The David Lean film Lawrence of Arabia is one of the more famous examples of art contributing to the Lawrence legend. Lesser known is the Australian feature film Forty Thousand Horsemen which can also be considered as significant for its role in legend making, however, for the Australian Light Horse.

Released in 1940, the film’s nationalistic sentiment and dramatisation of Australian success in battle touched a strong chord with a new generation at war. The story follows three larrikin Light Horsemen and their role in the desert campaigns. The three leads, played by Grant Taylor, Chips Rafferty and Pat Toohill, are introduced to us playing two-up in a market place and indulging in tom foolery, including taking a wild donkey ride through town and into a cabaret club. The celebrated climax of the story plays out the famous charge at Beersheba. The film broke national box office records and also had considerable success on the international market.

The film’s director, Charles Chauvel was the nephew of Sir Harry Chauvel, initially commander of the Australian and New Zealand Mounted Division and later the Desert Mounted Corps, the first Australian to command a corps in the war. From the early phases of the film’s production, Charles Chauvel was able to build upon the support of veterans, the light horse and even the Australian War Memorial. Chauvel used real Light Horsemen for one of the first shot scenes. A Light Horse regiment, gathered in Sydney for the New South Wales sesquicentenary celebrations, was permitted to take part in the filming for one day, playing out the charge at Beersheba. This was an ambitious undertaking that succeeded through some good fortune: with Light Horsemen, cast and crew all waiting for the rain to cease and the sun to come out so as to start the shoot. read on

Well, our little exhibition team did all go to watch Lawrence of Arabia in period costume as planned. There will soon be some very embarassing photos and perhaps some film footage displayed on this blog, so keep an eye out for them.

I thought that I’d give you my perspective of the film as the curator of our exhibition. (My apologies, for this is a long post and there are no images!) For me, looking again at this film after spending so much time immersed in everything Lawrence, was an eye-opener in many ways and I recognised and understood more clearly some aspects of the film that probably led to the many accolades it received in 1963. I read recently in Malcolm Brown’s Lawrence of Arabia, the life the legend that he believed the film was ‘in numerous respects more Hollywood than history’. On the whole I don’t really think that is the case, but I suppose it depends on your perspective. Sure enough, there are many factual, chronological and even geographical errors in the film and those can easily be found in a number of critiques elsewhere on the web. Most criticisms are summarised in Wikipedia and Lawrence’s authorised biographer Jeremy Wilson also details them here. I am not debating those observations.

I believe, however, that the film is a masterpiece of film making and, for those who are not interested in reading any of the many books written about Lawrence during the First World War, it does leave you with all the essential parts of the story. A rather enigmatic young English officer with some knowledge of the Middle East is sent by his superiors to assist the Arab Army and becomes a close adviser to Emir Feisal during the Arab Revolt against the Ottoman Empire. I am sure that the story told by the film has inspired many people to read more about Lawrence and it probably also inspired further biographies about him. Why?

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Before the recent Canberra screening of Lawrence of Arabia, we advised that there would be a competition and that we’d give out details first to the audience for the screenings in Canberra at Electric Shadows cinema. So, as promised, here are the details of the competition.

Review the film in 500 words or less by sending in your review as a comment on this blog and we will publish the best entry on the blog. That’s all.

Mal

As part of the Evolution Film Festival, Canberra’s Electric Shadows cinema will be screening David Lean’s Lawrence of Arabia on 2 and 7 December 2006. This 1962 film is largely responsible for Lawrence’s enduring image with many people today.

We will be going to the Saturday evening screening (the show starts at 7.30 pm but get there early) to hand out some flyers about our exhibition in late 2007 and we will be inviting those attending to enter another competition that concerns the film itself. We won’t tell you here what the competition is until after we’ve released the flyers, so you’ll have to come to the cinema to find out! Yes, it is located in Akuna St, Canberra and that is in Australia.

You will be able to recognise the curatorial team as we will be appearing in period dress, including ‘Emir Nigel of Arabia’, ‘A Nurse called Robyn’, ‘Mal not really of Arabia’, ‘Brad the Light Horseman’ and ‘Save Our Souls Susie’ (who is actually the project manager for this exhibition).

Andrew Pike from Ronin Cinemas has asked me to give a brief introduction to the film and I’ll try to keep this under five minutes.

We all hope to see you there, even if you do have to purchase an air ticket!

