War Memorials in Australia
Desert Mounted Corps Memorial - Canberra
Place:
Reid, Australian Capital Territory, 2612
District:
Southern Tablelands
(ACT)
Orientation: Suburb of Canberra
Location: Anzac Parade, west side
Position: 35 17 25 S 149 08 53 E
Ref: 00006
__________________________
More commonly known as the Light Horse Memorial, this memorial commemorates the men of the Australian Light Horse Brigade as well as the New Zealand Mounted Rifles, the Imperial Camel Corps and the Australian Flying Corps who lost their lives in Egypt, Palestine and Syria between 1916 and 1918.
Unveiled in 1968, this memorial consists of a free-standing cast bronze figure of two troopers and their horses set on a granite base. It is a replica of the original memorial which stood at Port Said in Egypt depicting a mounted Australian Light-Horseman defending a New Zealand Mounted Rifleman standing beside his wounded horse. It is said to be based on an incident in the charge at El Arish in 1917.
The original memorial was partly paid for by light horsemen, mounted infantrymen, cameleers and army nurses who raised £5,400 by subscribing a day's pay towards its cost. The Commonwealth Government provided another £11,600. It was designed by C Webb Gilbert who won the design competition and a prize of 250 guineas in 1923. He died before it was finished, a report at the time saying "the execution of a colossal task far beyond his experience and physical powers broke Gilbert's heart." Paul Montford, a leading British sculptor, was chosen to carry on the work. He worked steadily but the memorial did not seem to show the results of his efforts. The task was passed on to another Australian sculptor, Sir Bertram Mackennal who, with a team of British assistants completed the monument but he died before he had the honour of seeing it unveiled.
On 23 November 1932 it was unveiled on behalf of the Australian and New Zealand Governments by the Australia's war time Prime Minister W. M Hughes who was on his way back from a League of Nations meeting in Europe. The proceedings were broadcast by radio telephone over the 15,000 miles (24,000 kilometres) between Egypt and Australia, the first such direct broadcast between those two countries.
On the night of 26 December, 1956, during the Suez conflict, an Egyptian crowd attacked the Anzac monument, smashing it with hammers and large stones. Egyptian newspaper Al Akhbar reported the memorial would be blown up with dynamite. Police were posted beside the memorial to protect it and forbade the use of explosives but took no steps to prevent youths defacing it. It was pulled from its base and smashed beyond repair. The mob tore off the legs and tail of the New Zealander's horse, smashed away the legs, tail and half the head of the Australian's horse and sawed off the head, arms and legs of the New Zealander. The figure of the Australian light horseman disappeared. When peace returned to the area the United Arab Republic agreed to the request of the Australian and New Zealand Governments to release the damaged memorial and its polished Gabo Island granite plinth which were then shipped to Australia.
Melbourne sculptor and former official war artist Raymond Ewers and his assistant Cliff Reynolds reconstructed the statuary, first fashioning a clay working model one sixth the size of the original. From this plaster impressions were taken, providing a more permanent medium as a full-size model. This was then shipped in sections to Italy where the final bronze casting was undertaken by founder P. Bataglia of Milan.
The Australian Returned Services League and the New Zealand Returned Services Association agreed that it should be erected in Albany, Western Australia overlooking King George Sound where the first Anzac convoy had assembled before departure. The New Zealand Government gave its approval and agreed to pay half the cost. The Albany suggestion met with opposition, led by MP Sir Wilfred Kent-Hughes, one of only two light-horsemen in the Federal Parliament. He said all the Desert Mounted Corps Associations, except the 10th Light Horse Association based in Western Australia, wanted the memorial re-erected in Canberra, that location being more accessible to the majority of potential viewers. However, a decision was made by the Minister for the Interior, Gordon Freeth, who also represented Albany in Parliament, to proceed and the re-created memorial on its original base was unveiled in Albany in 1964. Agitation continued and another replica was erected in Anzac Parade in Canberra. It was unveiled by the Prime Minister, John Gorton, on 19 August 1968.
There are two flagpoles in front of the memorial, on the south side of the forecourt.
