We Remember
Waler Data Base @ Facebook. Image: Parade up Collins St. Australasian, 23rd January 1915
Just a real privilege to have access to archival photos and wonderful to have photos and information sent to us from private family collections to help us all remember the people and horses from WW1. We Remember.
Fabulous family photos sent in by Erin Cook, thank you! Her grandfather was with the 4th Light Horse, horse-drawn ambulance and at times with the camel ambulance in WW1. What cracker horses too and looks as if the ambulance has extra wide wheels for getting through sand.
“My Grandfather – 4th LH Field Ambulance Egypt”. Erin Cook Collection
Driver M B Sloan. He also had camel litters in the Camel Corp. He did the charge of Beersheba and was taken prisoner of war 1.5.18 (Es Salt raid).
He wrote on the back of this photo “No command is mine, I am a number in the line”.
Wow. A good brave man indeed, and aware if any command mistakes are made, he must nonetheless follow them. Thankfully we had, mostly, excellent commanders in that war. Bet he saved a lot of lives, and to manage camels and horses says a lot for his skills.
Erin adds he was a conscientious objector, hence driving an ambulance. His brother was also in the war and captured at the same time in 1918. Thankfully they both made it home safely, and her grandfather volunteered for the rest of his life with St John’s Ambulance. What a good man.
As we know, enemy aircraft bombed several of our ambulances at Beersheba, despite the clear cross painted them, and at times elsewhere (one of my great uncles was killed with his horse drawn ambulance in France, he was a conscientious objector, but felt obliged to go to the war too; his family who fought in that war made it home). So glad Driver Sloan got through.
Some photos now of the 11th Light Horse for Toni-Fae, her uncle George was in the 11th. Her Dad was in the 8th LH – there was friendly rivalry after the war, about which regiment won it!
They didn’t meet up during the war, due to being posted in different countries. The brothers were orphaned at age 11 (George) and 7 (Tony-Fae’s Dad); so as young men it was a brave act to join up when the war came along.
Images: Sinai Deset, Palestine. 1916. Men of the 11th Light Horse regiment use a cable burying plough pulled by a team of horses to lay cable. Sinai, Egypt 1916. AWM; Postcard depicting 11th Light Horse Regiment watering in the Sea of Galilee, North of Tiberius. The photographs and photo album relate to Lieutenant G.L.M. Macdonald, 11th Light Horse Regiment, he was also known as Corrie Macdonald. State Library Qld
9th December 1918. Zgharta, Lebanon. AWM
Warwick Troop: A Squadron, 11th Light Horse Regiment, 1914-1918. In front: Capt. M. V. Williams; Lieut. E. B. Miller.
Left to right: Sgt. McIntosh; Tpr. T. Jones; Cpl. Carey; Cpl. Thorn; L.-Cpl. Riemers; Tpr. Brown; Tpr. Bamberry; Sgt. Cook; McLaren; Tpr. Wilkinson; Tpr. Clegg; Cpl. Haines; Tpr. L. S. Miller; Tpr. Meneely; Tpr. Hammond; Tpr. Thorpe; Tpr. E. Baguley; Tpr. Braithwaite; Tpr. Cullen. (Description supplied with photograph.). State Library Qld
Informal portrait of Lieutenant E. Costello, 11th Light Horse, astride a horse at Moore Park.
On 25 September 1918, Major Costello DSO, a squadron commander, led his men to victory in a hand to hand battle with the Turks and Germans at a railway station in Semakh.
Moore Park, Sydney. 1914.
AWM
Some photos of the 8th Light Horse for Toni-Fae, whose father was in the regiment.
