Blog

Forty Thousand Horsemen

21 December 2006 by Robyn Van-Dyk. 1 Comment
Exhibitions,Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, Chauvel, The Light Horse

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

Chauvel on the taking of Damascus

28 November 2006 by Robyn Van-Dyk. No comments
Exhibitions,Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, Chauvel, Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, The Light Horse

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

Captioning contest

21 November 2006 by Mal Booth. 4 Comments
Exhibitions,Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, The Light Horse

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

The Taking of Damascus

14 November 2006 by Mal Booth. 2 Comments
Exhibitions,Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, Chauvel, Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, Our exhibition, The Light Horse

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

A digger’s road to Damascus

24 October 2006 by Mal Booth. 1 Comment
Exhibitions,Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, The Light Horse

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.

read on

Records of the death of Maygar VC

11 October 2006 by Mal Booth. 1 Comment
Exhibitions,Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse, The Light Horse

Leslie Cecil Maygar VC took over command of the 8th Light Horse Regiment at Gallipoli some weeks

after the disastrous charge at the Nek. He led the regiment through the fighting in Sinai in 1916 and at Gaza in the spring of 1917.

On 31 October 1917, for the battle of Beersheba, the 8th Light Horse was placed in reserve. Towards the end of the afternoon, around the time of the 4th Light Horse Brigade’s famous charge, the 8th was ordered back to Chauvel’s Desert Mounted Corps Headquarters where, according to an unpublished history of the regiment held in the Memorial’s Research Centre, it arrived around 5.30pm.

Just then 2 enemy aeroplanes swooped down and as there were very many troops and transport vehicles concentrated there a good target presented itself to them and of which they took full toll. At a very low altitude they bombed and machine gunned men and horses, causing a large number of casualties to our side. Lieutenant Colonel Maygar was seriously wounded by a bomb bursting almost under him, and his horse, also wounded, bolted into the darkness and confusion and we never saw the Colonel again. After much searching his horse was found covered in blood and news was obtained that the Colonel had been got safely to hospital.

read on