East face
AUSTRALIA
AND
NEW ZEALAND
1916 - 1918
Plaque at base
| THIS STATUE IS A COPY OF ONE ORIGINALLY FORMING PART | |
| OF A MEMORIAL WHICH WAS ERECTED AT PORT SAID AND | |
| UNVEILED ON 23 NOVEMBER 1932 BY THE RT. HON WILLIAM | |
| MORRIS HUGHES, K.C., M.P. | |
| THE ORIGINAL MEMORIAL BORE THE INSCRIPTION | |
| "ERECTED BY THEIR COMRADES AND THE GOVERNMENTS | |
| OF AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND IN MEMORY OF THE | |
| MEMBERS OF THE AUSTRALIAN LIGHT HORSE, THE NEW | |
| ZEALAND MOUNTED RIFLES, THE IMPERIAL CAMEL CORPS | |
| AND THE AUSTRALIAN FLYING CORPS WHO LOST THEIR LIVES | |
| IN EGYPT, PALESTINE AND SYRIA 1916 - 1918" | |
| THE STATUE ITSELF WAS IRREPARABLY DAMAGED DURING | |
| THE SUEZ CRISIS IN 1956. THE REMNANTS WERE BROUGHT | |
| TO AUSTRALIA AND A REPLICA WAS CONSTRUCTED. | |
| TWO CASTINGS IN BRONZE WERE MADE, THE FIRST OF WHICH | |
| WAS ERECTED ON THE ORIGINAL MASONRY BASE AT ALBANY, | |
| WESTERN AUSTRALIA, IN 1964. | |
| UNVEILED BY THE RIGHT HONOURABLE J.G. GORTON, M.P. | |
| PRIME MINISTER OF AUSTRALIA ON 19TH APRIL 1968 |
North face
Plaque at base
BEERSHEBA DAY 1992
COMMEMORATING THE 75TH ANNIVERSARY
OF THE "BATTLE OF BEERSHEBA"
AND THE IMMORTAL CHARGE OF
THE AUSTRALIAN LIGHT HORSE THAT DAY
31 OCTOBER 1917
WE WILL REMEMBER THEM
Plaque at ground level on south side of
memorial
THIS PLAQUE COMMEMORATES THE SERVICE IN THE
AUSTRALIAN IMPERIAL FORCE
OF
GENERAL SIR HENRY ("HARRY") GEORGE CHAUVEL
G.C.M.G. K.C.B.
1865 - 1945
AUSTRALIAN CAVALRY LEADER OF 1914-1918 WHO COMMANDED
THE 1ST LIGHT HORSE BRIGADE AND THE 1ST AUSTRALIAN
DIVISION ON GALLIPOLI IN 1915, THEN SUCCESSIVELY
COMMANDED THE ANZAC MOUNTED DIVISION THE DESERT
COLUMN AND THE DESERT MOUNTED CORPS IN OPERATIONS
IN EGYPT, PALESTINE AND SYRIA 1916 - 1918.
Plaque in garden bed on south side of
memorial
DESERT MOUNTED CORPS MEMORIAL
Map of the world
This was the first memorial to be
constructed on Anzac Parade. The Desert mounted Corps The Desert Mounted Corps Memorial is a free-standing,
cast bronze figurative sculpture, set on The original Memorial was in Port Said, Egypt. However,
Egyptian nationalists destroyed it The Memorial was unveiled by the Right Honourable J. G.
Gorton, M.P Prime Minister of
Coat of arms of Commonwealth of Australia
|
Information current to October 2000
Sources: The Memorials of Anzac Parade,
pamphlet produced by the National Capital Authority, Canberra, undated
Inglis, K. S., Sacred Places - War Memorials in the Australian Landscape,
Melbourne University Press, Carlton South, 1999
The Inglis Collection in Australian War Memorial,
AWM PR 00944
Herald, Melbourne, 27 December 1956
Daily Telegraph, Sydney, 27 December 1956
Mail, Adelaide, 17 October 1959
Sun-Herald, Sydney, 1 November 1959
Courier-Mail, Brisbane, 25 April 1961
Daily News, Perth, 17 November 1962