by Honor Auchinleck
A Reflection with Reference to Chauvel’s Letters and Written from Photographs, Diaries and Travels
Allan Chauvel, General Sir Harry Chauvel’s brother took a photograph of a cairn of stones built by Light Horsemen in memory of the officers who fell over three days 6th, 7th and 8th November 1917. The only symbol is the crucifix built into the cairn; there are no names (see right).
On Nov 6th 1917 General Sir Harry Chauvel, Allan Chauvel’s older brother wrote to his wife Sibyl: ‘As we are moving on tonight, I am just scribbling you a line. We had another very strenuous day today, but a very successful one.’ Perhaps Sir Harry didn’t want to distress his wife by mentioning casualties. On the other hand his position as Commander of the Desert Mounted Corps was very different from that of his younger brother who was a major at the Remount Depot. It is understandable that the two brothers experienced their service in different ways and left different records. Sir Harry leaves no written record in letters to his wife of 7th and 8th November 1917. Perhaps Sir Harry had to leave this act of commemoration others. Possibly at the time he knew nothing about it.
Four years later in February 1922 Sir Harry explains events in early November 1917: ‘After Beersheba was taken, we had a great deal of trouble about water. Abraham’s seven wells did not pan out as they were expected to! & we had to send the Australian Mounted Division back to Karm for water. Also the difficulties of watering the transport of the 20th Corps caused delay in the continuance of the plan of operations, &, in the meantime Von Kressenstein diverted all his available reserves to a counter-attack on my troops north of Beersheba (I had been given the responsibility of defence from the north, to enable the 20th Corps to continue the attack westward). In the first instance this counter-attack was held by the Anzac Mounted Division, & the 7th Mounted Brigade, to which was attached the 8th Light Horse Regiment, but the enemy in this quarter was ever increasing & there was no water for our horses, so I got up first of all the Camel Brigade, & then was lent the 53rd Division to relieve the cavalry. There was some heavy fighting between 2nd & 6th November at Tel-el-Khuweilfeh, where the 53rd Division, the I.C.C & the New Zealanders, who had sent their horses back to Beersheba, suffered heavily, but succeeded not only in holding off the Turkish counter-attacks, but in eventually driving the enemy back off the only water available in that area at al Ain Kohleh.
On 6th November, Chetwode was able to carry on his part of the operations, & Bulfin, who had commenced his attack on the night of the 1st, was making good progress against Gaza, so on the night of the 6th, we, the Desert Mounted Corps, leaving the Yeomanry Mounted Division, the Camel Brigade & the New Zealanders, with the 53rd Division (all under Barrow) to continue to hold the Turks to the North, moved from Beersheba to Karm to take up our second role: i.e. To cut off the enemy on his retreat from Gaza.’
I have no record as to the exact location and whether the memorial built by Light Horsemen and photographed by Allan Chauvel survives. It was a simple memorial built by those who had shared an experience – the custom in the Middle East is to build a little cairn in memory of someone, the name of whom is only ever known to a few, leaving names and memories to fade with the lives of the survivors. Now the photograph alone speaks for the memorial, the Light Horse officers and the actions that it represented. Nothing can express the sense of loss than a cairn built so soon after battle.
A simple memorial to the Light Horse at Tabulam on the Upper Clarence River in Northern New South Wales where the Chauvel boys grew up also has a certain resonance and individuality of its own. Parish Priest Father Casey of Mallanganee created the memorial and the piece of local artwork. Commemorating the raising of the Upper Clarence Light Horse Troop by Major Charles Chauvel in 1885 and unveiled by Sir Harry Chauvel’s daughter Elyne Mitchell in 1985, this memorial commemorates some of the first efforts towards establishing a defence force in New South Wales. Where some memorials commemorate more official associations with Defence, Tabulam’s memorial highlights the efforts of inspired individuals towards establishing and contributing to their colony’s and ultimately Australia’s national defence.
Light Horse Park, Seymour, Victoria
Meanwhile, over a thousand kilometres south of Tabulam, in the early morning and in the evening, Light Horse Park outside Seymour in Victoria has an ethereal, contemplative quality. Amid silence only brought to life with bursts of bird song, this memorial provides a focus for remembrance and reflection. Having been used by the Victorian Mounted Rifles in 1887 fourteen years before Federation, Light Horse Park stands on one of Australia’s earliest training areas. Perhaps the Australian contingent’s service in 1883- 85 in Sudan was the catalyst for recognising a need to develop a defence capacity. Due to its proximity to Melbourne, its suitability as a training area and railway services, Seymour would gain a military role in a way Tabulam never would.
