On October 31, 1917, more than 800 men of the Australian Light Horse, under the leadership of Lieutenant General Charles (Harry) Chauvel in command of the Desert Corps, attacked the wells at Beersheba, overrunning the Turkish troops who outnumbered them.
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Among the Walcha men involved in the charge were: F.W. Nivison, who was given charge of the Turkish defences after they were overrun by the Light Horse; Robert James Foster, who was wounded in the action and died from the gunshot wound to his abdomen; Arthur Ernest Lisle, who had been promoted to Lieutenant in the 12th Light Horse regiment; and Kenneth Mansfield, who returned to Walcha after the war and worked as a station hand at Brackendale.
William Oates, university archivist at the University of New England, has curated an exhibition ‘Horse Power: Light Horse in Palestine –to Beersheba and Beyond’, which is on display at the New England Regional Art Museum (NERAM).
“On the day of the famous charge, many thousands of men were engaged in the battle across the Gaza-Beersheba line,” Mr Oates said. “British infantry and artillery were heavily committed whilst the Horse, including several of the Australians and New Zealand units, attacked a series of outposts before the charge was finally ordered late in the afternoon. Royal Flying Corp and armoured car units also played a part in the day. Mansfield was there. The charge was one spectacular moment in a campaign that ran for three years.”
Mr Oates said another Walcha man also played a part in the support crew.
“Thomas Ernest Crowe of Walcha was in the 2nd Remount Unit of the Light Horse, under the command of Banjo Paterson,” he said. “These men were some of the very best horsemen in Australia and they trained and prepared over 45,000 horses for the Light Horse to use during the war. The Remount men and the vets had bases at places like Heliopolis in Egypt. Fresh horses were taken to the front and sick horses came back to hospital.”
The story Mr Oates wants to tell through his exhibition is of the life in the bush that made these men so well suited to the Egyptian desert.
“I think the Light Horse were lucky because they’d been well trained,” he said. “They were suited to the job they were given. General Chauvel understood the Light Horse because he started on the banks of the Clarence River with his dad and brothers.”
