Shortly before his death at the Battle of Ypres in June 1917 the young Lieutenant Leonard Comer Wall made one very special request.

The 20-year-old’s wish was that, should he was killed in action, his campaign medals and decorations be buried with his faithful horse Blackie.

That moving final request was fulfilled when Blackie died years later and was buried, in Halewood, Liverpool, at the site of a horse sanctuary where he was seeing out his final days.

Now Blackie’s grave is to become the centerpiece of a new housing development, following a public campaign to save it for posterity.

The grave had been threatened with demolition after the closure of an RSPCA animal centre built on the site of the horse sanctuary.

Historic England intervened to give Blackie’s grave a Grade II listing, making it the only resting place of a First World War horse to be protected in this way.

In order to prevent any future threat to the grave Knowsley Council has now released plans for it to become the focal point of a proposed new housing development.