The handwritten manuscript called The 4th Brigade Trek from the Canal to Khan Yunis and the 2nd Gaza Battle was produced by 666 Sergeant David Woodward HARRIS of the 12th Light Horse Regiment.
David Woodward HARRIS was a 24 year old Overseer from Turramurra, New South Wales. He enlisted on 30 December 1914 and was allotted to the 12th Australian Light Horse Regiment, AIF, Machine Gun Section, which embarked from Sydney, New South Wales on board HMAT A29 Suevic 13 June 1915.; and at the conclusion of the war Returned to Australia, 20 July 1919.
For further information, see:
4th Australian Light Horse Brigade, AIF
and:
from necessity of the old Peninsula days. After a week of precarious existence, coupled with hard digging, the line had been consolidated sufficiently to allow of our return to a quieter part for general re-organising.
We learnt later that the medical preparations had been unable to cope with the fearful list of casualties, and, excepting the most vital cases, the wounded men dressed on the field were not attended to for seven or eight days; the time which elapsed before they reached the Egyptian Base Hospitals.
The 4th ALH Brigade's baptism, as a Brigade, was truly Spartan on that fiercely eventful day of April 19th, 1917.
Sgt DW Harris, 666 12th ALH