AL090
King & Country
Light Horseman were tremendously attached to their horses called Australian Walers, a breed of horse developed in Australia from horses that were brought over from Britain and Ireland in the 19th Century.
A ‘special’ bond developed between horse and rider that was unique.
At the end of the war, however when the Australian horsemen were to be returned to Australia the decision was made to leave their horses behind and for them to be either euthanized or sold off to the local Arabs. Many horsemen themselves preferred to shoot their own mount before leaving it to a far worse fate.
But in this happier scene a young trooper is feeding his animal an apple as he awaits orders to ‘mount-up’.
This coming 31st October 2017 marks the centenary of the epic charge of the Australian Light Horse to capture the town and water wells of BEERSHEBA in what was then Palestine but is now part of modern-day Israel. The Australian horsemen, against fierce Turkish opposition, charged the enemy’s lines and frontline trenches scattering their opponents and then galloping on into the town itself to capture the all-important water wells. It proved to be one of the major turning points of the War in the Desert during WW1.