coal Box

Coal Box was originally a German pony who strayed into the lines of the 2nd Battalion at La Clyte, near Mount Kemmel in Belgium, in 1914. Rather than being sent away, he was adopted and soon became a familiar and much-loved presence within the unit. For the rest of the war, Coal-Box was cared for by Lance Corporal Geary of the band (later Bandmaster in the Border Regiment) who ensured the little pony was always well looked after, even amid the hardships of the front.

He was a regular feature on parade, always marching with the Band and Buglers, and accompanied the Battalion throughout its service in France and Belgium. Major Robinson, the Quartermaster, had a special box built for him in the back of a lorry so that he could still travel with the men on long marches. He was reportedly a favourite of the Quartermaster:

“…we approached his temporary office, made up of bully beef and biscuit cases, ammunition-boxes and sundry tarpaulins, with the whole regimental litter strewn all round, carts, mules and horses, amongst these “Coal Box,” our Battalion mascot, a diminutive pony the battalion had captured from the Boche in the early days of the War, and a particular pet of the Quartermaster’s …”

—Rifleman G. Eyre, Somme Harvest

By the time Coal Box returned to Portsmouth after the Armistice, he was aging and nearly blind in one eye. Unfortunately, his health continued to decline and in 1921, after years of faithful service and companionship, Coal-Box was sadly put down.