By 1915, World War One and the need for a training area with good communications outside Melbourne clinched Seymour’s fate as Victoria’s main training area. Viral meningitis had closed Broadmeadows and the Light Horse regiments were sent to Seymour. Carrying with it all its long history, Light Horse Park was opened in 2001 on the site of the Old Seymour Camp. While the Upper Clarence Light Horse has an arguably longer history, having been established in 1885, Seymour is not far behind and its role as a military town carries its own special significance still resonant today.
A horse trough is among other reminders of the Light Horse role in Seymour’s history. Just to the south of Seymour at Dysart are the sidings where men and horses were loaded on trains to take them to the ships and to the battlefields. In the Tank Museum at Puckapunyal there is a railway carriage especially adapted for the transport of horses. It reminds one of just how different transport and warfare were only a century ago.
Left: Railway Carriage adapted for the transport of horses, Tank Museum, Puckapunyal, Victoria
Returning north again to Tamworth in New South Wales, there is an exquisite monument of a different kind called the ‘Waler Monument’. It is about the horses as much as it is about the Light Horsemen. Talented sculptor Tanya Bartlett has created one of the most realistic and detailed pieces of commemorative sculpture that I have ever seen. It begs the question about the fate of a fit, well-trained generation of men, well equipped to forge ahead through the outback in the footsteps of their forefathers, only to find that if they survived, their lives and the country to which they returned had changed irretrievably.
In Canberra memorials to the Light Horse are more plentiful, beginning with the Desert Mounted Corps Memorial on Anzac Avenue. Perhaps even more powerful is the Animals in War Memorial in the Sculpture Garden on the western side of the War Memorial. The Animals in War Memorial consists of a bronze horse’s head, which according to the explanatory plaque is ‘the last remaining fragment of Charles Web Gilbert’s original Desert Mounted Corps Memorial which stood at Port Said, Egypt until it was destroyed during the Suez Crisis in 1956.’ This fragment symbolises all animals in conflict but it also enshrines a conflict story of its own.
The four bronze horses and riders commemorating the Boer War are the most recent commemorative additions to Anzac Avenue. With a stirring sense of movement, this installation depicts a four-man section of horsemen on patrol. The story is personalised in the bronze books telling the story of Private F H Booth from his letters. His story might be typical of many of these tough bushmen, the forerunners of the Australian Light Horse. Visitors to the memorial have added their own symbols of commemoration by placing a poppy in a bridle or a stirrup. This memorial is inspiring for the sculpture’s realism and sculptor Louis Laumen’s attention to detail.
The Boer or South African War has a much earlier memorial in Brisbane. Also known as the Scout (see right), it was created by local sculptor James Lawrence Watts to commemorate the 89 Queenslanders who died during the conflict. Cast in England, its delivery and installation was delayed until 1919 by the First World War. Since 1939 it has been the focus for Anzac Day commemorations. The only Anzac Day Parade I have attended in Brisbane was in 1988 when the Vietnam veterans marched for the first time. We couldn’t have got anywhere near Anzac Square if we’d tried, so I’m waiting for an opportunity to return to see the monument for myself.
An invitation from the 1st Armoured Regiment to attend the Dedication and Blessing of the Chauvel lines and the Cambrai Day parade gave me the perfect excuse to visit some of Adelaide’s memorials. The city has done the South Australian Light Horsemen proud with the Light Horse Memorial on North Terrace near the edge of the CBD. Just to one side of the memorial is a horse trough, the War Horse Memorial 1914 – 1918. Finding sufficient water for the horses was a constant theme during the First World War in the Middle East. Once service personnel from the 1st Armoured Regiment, which has recently moved from Darwin to Adelaide, see the memorials in their new home city, they will begin to see their move as a homecoming.
Brisbane and Canberra are not the only cities to commemorate those who served in the Boer War. Adelaide unveiled its memorial by British sculptor Adrian Jones in 1904.
Recently a relative who lives in Perth sent me a photograph of the memorial in Albany, reminding me that I still have a long way to travel before I’ve seen all the memorials to the Light Horse across Australia. Friends have told me of the recent memorials in the New South Wales towns of Hay and Harden. My relative Peter tells me about the memorial in Albany ‘which has a magnificent Light Horse sculpture and ANZAC museum. The fleet of troopships departed Albany to Egypt and England in WW 1.’ I would like to think that I could get there and maybe with a fair wind, I’ll achieve it.
Right: Desert Mounted Corps Memorial, Albany, Western Australia (image source Mapio)
Commemorating the Light Horse and its men has a long and widespread history in which sculptor Adrian Jones again springs from the pages. In the early 1920s and half a world away in London, so deep was the desire to commemorate fallen comrades from England and its Empire that only the best sculptor, Adrian Jones, former veterinary surgeon and Army officer was chosen to create the Cavalry Memorial. So serious was Adrian Jones about the execution of his work that he argued: ‘The principles first of all say that nothing human or animal of God’s creation should be in any way distorted or made a laughing stock of.’
