After much time and deliberation the caption competition has finally come to a close! All captions entered were put to the vote of Research Centre staff. By popular vote the winning caption was awarded to Craig Tibbitts. Craig will be recommended for a significant honour for highlighting the main problem inherent in this method of transport.

B01618 photograph by Frank Hurley 1918

Winning caption:

‘An experimental unit, the 1st Australian Light Donkey Squadron proved an abject failure at Beersheba when the animals stubbornly refused to budge.  Here, Major Cedric Bigglesworth ruefully gazes upon the gallant charge taking place in the distance.’

Recommended for other (less significant) honours and awards:

‘Fine, I’ll just get off my ass and walk!’
‘Donkey to soldier: in case you haven’t worked it out yet, it’s too late to ask the three Wise Men.’
‘Donkey:  You want me to go there and do what?!?!!’
‘Coo-ee march they said. I’ll give them coo-ee!’

Special mention goes to Bob Meade who was our most dedicated entrant. My favourite of Bob’s entries was ‘They didn’t tell me about this at the recruitment depot’. Bob was also Mentioned in Despatches for ‘Where is everybody?’ and ‘The donkey’s refusing to move Frank, so you can take as many photos as you like’. (The last was Mal’s pick of the bunch.)

Most unmentionable: ‘No smart ass comments from me I am afraid (boom boom!).’

Robyn

We are grateful to David Cox, a grand nephew of George Lambert’s who has contributed the following post. David’s grandmother was Sarah (”Sadie”) Anne Cox, nee Lambert, George’s elder sister.     

Although often thought of as a quintessentially Australian artist, in his pre-teen years George Lambert had experienced only the cultures and languages of Russia, Germany and Britain. George Lambert was the youngest child and only boy in a family of four children. His American father (George Washington Lambert) died before George was born in 1873 in St Petersburg, Russia. George’s English grandfather Thomas Firth, who was at the time chief of the Alexandrovsky Railway Workshops in St Petersburg, assumed the role of breadwinner and helped his widowed daughter Annie care for the young Lambert family. In 1876 they moved from Russia to Esslingen, Germany, where Thomas Firth superintended the construction of locomotives and carriages for the Russian railways.

George’s sister “Sadie” talked about their childhood to her daughter Ida Cox who made notes in the 1940s:

“The Germans in those days were the greatest toy makers in the World, and beautiful toys the little Lamberts had in Esslingen.

Mrs. Lambert was a wonderful Mother and companion to her children. She sewed beautiful dolls’ clothes for the girls’ dolls by hand, the neatness and minuteness of the stitching being marvellous to see. She told them stories, just as she did in later years to her grandchildren – most wonderful stories, which it was a delight to hear. She taught them to read and write in English as well as German, though at that time they spoke German naturally, and English was a foreign language to them. She taught them Music and other lessons too.

The family travelled to Munich and to Cologne; at Munich they visited the Art Gallery. George was then a small boy of four or five, and little did his mother dream that one day a picture painted by him would hang in similar galleries all over the world !”

Hence young George spent much of his formative childhood in Germany, living there for the next five years. Then in 1881 the family moved to Yeovil, Somerset, England, where grandfather Thomas Firth’s second wife had relatives. Sadie recalled:

“When first the young Lamberts went to school in England they were laughed at for their foreign accent and for the German words they occasionally substituted for English, but they soon exhibited much brilliance. George won the [Science and Art Department] (South Kensington) Prize for drawing at the age of [thirteen], and it was not long before Sadie was top of her class.

The accompanying photos of George and Sadie were taken at William Mayer’s studio in Esslingen in about 1878, when George was five and Sadie eight years old.

 David Cox

One of the more significant contributions to the legend of the Light Horse comes from the literature of Ion Idriess. A prolific and well loved author, whose books sold in the millions, Idriess is perhaps most famous for his stories set in the outback and Northern Australia. The Desert Column is based on the diaries that he kept throughout the war. Published in 1932, it is one of Idriess’ earliest works. Harry Chauvel noted in the foreword that it was the only book of the campaign that to his knowledge was “viewed entirely from the private soldier’s point of view”.

Idriess served as a sniper with the 5th Australian Light Horse. Enlisting in 1914, he began his diary “as we crowded the decks off Gallipoli” and he continued writing until returning to Australia unfit for further active service in March 1918. He mentions in his introduction to The Desert Column that “I would whip out the little book and note, immediately, anything exciting that was happening. As the years dragged on, my haversack became full of little note books.” The diaries cover his experience of some of the war’s major events from life in the trenches at Gallipoli to the battles at Romani and Beersheba.  read on

When Gajendra Rawat and I (Sophie) surveyed the Lambert artworks on paper for the exhibition we identified a couple of works that required some repairs prior to being displayed.

This drawing Train station, Semakh by George Lambert (left) had areas of loss due to an insect attack (which happened before we purchased the drawing in 1930). Lambert described Semakh as “a railway station of picturesque conglomeration of not more than usually dirty Arab huts, and a few tents and horses of the occupation people on the shore, southern end, of the Sea of Galilee. It is really beautiful here.” ¹ The drawing was made in June 1919 as Lambert toured Palestine after his visit to Gallipoli with the Australian Historical Mission.

