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1st Light Horse, Australian Imperial Force
| Want to know more about 1st Light Horse, Australian Imperial Force? There are:27 items tagged 1st Light Horse, Australian Imperial Force available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Great War.
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The Wartime Memories Project is the original WW1 and WW2 commemoration website.
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Pte. Donald George Campbell 1st Light Horse Regiment Donald George Campbell is his name registered at birth but he enlisted under the name of George Donald Campbell and was known as George.
He sailed from Sydney with the 15th Reinforcement on 21st of March 1916 on board H.M.A.T. A26 Armadale arriving in Plymouth on 12th of June 1916. He transferred to the 1st Light Horse as a Driver.
For reasons unknown, George estranged himself from his family circa 1920, never to be heard of again. Two possible reasons for this are he married and fathered a child but abandoned them, there was a warrant issued for his arrest on 23rd of Feb 1927 by the Children's Court in Sydney for failing to pay child support. The other reason was maybe he just couldn't cope with what he'd seen during the war.
I spent a long time searching for his death to no avail then in December 2019 I was contacted by a Leah Campbell who had been contacted by a John Edwin Beardmore from the St George area in Queensland seeking to see if Leah was related to George. She wasn't, but she tracked me down in the hope that I was. John has written a book The Life & Times of John Edwin Beardmore.As it happens George took on the alias of George Williams in the 1920's and moved to the St George area in outback Queensland and for a time worked on John's father's property. For decades he camped under a wilga tree on an neighbouring property. This was his home.
He died in 1969 in the St George Hospital, Queensland and is buried n St George Cemetery, under the name of George Williams.
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Pte. John Joseph Evans 1st Light Horse Regiment John Evans enlisted with the 1st Light Horse Regiment with the rank of Private, with the 12th Reinforcements. The place of his enlistment was Warwick Farm.
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Tpr. James Joseph Augustus Sweeney 4th General Service Reinforcements James Joseph Augustus Sweeney was born at Erskineville, New South Wales, on 1 July 1899. Having gained written permission from his parents, the 18-year-old clerk enlisted with the Australian Imperial Force on 13 May 1918. Sweeney departed Sydney as part of the 4th General Service Reinforcements aboard HMAT Port Sydney on 17 August 1918.
The new reinforcements underwent further training in Egypt, and in November Sweeney was transferred to the 1st Light Horse Regiment, then camped at Rishon LeZion. The regiment marched towards Rafa, their point of demobilisation, riding over the old Turkish positions at Gaza on the way. Sweeney wrote to his father requesting several tins of Kiwi brand boot polish to darken not only his boots but also his pants, which were left almost white from wear. Sweeney also wrote of the regiment passing their horses over to the Indian army as they could not take them back to Australia. The young private and the remaining elements of the 1st Light Horse Regiment left Kantara in March 1919 and arrived back in Australia the next month. Sweeney was discharged from the AIF in May 1919 and died nine years later at Springwood, New South Wales.
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Tpr. Edgar Roy Standford 1st Light Horse Regiment (d.1st Aug 1915) Edgar Roy Stanford was born at Orange, NSW in 1893 to Adolphus and Eliza Stanford. Prior to the First World War, he worked as a shop assistant at a general store. Stanford served 4 years with the Cadets and had 5 years involvement with the Orange Rifle Club when he joined the Australian Imperial Force.
He enlisted on 22 August 1914 at Rosebery Park, New South Wales, and embarked with the 1st Light Horse Regiment from Sydney on 20 October 1914 aboard HMAT Star of Victoria. He landed at Gallipoli with the rest of his regiment on 12 May 1915, spending two months on the peninsula before receiving a fatal gunshot wound to the right thigh on 7 July 1915. Edgar Stanford was evacuated to Alexandria but succumbed due to complications surrounding his wound on the 1 August 1915. He was buried the same day at Chatby Cemetery, now Alexandria Military and War Memorial Cemetery, Egypt.
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S/Sgt. Henry Langtip 4th Light Horse Regiment Henry Langtip was born at Port Albert, Victoria, in 1888. Known as Harry, the 27-year-old farmer enlisted with the Australian Imperial Force on 25th January 1916. His brothers Bertie and Leslie enlisted at the same time and another brother, Ernest, enlisted the following day. All four brothers were allocated to the 4th Light Horse Regiment, and after several months of training they left Melbourne aboard HMAT Itria on 18th April 1916.
For the remainder of the year Henry Langtip and his brothers participated in training and performed mostly guard duty in the Suez Canal zone with the 1st Light Horse Double Squadron and then the Imperial Camel Corps. In February 1917 the brothers were transferred for the last time to the 4th Light Horse Regiment. In his diary Henry recorded the events of 31st October when, after a long and terrible ride through the desert all night, he and his brothers participated in the famous charge at Beersheba that helped break the Turkish defensive line. The unit moved into Palestine and then Transjordan, participating in several further raids and battles. Langtip's brother Leslie was awarded the Distinguished Conduct Medal for his actions in the advance towards Damascus.
On 15th June 1919 Langtip and his brothers embarked for home with the rest of their regiment. All four brothers had survived the war and some of the most daring feats in the Egyptian and Middle East campaigns. War would return to the region some two decades later and on 12th November 1940, while Axis forces bombed the towns of Palestine, Henry Langtip died at Rutherglen, Victoria.
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Pte. Gordon Colin Cooper 1st Light Horse Regiment Gordon Colin Cooper was born at Inverell, New South Wales, on 3rd August 1893. The 21-year-old farmer enlisted with the Australian Imperial Force on 27th August 1914. Cooper departed Sydney with the 1st Light Horse Regiment aboard HMAT Star of Victoria on 20th October 1914.
Cooper and the 1st Light Horse Regiment landed in Gallipoli in May 1915. Over the next few months this unit played a mostly defensive role until the evacuation in December. After Gallipoli, he started to document his experiences in several diaries.
In July 1916, Cooper was transferred to the 1st Light Horse Brigade Machine Gun Squadron and fought at the battle of Romani in August. He continued to serve with this unit throughout 1917 and 1918 as it moved further into Palestine and Transjordan, continually pushing back the Turkish forces. Cooper's diaries detail keen observations on military life during this time and descriptions of the battles in which the unit participated. In July 1918, while travelling between Jerusalem and Solomon's Pools, he was bucked from his horse and sustained head and eye injuries.
Cooper arrived back in Australia on 24th November 1918 and later married. He would once again serve his country, this time in the Second World War with the Department of the Army in the New South Wales Echelon and Record Office. Gordon Cooper died on 12th July 1948 and is buried at Rookwood Cemetery in Sydney.
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