Topic: AIF - 3B - 9 LHR
9th LHR, AIF
War Diary, 15 March
Pro Gloria et Honore - For Glory and Honour
Regimental March - Marching Through Georgia
The Diary
1914
Sunday, March 15, 1914
See 4th Military District, South Australia for militia activities.
1915
Monday, March 15, 1915
9th Light Horse Regiment Location - Alexandria, Egypt.
9th Light Horse Regiment War Diary - The "Karroo" and "Anglo Egyptian" arrived and immediately disembarked. Headquarters, Machine Gun Section, B and C Squadrons went in two trains, forage going next day and ammunition being handed into ordnance at Alexandria. Joined Mena Camp, Cairo during night.
Carew Reynell Diary - We disembarked at Alexandria on March 15 at 0900. First train with Headquarters and C Squadron left at 1200 and I left with the rest of the Regiment at 1900. Unslinging the horses in horse boxes from the lower hold took the time. I believe that ordinary slings are about twice as fast and if properly adjusted, risk is not great. The train trip to Cairo took six hours and we disentrained at Abou et Eta station in Cairo soon after 0100.
1916
Wednesday, March 15, 1916
9th Light Horse Regiment Location - Serapeum, Egypt.
9th Light Horse Regiment War Diary - No entry.
1917
Thursday, March 15, 19179th Light Horse Regiment Location - Bir Abu Hamthala, Sinai.
9th Light Horse Regiment War Diary - The Regiment undertook routine work for the day.
1918
Friday, March 15, 1918
9th Light Horse Regiment Location - Deir el Belah, Palestine.
9th Light Horse Regiment War Diary - Mounted and dismounted bayonet fighting and other instruction classes were carried out. One Signal, Non Commissioned Officer, proceeded to 14th Squadron, Royal Flying Corps for instruction in signals from aeroplanes. One Other Rank, a linguist, returned from duty from General Headquarters.
1919
Saturday, March 15, 1919
9th Light Horse Regiment Location - Moascar, Egypt.
9th Light Horse Regiment War Diary - 0900 General Officer in Command Australian Mounted Division [Ryrie, Brigadier General G de L, CB CMG VD] addressed the 3rd Light Horse Brigade reference discipline.
Captain Parry Regimental Medical Officer proceeded by train to Kantara to embark on HMT Euripides. Information received that inhabitants had attacked a train travelling between Cairo and Kantara. Disturbances at Zagazig extending.
1945 three Officers 50 Other Ranks each from 8th and 10th Light Horse Regiments proceeded by train to Zagazig. Telegraphic communication with Cairo cut.
10th Australian Light Horse Regiment War Diary - Lieutenants Macgregor MC and Doig MC with 50% were sent to Minet Quam out duty. General Ryrie held a mass parade and addressed the Brigade.
Extract from Vincent, Phoebe, My darling Mick: the life of Granville Ryrie, 1865 - 1937, p. 191 although first appeared in the Brisbane Daily Telegraph 18 April 1927 -On 15 March Granville was at Moascar, where a minor incident took place which, if anyone had doubted it, would have been ample proof of the respect his men had for him and for the understanding he had shown them throughout the last five arduous years.
The men of the brigade, exhausted after all the campaigning only just behind them, were thinking of nothing but rest, a ship home, when one day out of the blue a Moascar 'brass hat' popped up and ordered that they perform recruit drill out under the blazing Egyptian sun. The bugle call to fall in after breakfast was ignored by the entire brigade. The order was repeated and the rumblings of complaint began to build until atmosphere in the camp was mutinous. At this point Granville ordered them out on parade. Not a man refused. Out in the heat of the parade ground he addressed them briefly but sympathetically on the subject of discipline, then gave them strict orders, instead of attending recruit drill, to get their towels a 'go for a swimming parade in Lake Timsah'. Having been the only man of his rank in the Australian Army to command the same brigade for the full duration of the war, it could be said with little doubt that no senior officer knew his men better than 'the Old Brigadier'.
[Editor's Note: This story is apocryphal at best as it conflates a week of history into one day. The story is added to this date as it is believed by some to be fact and occasionally historians have relied upon this story and published accounts accordingly. An examination of the various diary entries tends to indicate otherwise.]
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Sources:
See: 9th Australian Light Horse Regiment, Contents
Australian Light Horse Studies Centre, AIF War Diaries of the Great War, Site Transcription Policy
Further Reading:
9th Australian Light Horse Regiment, Roll of Honour
Battles where Australians fought, 1899-1920
Citation: 9th LHR AIF War Diary, 15 March