We decided to infill these losses with western style papers. Western papers are made from short fibres such as cotton linter or wood pulp. The paper was chosen based on its weight and texture being similar to Lambert’s. It is a medium weight western paper with no papermaking marks (chain or laid lines). As the paper was not the right colour it was toned with high quality watercolour paints. The shape of the loss area was traced to enable the most accurate reproduction of the paper shape required.

The western paper used for the repair was adhered to the drawing with dilute wheat starch paste with a Japanese tissue repair strip on the back for support. Japanese tissue paper is made from long ‘bast’ or plant fibres like Kozo, Mitsumata, or Gampi, which are all light and strong. We are guided by conservation ethics so we only use materials of the highest quality and most stable nature, for example starch paste and Japanese tissue, and the repairs must be completely reversible to allow for removal if it is necessary in the future. Once repaired the drawing was left under weights for a couple of days to make sure it was nice and flat. As you can see in the picture below, the end result was that the loss was disguised yet the modern repairs are still visible to the trained eye.

1. Amy Lambert Thirty Years of an Artist’s Life, Sydney 1938, p. 125.

Sophie Lewincamp, Conservator-Paper

The war diaries for the Light Horse have gone online and I have been madly scanning the pages for references to Lambert’s travels during 1918 and 1919. Lambert was accompanied by experienced Light Horse officers and fortunately there are a couple of references to him in the diaries. Lambert stayed with the 7th Light Horse Regiment for 5 days from 18 to 22 February when they were stationed along the front line at Nalin. Most interesting for me is that the diary for the regiment records Lambert’s arrival and provides an insight into the activities the artist would have witnessed.

The regiment had moved up to Nalin from its rest camp at Wady Hanein on 4 February and relieved the Canterbury Mounted Rifles. On 18 February just before Lambert arrived they were visited by the Brigadier General (Sir Granville de laune Ryrie) commanding the 2nd Australian Light Horse Brigade who arrived by motor car: “They inspected the position and work which had been done here and were well satisfied with the work carried out.” (war diary 18 February 1918) Shortly after, Lambert and three other men from headquarters arrived and over the next few days the artist made sketches of what was going on around him.

The 7th Light Horse’s position was close to the small village of Nalin and, although the local residents were told to stay away, Arabs often wandered through the lines as they tried to go about their regular business. On 20 February Lambert made a drawing of a party of Arabs taken in for questioning. The incident report stated: “They said the Turks had ordered them to go to Nablus, but they decided to come back through the lines.” Two men were taken on to Ramleh for further questioning while the others were allowed to proceed on their donkeys.

Although this was considered the front line the 7th only saw sporadic action; during the day the regiment observed any movement by the Turkish troops and at night patrolled the line. Patrols went out to reconnoitre the ground and locate water supplies and occasionally those in the line shot at passing Turkish planes. The daily routine also included rifle range and target practice. Most of the men were engaged in constructing and improving roads, digging trenches and reinforcing the sangars – fortified positions built from rock that served as observation posts and sniper positions. Material to reinforce the sangars was in short supply so they quarried and blasted stone. Travelling around the site on horseback, Lambert made sketches of the quarrying activities and two oil studies of the troops in the sangars.

Jebel Saba, near Nalin was painted on 21 February – a rainy day according to the unit diary. It shows troops in an observation post. Set amongst boulders and weathered limestone outcrops, Lambert has included the smaller details of the landscape – the cacti, an ancient tree and a spot of red, perhaps indicating a flower – to convey the essence of the landscape the troops inhabited. His other oil sketch Front line sangar, with the 7th Light Horse gives us a close up view of how the sangar was constructed and its prominent position in the landscape. The war diary notes that the walls of the sangars were about 8 feet thick at the bottom tapering to 4 feet at the top and inside there was a trench which was blasted out of the rocks.

On 20 February Colonel John Arnott, commander of the training centre at Moascar, visited the regiment. Lambert made a quick pencil sketch of Arnott meeting with officers in their mess – basically a makeshift table set up in a small cave or tomb. Lambert also made more detailed studies of the commander of the 7th, Lieutenant-Colonel George Macarthur-Onslow and Lieutenant Clive Holland the officer who compiled the diary entries.

On 22 February – another rainy day – George Lambert is noted as leaving the 7th Light Horse at Nalin to report to divisional headquarters at Jerusalem. The 7th Australian Light Horse Regiment was relieved just over a week later on 7 March 1918.

Janda

I’ve just put up Matthew Gibbs’ review of the film Lawrence of Arabia against our call for reviews. You can find it here and it is well worth a read. Matthew is a freelance writer from Sydney with a good knowledge of Lawrence.

While I’m here, did anyone else catch the appearance by Lawrence in the SBS TV show As It Happened about Churchill’s bodyguard on Friday night (23 February 2007)? The bodyguard, Walter H. Thompson, was amazed by Lawrence’s reputation and influence with the Arabs in Palestine in 1921.

