When the Australian Historical Mission left Gallipoli on 10 March 1919 they sailed up to Constantinople (Istanbul) before embarking on a 1500 mile rail journey that would take them across Turkey, Syria, Palestine and Egypt and into Cairo where they dispersed. The rail link through the Taurus Mountains had only been recently opened and was being used to transport Tukish and Allied troops back and forth across Asia Minor.

For their overland journey the party was assigned two long enclosed horse or cattle trucks in the train. One truck was converted to a mess room and kitchen where Lambert with the help of Sergeant G Hunter Rogers cooked the meals and slept. During the trip Lambert and Rogers frequently served up three course meals and Lambert regaled the group with impersonations of British officers and stories of his time in the Sinai with the Light Horse.

Charles Bean in Gallipoli Mission described the journey as one of “extraordinary interest and, in parts, through scenery both grand and beautiful, in country with a history going back much farther than St Paul; where Assyrians, Lydians, Greeks, Romans, Egyptians, Arabs, Turks, Crusaders – and in these modern times Napoleon and ourselves – had marched and fought.” Along the way they passed trains crowded with Turkish troops who were demobilising.

Lambert described the rail journey (through the Taurus Mountains) as taking them through “what I think is the most spectacular country in all that part of the world that I have travelled in.” Fortunately, we have one image from this part of the trip that indicates how Lambert responded to the landscape. At one point the train made a brief halt high up in the mountains. Lambert was able to make a quick sketch of the landscape on the back of one of his Gallipoli paintings. The painting (right) was only roughly sketched in but clearly outlines the form of the place and the distant peak of the Taurus Mountains covered in snow.

As the train wound down from the mountains it passed through Adana and then Aleppo where Lambert was able to make another quick study (left). Changing trains the group passed through Jerusalem and then onto Cairo where they dispersed in early April. Throughout most of April and May Lambert was confined to a Cairo hospital with dysentery and malaria. On 31 May he was discharged from hospital and travelled to Semakh where he resumed his work as a war artist.

Janda

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

Lambert was interested in the small details of the landscape just as much as the grand vistas. By painting studies of the local flowers and bushes he was able to understand more thoroughly the character, form and colours of a particular site. When he arrived on Gallipoli he made notes about the local plants: “The scrub is greenish with nice dead stuff showing grey purple here & there. I propose getting a record of the various plants & flowers.” 

 

Lambert picked these flowers from the site of a Turkish artillery battery called ‘Beachy Bill’ that had regularly shelled Anzac Cove. On 27 February 1919 he wrote that “we discovered quite a wild garden to-day and I am fixed for a flower-piece if it rains.” The following day it did rain and it was cold and bleak with intermittent showers. With the flowers to hand, Lambert was able to spend the whole day and the next painting this still life. On 1 March he commented: “Again the rain and therefore the account of the day is easy. The flower-piece is finished … The flowers are in a biscuit tin on top of a bed for a tentpole.” He was pleased with the result but felt that he should be painting up at the Nek where the tragic charge of the 3rd Light Horse had taken place in August 1915.

Janda

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.

read on

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

Thomas Wingate’s (1807-69) photograph of the 1st Regiment of the NSW Rifle Volunteers standing in order is among the earliest Australian photographs to document the military activities of colonial citizens. It records an important moment for one of the colony’s first volunteer regiments. On 18 May 1861, the wife of the NSW Governor presented the corps with its regimental and camp colours in the Domain. One week later, the day this photograph was taken, the regiment held a review in the Domain to celebrate the Queen’s birthday; this photograph was taken at the Victoria Barracks, before the regiment’s journey to the Domain. The day marked the public debut of the regiment’s new colours and flag, and was probably the occasion that prompted Wingate, who had recently relinquished his command of the corps, to take a photograph.

Charles Bean had great respect for George Lambert. In his book Gallipoli Mission (1948) Bean described Lambert as ‘picturesque’, a great mimic and storyteller. For Bean, Lambert “with the golden beard, the hat, the cloak, the spurs, the gait, the laugh and the conviviality of a cavalier” was a great Australian. But equally, Bean respected Lambert’s dedication to his work and the way he approached his commissions as an official war artist. In his obituary of Lambert published in The Reveille 1930 Bean said “nothing pleased him more than to receive something approximating to an ‘operation order,’ and to carry it out, and come back at dusk formally to report what he had done.” Asked to deliver a minimum of 25 sketches during his first commission in Palestine in 1918, Lambert produced over 150.

In 1924 Lambert painted a portrait of Charles Bean. It is clear from correspondence between the two men and this sympathetic portrait, that Lambert admired Bean. The two men had discussed the terms of Lambert’s 1918 commission to Palestine over dinner at the Chelsea Arts Club in London and it was Bean who had personally insisted that Lambert be appointed to go on the Gallipoli Mission. Likewise Lambert called Bean ’skipper’, ‘the old Bean’ and said “Bean is very interesting,… but he is not scientific, how can a man be scientific & go through these last few years?”

Janda