Portrait of 3226 Private (Pte) James Stanley Hanson, 8th Light Horse Regiment, mounted on a horse at camp, prior to embarkation for service in the Middle East. A clerk of North Melbourne, Vic, prior to enlistment, Pte Hanson embarked with the 26th Reinforcements from Melbourne aboard RMS Morea on 20 February 1917. He transferred to the 1st Signal Squadron, Australian Mounted Division in May 1917 and returned to Australia on 28 January 1919. C. 1917, Seymour, Vic. AWM
AWM Images: Etmaler, Sinai. c. 1916. The horse lines of A Squadron, 8th Australian Light Horse Regiment, at a site near Romani; Transport of the 8th Australian Light Horse Regiment on parade. January, 1919, Tripoli, Lebanon
Egypt. Informal portrait of Captain (Capt) Eric Stanley Kater MC, 1st Light Horse Regiment, with his horse Toddy. He enlisted on 16 September 1914, served in Egypt and then returned to Australia on 16 February 1918. He was awarded the Military Cross (MC) for service at Tel el Khuweilfeh on 3 November 1917, “for conspicuous courage and devotion to duty on the 3rd November, 1917, at Khuweilfeh, in that he by his coolness, discretion and example held onto a forward position with his Squadron, although surrounded on three sides by machine and rifle fire, and inflicted considerable casualties on the enemy”. AWM
Here are some photos of W.A.S. Dunlop of the 4th Light Horse. Bill passed away in 1966. He took a lovely lot of photos while at the war, link to his albums in comments. Some may find their relatives in these photos, although few are named., a wonderful collection.
W.A.S. Dunlop, Bill Coleman and Stan Hindhaugh of the 4th Light Horse Regiment at Mena Camp near Cairo, Egypt, approximately 1915.
National Library Aust
W.A.S. Dunlop photo collection
William Archibald Shuldham Dunlop (Bill), by surname, is not to be confused with Ernest Edward Dunlop (1907 – 1993) known as Weary, of WW2 fame. Not sure if they’re related. Weary was given his nickname in the 1930’s at medical school in Melbourne – there were signs about for Dunlop Tyres, the pneumatic tyre being invented by a Mr Dunlop; so he was called Tyres (tires, get it), hence, Weary.
Anyway Bill Dunlop, born 1892 in Ireland, went to Duntroon, the Royal Military College, in 1911. He enlisted for WW1 14th August 1914 – the day he graduated from Duntroon – and was appointed a Lieutenant with the 4th Light Horse Regiment Machine Gun Section. Off to the war. From Egypt to Gallipoli.
After coming off Gallipoli Bill was promoted to Captain and sent to the staff of the 2nd Anzac Mounted Regiment in France. Promoted to Major in November 1917, then attached to the 9th Brigade Headquarters as assistant Brigade Major. Saw a lot of action with the 9th Brigade including defending Villers-Bretonneux in April 1918. September 1918 he was sent back to Egypt. attached tot he 11th Light Horse
He returned safely home 1st August 1919. During the war Bill married in London in 1917, to a sweetheart he’d met while at Duntroon, Mary Cunningham of Tuggeranong, she was in England with the Voluntary Aid Detachment. They made a swift visit to Ireland in 1917 to see some of his family while he was on R&R.
Images: Machine Gun section of 4th Light Horse, 1915; Soldiers from the 4th Light Horse Regiment on horseback in a line, Egypt, approximately 1915
Images: Horse belonging to the Australian Light Horse Regiment, Egypt, approximately 1915; W.A.S. Dunlop and three other soldiers from the 4th Light Horse Brigade at Giza, Egypt, approximately 1915
National Library of Australia.
Major Arnold Brown’s horse named Tim, Photo from the Army Museum of W. A.
Officers often had a GP type of saddle rather than the standard military issue, and the 28th was an infantry battalion. In late 1917 the Major was severely wounded. He returned to the front as soon as he was able, in early 1918.
Major Brown was with the 28th Battalion which saw service on Gallipoli, and the Western Front including the Somme, Pozieres, Poelcappelle and Bullecourt.
Major Brown D.S.O. returned from WW1 to Perth in May 1919 on the S.S. Warwickshire. Can’t find what happened to his horse, hopefully sent to England as a hunter. Obviously much loved, to have his photo taken and his name written on it.
In 1920 Brown returned to NSW which was his birthplace, and farmed at Coonabarabran, then joined up again and served in WW2 1939-45. After that he farmed near Windsor for a time, then was in charge of an Immigration Holding Centre. He passed away in 1960, in his 66th year, at Bateman’s Bay, leaving wife Freda, two daughters and one son, another son had been killed in WW2.
Image: Captain Frank McLEAN (left) and Captain Arnold BROWN MC (right) 28th Battalion, Collections WA from the Army Museum W.A.
We have a few Remembrance posts on our website, check out this one for example, and search on key terms to find others.
