Australian Light Horse v2

This afternoon Dot and went have a look at the 12th/16th Hunter River Lancers and 24th Lighthorse Memorial Museum at 174 Mann Street, Armidale. I might have lived in this town a long time, but this was the first occasion that I had visited this museum. And the passive displays were nevertheless very interesting. So we spent quite a while looking a mass of photographs and maps of various campaigns; swords, guns and other pieces of equipment; lots of medals for this that and the other going back to the 19th century; people (not real) dressed in military uniform ... and even a model horse; and other historical archives. 

And all these exhibits gave me a useful insight into the event I'm observing in 11 days time when I witness the centenary re-enactment of the highly successful Australian Lighthorse charge at Beersheba in Israel. The first World War had many disastrous military engagements with huge loss of life, but this one had relatively few participants or causalities and opened the opportunity, soon realised, of removing Turkish rule from Jerusalem in particular and Palestine in general.

And, for someone living in rural Australia, the most interesting aspects of this engagement was the fact that most participants came from places like the New England region in which we reside. Here are some of the many exhibits I took with my mobile phone, though I must admit that the lighting reflecting off the glass surrounding the exhibits made photography difficult 

The first picture shows a Waler and presumably a replica of its rider. The horses were called Walers because they were originally sold through the State of New South Wales. These hardy animals were able to travel long distances in hot weather with little water - ideal for the Middle East. Some 13,000 were used in WW1, but only one made it home in what many regard as a tragedy. Although some were dispatched because of wounds or illness, 11,000 went on India to help bolster the Raj.  

Some uniforms, excuse the lighting.

A map of the Beersheba district showing the route taken by the troops.

Images of the campaign in Palestine.

Some weapons above the door.

Wish me well on Monday week!

AS

Spring's Sprung

I love this time of year and especially October 2017. After one of the driest winters on record, October has been wet and the collateral 'damage' is that all the Spring flowers are rejoicing in the change of season and putting on a great show.

For those overseas I should point out that Spring in Armidale often means something rather different to European or North American experience. With the rainfall this October we've also had some remarkably high temperatures, reaching 28 degrees C (82 F) on one day, but mainly oscillating between 17 and 24 C (62 to 74 F). That's mid-summer in Britain, but here it's roughly the equivalent of the northern April.

Anyway, let the flowers display themselves. I'll only name the third from last, which I think will be unfamiliar to my readers. That's our Banksia Rose (Rosa banksiae 'lutea'), which dense masses of little yellow flowers. It took me only 5 minutes to ramble around our garden and take these pictures and much credit must go to Dot who looks after them very well. Note also our green grass. The enormous rain we've had turned brownish grass into bright green because of the warm weather and the absence of frosts.

AS

Kin Che Lam's Visit

Back in the late 1970s, Kin Che as he is universally known, was a doctoral student at the University of New England. This was in the first decade after I arrived here in Armidale, and he graduated in 1981. I knew that he was from Hong Kong and the he had returned there to a position at the Chinese University, but thereafter we had no contact until a month ago when we suddenly got a message to say that he was visiting us on campus. He had retired from his university in 2012, now holds the title of Adjunct Professor, and was visiting family in Australia ... like many Chinese, Australia seems to be high on the radar as a good place to visit, just like Elyar Sadr Mousavi migrated here a year ago from Iran, but via Malaysia.

Anyway, I and some of my colleagues had great chats with him over a couple of days restoring lost memories and sharing reminiscences. We ate out together, selecting of all places, Pablo's Mexican Restaurant. Surprisingly it turned out to be a wonderful choice as Mexican foods are not common in Hong Kong. Here we are at Pablo's taken by our waitress:

And here we are with my good colleague Prof. Neil Argent sitting outside Booloominba, the former farming mansion that was converted into UNE's administrative headquarters.

In fact, Kin Che had previously taken this good picture of me and Neil sitting inside what is effectively the UNE staff club.

This kind of event makes academic life particularly interesting - meeting people from all over the world and getting to know them. I've many international connections and only today I signed off on the final version of an article I had co-authored with two Romanians and which will be published in a leading American journal. And also today I worked on a presentation I've been invited to give in Tel Aviv on 29th October coming. I would like to think that such internationalism, if practised more widely, would help defuse what I see as rampant nationalism and increasing hatred of globalisation.

Fortunately, Australia and New Zealand are relative havens of peace on this front. And small towns like ours are competing to become home to our large intake of refugees. Most people here seem to be celebrating the arrival of 200 Syrian refugees here in Armidale early next year! And Australia's population is rising fast from immigrants. When I arrived here in 1971 the country's population was 13 million. It's now officially 24.5 million! And most rapidly integrate into Australian society.

AS

Battle of Beersheba Exhibition

October 2017 has a special significance for Australians in general and the Armidale / Northern NSW region in particular. It marks the centenary of one of the most successful military campaigns of the first world war, but one that's barely recognised outside of this country or the State of Israel.

The general event in question was the campaign in Palestine which led to the removal of the Turks, who had been in occupation for almost exactly 400 years, and gave Britain the post-war mandate over the region. And the particular battle that stands out because it triggered Turkey's rapid loss of sovereignty was the charge of the largely Australian Light Horse brigade at Beersheba (Be'er Sheva for the Israelis) commanded by General Chauvel who was born on the NSW North Coast. Many of the Light Horse participants were from rural NSW and especially the Armidale region. To give Britain its due, the overall commander of the Middle East forces was General Allenby. These events probably accelerated the Israel's establishment in the late 1940s and so will attract large crowds to Beersheba on the 31st October when a re-enactment of the charge - sometimes billed as the last charge in military history - will take place.

So it was no great surprise when Armidale's New England Regional Art Museum (NERAM) announced that it was staging a commemorative display of photos, artwork and objects connected with the event. The contents were sourced mainly from the University of New England archives, local residents, Light Horse museums / collections and other locations. And I should add that local residents are thronging the display judging from the crowds we saw during our visit yesterday.

It was a great display as the following pictures attest.

The display had many narratives explaining how events came to pass.

Here's a portrait of Chauvel and the reconstruction of one of the horsemen.

There were maps and 'artistic' impressions of the charge. Interestingly, the top map shows Jaffa, which is now part of Tel Aviv, but fails to mention Tel Aviv itself, which apparently did not exist!

And here's an impression of the terrain over which the battle took place.

There were many photos taken during the preparations for the campaign - often taken in Egypt where the Light Horse assembled. Some were at the also famous, but eventually disastrous, earlier campaign at Gallipoli in Turkey itself.

Here is a photo of the ruined Turkish positions at Beersheba after their capitulation. Below that are two pictures of the surrounding, and rather desolate, countryside. The campaign had considerable logistical problems with supplying food, water and munitions in this rather unforgiving environment.

AS