The Cavalry Memorial is not just a memorial to the British Cavalry but it also commemorates the Australian Light Horse and mounted troops from New Zealand, Canada and South Africa. An inscription explains that the Cavalry of the Empire erected the memorial in memory of comrades who gave their lives in the war of 1914 – 1919, also the war of 1939 – 1945 and on active service thereafter. The Memorial is a focus that remains in the hearts of those whose ancestors served and whose loved ones have seen active service.
The cavalry from the various Commonwealth countries is depicted in bas-relief on the plinth beneath the sculpture, suggesting that these mounted servicemen came to help St George, the Patron Saint of England in his battle against evil personified as a dragon. As soon as I could make out the rising sun motif on a slouch hat, I knew that the Australian Light Horse was truly incorporated in the memorial. The Memorial was unveiled on 21 May 1924.
Commonwealth military representatives attend the Parade and Service every year in May; it is their act of commemoration which they share with what was once the mother country, and is now an ally with whom many of us acknowledge a shared history, even if we don’t always view it from a similar point of view.
A few days after the Cavalry Memorial Parade and Service in 2017 a woman who was visiting from Lebanon asked me if I would take her photo in front of the Memorial, explaining that she hated ‘taking selfies’. After I had taken a picture that met her satisfaction, I asked her why she had visited the Cavalry Memorial. She explained she had visited because of war – meaning the troubles in the Middle East. I felt it would have been intrusive to ask her if she were praying to St George in the hope that good would eventually triumph over evil? After the recent spate of terror attacks many might be asking similar rhetorical questions. These commemorative sculptures can provide a focus for people’s aspirations for a better world.
Our visit to Beersheba for the 90th anniversary commemorations at the end of October 2007 meant that we did not see the installation of Peter Corlett’s fabulous sculpture of the Light Horseman at Light Horse Park in Beersheba.
Just as there are no names on the cairn photographed by Allan Chauvel, names of those commemorated are sometimes obscure. And so it is with General Harry Chauvel. From time to time Chauvel’s name pops up in some of the most obscure locations. Less than a year after Chauvel returned from the First World War, he opened the new RSL building in Glenferrie Road, Hawthorn and a plaque now marks the occasion (see right).
One day driving out to La Trobe University at Bundoora, I saw a ‘Chauvel Street’. Similarly in Campbell in the ACT there is a Chauvel Street. Only those who have some knowledge of the history would understand the commemorative qualities hidden in these street names. At the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne, like every other Victorian serviceman who served in the First World War, Chauvel’s name is written in beautiful calligraphy in the book of Remembrance (see below).
Hidden away in the West aisle at St Paul’s Cathedral, in a bas-relief bronze plaque, the RSL commemorate Sir Harry’s service as the Commander of the Desert Mounted Corps and also as a Lay Canon of the Cathedral.
Similarly, hidden from immediate view in the Chapel at Duntroon and depicted in obscure symbolism, Chauvel, the Australian Light Horse and the New Zealand Mounted Rifles who served with him in Sinai, Palestine and Syria are commemorated in stained glass. If you look at the window closely, you will be able to pick out among the palm fronds, a saddle, a slouch hat and a crucifix – symbols for his service. It has little direction connection with Chauvel as an individual unless you know his story.
Visitors to the Desert Mounted Corps Memorial in Anzac Avenue might note that that tucked away among the paving stones to the left of the monument is a tablet commemorating the service of Sir Harry Chauvel. During the latter years of Chauvel’s daughter Elyne’s life, she placed a bunch of roses from her home at Towong Hill on the plaque.
Perhaps bringing Chauvel, the individual, back into focus was the Re-dedication of his sword on 15th October 2017 in its new location as part of a war memorial on the north wall of Christ Church South Yarra. The Choral Evensong was a tribute to Sir Harry’s military service and his long 25-year service to his congregation as a warden of Christ Church and as a lay canon at St Paul’s Cathedral. In Christ Church, the purpose-made case now housing the sword securely names each of his major campaigns, thus anchoring both the sword and its original owner in the context of their histories.
Each of these memorials mentioned either hints or tells part of the story, leaving the viewer to complete his or her own puzzle. We need memorials to heroes as role models to study and help us to develop our own knowledge and values and to learn something about our own history and culture. History lies not only in the written and spoken word but also in its artefacts, acts of commemoration and the discussions that each of these elements provoke. People tend to commemorate not just in music and art forms but also in observances and activities, such as the commemorative rides at Beersheba marking the ninetieth anniversary and the centenary of the Charge. I hope those who took part will come home and tell their stories so that these acts of commemoration can take their place as part of our history too.
If I were to travel on, undoubtedly I would find more memorials. Commemoration of the Light Horse is after all a never-ending story.