Light Horse hero Harry Chauvel leads young Australian troops

It will be 100 years since the 4^th Light Horse brigade were given orders to saddle up, draw their bayonets and charge across an open stony plain towards the Turkish trenches at Beersheba, in an act of sheer courage.

Although the successful charge by 800 men against the odds isn’t as well-known as the events of Gallipoli or the Somme, it changed the course of the war in the Middle East, forcing the Turks to begin retreating, and it was seen as one of the war’s major strategic victories.

Its commander was Lieutenant General Harry Chauvel,  later recognised as one of Australia’s greatest wartime leaders and one of its greatest soldiers.

Brought up at Tabulum, 65km from Stanthorpe, Chauvel’s father had founded the Upper Clarence Light Horse, and Harry was gazetted a 2^nd lieutenant in the troop before the family moved to Canning Downs South in the Warwick district, where they raised a troop for the Warwick Company of the Darling Downs Mounted Infantry.

Harry was ordered to Charleville in 1891 to help quell the Great Shearers’ Strike, before being posted to Clermont and the Longreach/Winton/Hughenden region in 1894 to cope with further strike action.

His first overseas military service was in the Boer War in South Africa, where he served as a major in the 1^st Queensland Mounted Infantry.

Despite the shocking hardships experienced by men and horses, of over 2900 Queenslanders who sailed for South Africa, only 22 were killed in action or died of other causes, and they were very highly regarded for their ability to ride and shoot.

In 1915 Harry commanded the 1^st Light Horse brigade at Gallipoli and after evacuation was given command of the Australian and New Zealand Mounted Division.

He succeeded Sir Philip Chetwode to the command of the whole Desert Column in April 1917, later the Desert Army Mounted Corps of 180,000 men from Australia, New Zealand, Great Britain, France and India, thought to be the largest body of cavalry ever to serve under one leader.

Chauvel was the first Australian to attain the ranks of Lieutenant General, then General, in 1929.

After his overwhelming successes in Palestine he continued in the army and retired as chief of general staff in 1930.

As well as serving his country through three major wars he set standards that had a large bearing on the Australian military tradition.