Topic: Militia - LHV - 29
29th ALH
29th (Port Phillip) Australian Light Horse
Officers, 1914
Victorian Mounted Rifles [1885 - 1903]
10th and 11th (Victorian Mounted Rifles) Australian Light Horse [1903 - 1912]
29th (Port Phillip) Australian Light Horse [1912 - 1929]
Prest D'Accomplir - Ready to Act
Allied with: King Edward's Horse (The King's Overseas Dominions Regiment).
The foundations of the Light Horse Regiments required the dedicated input from the pre-war Militia Light Horsemen. For the men in the Light Horse, it was an expensive experience and thus viewed as a rich man's club. The greatest cost was in providing your own horse. Horse in 1914 were just as expensive and time consuming to maintain as they are today.
The pre-war Militia study is sadly a neglected area of study. This is mainly through lack of records, something that is highlighted whenever someone asks a militia based question.
To rectify a small part, this is a series of individual portraits of the officers from the Victorian 29th Light Horse Regiment, and more specifically the Port Phillip Light Horse. Some of them served in the Great War and their service records are linked to their names.
The squadrons of the 29th Light Horse Regiments were located as follows:
- A Squadron - Melbourne, Kew, and Caulfield.
- B Squadron - Essendon, Bacchus Marsh, Melton, and Northcote.
- C Squadron - Geelong, Drysdale, and Werribee.
- D Squadron - Box Hill, and Ringwood.
8. Captain Ronald John Livingstone Hildyard
The number of men who went onto serve with the AIF after the declaration of war is highlighted by the links to the individual service files of each man who enlisted or was commissioned. Click on the link and the service file held by the National Archives will open for that particular individual.
The pictures are a bit grainy because they are a copy of a copy of a copy. This series of pictures were taken during July/August 1914 at the following photographic studio:
The Alice Mills Studios
The Centreway
Collins Street
Melbourne
While the Alice Mills Studios was a major Melbourne studio in the early part of the 20th Century, it has disappeared with a few traces in other businesses.
The above pictures are of men who provided the foundations for the Light Horse regiments that emerged through the AIF after 1914. Without their pioneering and self sacrificing work, the achievements of the Light Horse could well have taken a very different turn.
Further Reading:
29th (Port Phillip) Australian Light Horse
29th (Port Phillip) Australian Light Horse, Roll of Honour
Victoria Militia - Light Horse
Australian Militia Light Horse
Citation: Port Phillip Light Horse, Officers, 1914
