11th Light Horse Regiment (Australia)
The 11th Light Horse Regiment was a mounted infantry regiment of the Australian Army during the First World War. The regiment was raised in August 1914, and assigned to the 4th Light Horse Brigade. The regiment fought against the forces of the Ottoman Empire, in Egypt, at Gallipoli, on the Sinai Peninsula, and in Palestine and Jordan. After the armistice the regiment eventually returned to Australia in March 1919. For its role in the war the regiment was awarded fourteen battle honours. During the inter-war years, the regiment was re-raised as a part-time unit based in the Darling Downs region of Queensland. It was later converted to a motor regiment during the Second World War but was disbanded in 1943 without having been deployed overseas.
11th Light Horse Regiment hat badge
C Squadron resting their horses en route to Beersheba
The 4th Light Horse Brigade was a mounted infantry brigade of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) serving in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I. The brigade was initially formed as a part-time militia formation in the early 1900s in Victoria and Tasmania. After the outbreak of World War I, the brigade was raised as a volunteer formation within the AIF in March 1915 and shipped to Egypt and was broken up in August 1915 to provide dismounted reinforcements to other light horse formations already deployed to Gallipoli. Reformed in February 1917, the brigade was assigned to the Imperial Mounted Division, which formed part of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force, and in June 1917 transferred to the Australian Mounted Division, where it served in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign until the end of the war. After the war, the AIF light horse regiments were demobilised and disbanded; however, the brigade briefly existed as a part-time militia formation in New South Wales until 1921 when its regiments were reorganised into cavalry brigades.
Australian Light Horse monument at Beersheba
Members of the 12th Light Horse training at Holsworthy, 1915.
Photograph claimed to be of the charge of the 4th Light Horse Brigade at Beersheba, although it may be a re-enactment taken in February 1918.
Gunners of A Battery, Honourable Artillery Company, attached to the 4th Australian Light Horse Brigade, crouch between their 13 pounder quick fire field guns and a cactus hedge near Belah, Palestine, in March 1918.