Consequently, in 1887 the Remount Department was set up in order to ensure the uniformity and suitability of the animals purchased for the army, and their training.

[3] Initially, there were three remount depots, the Remount Establishment at Woolwich (which provided horses for the Royal Artillery, Royal Engineers and Army Service Corps) and two in Dublin (for the cavalry),[4] with a total Army establishment of 12,500 horses and mules.

The Boer War showed these arrangements to have been entirely inadequate (326,000 horses and 51,000 mules were lost, mainly through disease[5]), so the animal establishment was increased to 25,000 and two additional depots were authorized, at Melton Mowbray, and Arborfield.

In 1911, a further depot, the privately owned Pilckard's Farm in Chiddingfold near Godalming, was given to the War Office by its owners for a period of 21 years.

At Swaythling, for example, on 1 April 1919 (several months after the end of the war), 3,530 horses and mules were stabled and cared for by 757 men.

[14] The first three of these depots were used for horses and mules arriving from overseas, whilst Swaythling was a collection centre for animals being shipped abroad.

Such remount officers included the well known artists Alfred Munnings, Cecil Aldin, G. Denholm Armour and Lionel Edwards, and Scots-Australian poet Will H. Ogilvie.