12th Regiment of the Royal Veterinary Army Corps.

Left-to-right:

Sgt. Albert “Albie” Baines 

Lt. Audrey Sinclair

Cpt. Sigmund Fletcher

Pte. Samardh Sandhur

Pte. Lance Esfandiari (bottom-right)

‘The Soldiers of our Queen’—the name stuck after Sigmund’s parents managed to get a hold of a record of Gilbert and Sullivan’s opera, Patience. They shipped it to their son, who was knee-deep in Belgium’s trenches and injured horses at the time. His company would be subject to it for the next three weeks.

And when there was no victrola available, their Captain’s whistling and singing would carry down trenches, through devastated town squares and across desolate fields as they ferried horses back and forth across France and Belgium.

Part of The Sharpshooter & The Vet series.