Camel, Abbassia, full marching order

A white camel, wearing a bridle and saddle kneels facing the left of the image. It carries various articles of equipment on its back including a white fodder bag and a blue blanket. A sandhill in the background dips down to expose a hazy blue sky on the right. Camels had been used by the British Life Guards as early as 1881 and since that time there had been a school at Abbassia for teaching British soldiers how to ride and handle camels. This school was revived in 1916 and four companies of Australians were trained as camel troops. Later the Imperial Camel Corps was formed and the exceptional endurance of the camels was of great assistance in the Sinai Campaign (Gullett pp. 211-12). However there was never the warm bond between camel and rider that existed between the trooper and his horse.