The Battle of Beersheba was fought on 31 October 1917, when the British Empire's Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) attacked and captured the Ottoman Empire's Yildirim Army Group garrison at Beersheba, beginning the Southern Palestine Offensive of the Sinai and Palestine campaign of World War I.

The 12th Light Horse Regiment was a mounted unit of the Australian Army. It was raised in New South Wales in 1915 as part of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) for service during the First World War. After fighting at Gallipoli as reinforcements, the regiment served in the Sinai and Palestine campaign against the Ottoman Empire, seeing action in several notable battles including Beersheba, the capture of Jerusalem, Megiddo and the capture of Damascus. In the aftermath of the war, the regiment was used to suppress the 1919 Egyptian Uprising, before being disbanded in late 1919.