Mal

The papers of General Sir Henry George Chauvel are one of the highlights of the Memorial’s written collections.  This collection contains numerous correspondence exchanged between “Harry” Chauvel and his family and also includes two spectacular, large leather bound, gold embossed, scrap books created by Lady Chauvel after the war. The volumes document Chauvel’s military engagements during the war and offer an insight into his actions and thoughts. They contain a selection of his letters, hand transcribed by his wife, as well as photographs, maps, field message notes and news cuttings. The first volume includes a water colour scene of Palestine signed by Will Longstaff and was bound using fine calf from the Chauvel family’s own animals. The second volume was bound by the Memorial in matching style following its donation.

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A colleague here recently unearthed this photo from our collection. The caption in our catalogue doesn’t really give too much away about it other than that it was taken somewhere in Palestine, probably in 1918 and by the famous photographer Frank Hurley.

So, we’ve decided to run a caption contest. We will publish the best and spend some time thinking up a suitable prize for the winner. The distinguished judging panel will be Nigel (who can spell), Robyn (who is a film-buff) and me (because it might prove amusing). Our decision will be final and no correspondence will be entered into (unless accompanied by substantial bribes). Entries will close on 15 December 2006 and we’ll then announce the winner.

Mal

We’ve now adjusted all of the images we have used in the blog so that they will open up to either a catalogue entry from our collection or as a higher resolution image in another window to allow you to see more detail. In earlier posts, you can now see a lot more detail in the images we posted from our copy of Seven pillars of wisdom and the Handbook of the Turkish Army. As an example, click on the image in this post of our copy of Seven pillars of wisdom.

Mal

The blog has recently received a number of comments that reveal the entry into Damascus in October 1918 still inspires strong feelings.

The question of who was the first to enter the city has been disputed ever since. The evidence now points to the men of Brigadier General L C Wilson’s 3rd Light Horse Brigade as being the first troops to enter Damascus in the early hours of 1 October. It has always been the intention of both the exhibition and the blog to draw attention to this fact as part of a wider historical story. Indeed, to illustrate this we plan to feature some of Brigadier Wilson’s material, as well as some of General Sir Harry Chauvel’s, along with original documents from the unit war diaries.

On 14 September 2006 we posted an article in this blog about the rare and lavishly produced 1926 subscribers’ edition of Lawrence’s Seven pillars of wisdom that the Memorial holds in its collection and that will also be featured in the exhibition. After the Memorial had purchased its 1926 edition Chauvel, who was a member of the Memorial’s then Board of Trustees, drew attention to some of the inaccuracies contained in the book. He wrote to the Memorial’s Director on 1 January 1936 that he ‘agreed to the purchase of this book as a very remarkable publication in connection with the late War likely to increase in value, not as an accurate record of events’. In a very detailed 13 page letter, Chauvel went on to outline his main concerns with Lawrence’s account. read on

With the assistance of our colleagues at the National Archives of Australia, readers of this blog can go straight to selected service records using hyperlinks we’ve provided in the text of our posts. These digitised records allow you to read much more about the background, service experience and fate of some members of the Australian Imperial Force.

For example, in an earlier post about our exhibition we mentioned Sgt Charles Reginald Yells (aka ‘Lewis’ in Seven pillars of wisdom). If you view his service record, you will be able to see on page 17 of that record, a reference to his work with Lawrence in an attack on an enemy railway line for which he was awarded the DCM.
Mal Booth

On 19 September 1918 General Sir Edmund Allenby launched his final offensive in Palestine. The attack was a great success and the cavalry swept over the hills towards Megiddo, the ancient Armageddon. Turkish general headquarters was overrun on 20 September and thousands of prisoners were taken. Urban Stanley Billing was a trooper in 8th Australian Light Horse Regiment. A fortnight after the end of the war he wrote a long letter to his wife describing his experiences in the battle. At first the Australian Light Horse had been in reserve, but had swung into action on 20 September. The following morning the 8th Light Horse took around 8,000 Turkish prisoners back to Megiddo (Lejjun), as Billing told his wife.

They were a ragtime lot and … all were thirsty. Several would have died if I had not given them a drop of water and got them on their feet again. When we got to the well we had a fearful job to hold them. They were just like a mob of thirsty sheep and we had to keep riding round them and beating them back with the flat of our swords. It took 5 or 6 hours to water them and the wells were almost dry and the water muddy and stinking; but they drank it like champagne.

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