Churchill and Lawrence enjoyed a long working relationship after Churchill persuaded Lawrence to work as an adviser in the Colonial Office when he was Colonial Secretary. For our exhibition, we will be bringing out from The (UK) National Archives, some original correspondence between Churchill and Lawrence that illustrates the bond between the two men and Churchill’s respect for Lawrence’s advice regarding Middle East matters over this period in 1921.

Mal

I am sorry that there have been few posts recently. It isn’t because we have all been on holiday. This time of year is simply a very busy period for all of us, with many planning and budget deadlines to meet. As well, we are now finalising details for the last couple of loans needed for the Lawrence exhibition and I’ve been particularly preoccupied by these negotiations. Hopefully, they will lead to an impressive range of historical weapons, art, robes, documents and other memorabilia being displayed in Australia for the first time. Once our list has been finalised and we receive permission from the lenders to use images of these objects in our blog, we will tell you all about them.

The other distraction is that we are furiously engaged in writing text and captions for the exhibition, so we can give an exhibition designer something to work with in about a month’s time. Writing material like this is a bit of a balancing act, really. You need to give background and context for any items you put on display. But you don’t want the information to be too didactic. It needs to be both engaging and enlightening.

We are also putting sponsorship proposals together. Exhibitions involving substantial overseas loans are pretty expensive to put on. So if you’re at all interested . . .

Finally, I am really excited about another new blog that has just gone live on our website. George Lambert – Gallipoli and Palestine Landscapes is a travelling exhibition that will soon open in our Special Exhibition Gallery. The blog has been produced by the exhibition curator, Janda Gooding. Janda is also working with us on Lawrence of Arabia & the Light Horse as the art expert and we will feature some Lambert works in our exhibition. In fact, I was keen to feature a few works that Janda has selected for the Lambert exhibition, but unfortunately they’ll be on tour and not available for Lawrence. I’ll refer to some of those images in our blog later on. Lambert is a great blog and contains many fantastic images, so please have a look at it.

Mal

Lenore Heath who works in the Photographs section at the Memorial has an interesting link to George Lambert. Lenore’s grandparents, Ben and Alice Heath, owned the guesthouse ‘Windamere’ where Lambert died in May 1930.

Ben was born in Slough, England in 1887 and migrated first to New Zealand and then Australia, settling in Sydney. He married Alice Ward in 1915 and shortly after enlisted in the Australian Flying Corps, serving three months in Egypt as a sergeant air mechanic before being invalided back to Australia after being diagnosed with an ‘irritable heart’.

Ben and Alice bought the property in Cobbitty in late 1925. It backed onto the Nepean River and was ideal for a guesthouse. In 1928 they built ‘Windamere’ that boasted facilities including its own electricity plant (bought from a Kings Cross theatre), a nine hole golf course and polo ground, dining, lounge and dance rooms, and a resident pianist. Activities advertised included billiards, tennis, table tennis, shooting, horse riding, swimming, and fishing. Ben and Alice were helped by their four children one of whom was Jeffrey, Lenore’s father.

In May 1930 Lambert stayed at ‘Windamere’. Lambert had contacted his friend Brigadier General George Macleay Macarthur-Onslow to ask about horses he could ride during his rest break. Macarthur-Onslow suggested that the owner of ‘Windamere’, Ben Heath would have some good horses, but Lambert decided to take his own horse ‘Old Iron’. Although Lambert was under medical instructions to have complete rest, this did not stop him from riding ‘Old Iron’.

It was at ‘Windamere’, that Lambert, while repairing a feedbox had a heart attack and died. A newspaper reported the incident: “Yesterday morning he [Lambert] took some light exercise, and, in the early afternoon, he decided to get a piece of timber to mend a feed-box. He walked directly to the wood-heap, and as he was about to split a piece of wood he fell forward unconscious. Help was quickly forthcoming, and Dr. Crookston, who was summoned, made a hurried journey to Windamere, but the famous artist was then beyond aid.”

‘Windamere’ continued operating for some years but business declined and the Heaths sold it. During the Second World War Ben enlisted in the US Army Small Ships Division and served in the South West Pacific for ten months. His son Jeffrey served in 30 Squadron, RAAF in Papua New Guinea and fortunately father and son were able to meet in New Guinea twice during the war.

Today, the 100 acre Windamere property is surrounded by the rapidly growing outer suburbs of Sydney’s south west. 

Lenore Heath and Janda Gooding

The Australian Light Horse unit war diaries from the First World War have been digitally scanned in full colour and can now be read online. This marks the start of a project to digitise all of the archival series AWM4 Australian Imperial Force unit war diaries, 1914-18 War. Follow the link above to read our brief description of this scanning project and then go the series note link on this page (over at the National Archives of Australia) as that will tell you even more about this archival series. More diaries will be progressively added to the website as they are completed.

We will be referring to these diaries in future blog posts as they are a fantastic primary source document.

Mal

This link will take you to the final program for the George Lambert Symposium to be held at the Australian War Memorial 29 June 2007.

George Lambert Symposium program