CHARGE OF THE LIGHT HORSE
“EVEN ALLOWING FOR THE TENDENCY OF NATIONS TO ROMANTICISE THEIR WORLD WAR I SOLDIERS, THE LIGHT HORSEMEN WERE SPIRITED, HARDENED AND USUALLY YOUNG MEN WITH A DASHING REPUTATION”
The Australian Light Horse formed at the outbreak of World War I as part of the Australian Imperial Force destined to fight in Europe. The majority of the light horsemen the vast, hot and arid rural regions in Australia. Horsemanship, and often marksmanship, was learned from childhood and was for many an essential skill for their daily lives and work.
Two of the country’s official historians, Charles Bean and Henry Gullett, enthused about the light horsemen, one describing them as, “the romantic, quixotic, adventurous flotsam that eddied on the surface of the Australian people”. The other noted that nearly all were of British descent and were “the children of the most restless, adventurous and virile individuals of that stock”. Even allowing for the tendency of nations to romanticise their World War I soldiers, the light horsemen were spirited, hardened and usually young men with a dashing reputation. With a leavening of Boer War veterans, they had the makings of formidable troops.
Their baptism of fire came at Gallipoli. After training in Egypt, they were committed in May 1915 as reinforcements to the landings that were meant to open the way to Constantinople and knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war.
