Colonel Laurie and Snowball

New Zealand Listener, Volume 4, Issue 83, 24 January 1941, Page 5

Colonel Laurie and Snowball

|F you have been one of the crowd packed along the kerb in the Mall, or some other part of London, when one of those grand spectacles, a Royal processidn, was passing through the town, you may remember seeing an elderly man in an ornate uniform with a cocked hat, riding up and down before the

King came Dy, having a 100K t@ see that everything was ready; that every policeman was in his place, that the crowd were not pressing forward beyond the space allotted to them. He rode quietly: up and down, his quick eye taking in every detail. You probably thought he was a stray admiral who had deserted his ship for a horse: his uniform wae

a esis much more like a naval officer’s than a policeman’s. But Colonel Laurie was head of the police department which had control of these occasions. His title, Colonel, suggests that he had at one time been an army officer. He. had. The only time you heard or read of him was when there was some spectacle to be arranged in which the police played an important part. If Colonel Laurie was a well-known figure, Snowball, his magnificent old white horse, was even better known, for it was a magnificent old horse. Like his master, he had seen active service. I don’t know what regiment Colonel Laurie belonged to, but Snowball had served with him through several campaigns, before being assigned the -peace time honour of preparing the way for the King. Now at the age of thirty years Snowball has been retired and pensioned. He will probably end his days in one of those pleasant pastures which are reserved for old horses that have served their country in some form or another.-("Shoes and Ships and Sealing-Wax," Nelle Scanlan, 2Y A, January 3.)