Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse: catalogue cover

Our exhibition catalogue has now sold out. You can, however, now download a pdf file of the catalogue and get this printed yourself.

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I realise this is short notice, but we just filmed a short segment on the charge at Beersheba (31 October 1917) in the exhibition this afternoon. It should run on SBS World News Australia, from 6.30 to 7.30 pm. It is being run in conjunction with a story about the dedication of the new Australian Light Horse Memorial at Beersheba by the Israeli President Shimon Peres and the Australian Governor-General Major General Michael Jeffery in Israel on 28 April 2008.

You can read further reports here and here.

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My colleague Robyn Van Dyk and I have probably taken well over 1,200 people on guided tours of the Memorial’s current special exhibition Lawrence of Arabia and the Light Horse. As ANZAC Day 2008 approaches it is interesting to reflect on which Light Horse images have  resonated most profoundly with our visitors. This week, I also took some veterans from the Vietnam War through the exhibition. They had served in the battle for Fire Support Patrol Base Coral in May 1968 and I asked them which images had a special meaning for them.

So, I’d like to draw attention to several images, each of which has something to reveal about the ANZACs involved in the campaign from the defence of the Sinai in 1916 through to their great ride to Damascus in late 1918. (This will probably take at least two posts.)

Lieutenant General Sir Harry Chauvel of the Light Horse

James McBey, Lieutenant-General Sir H. G. Chauvel, KCB, KCMG, 1918, oil on canvas, 53.3 cm x 38.1 cm, Collection of the Imperial War Museum (ART 2471), London; gift of the artist, 1919In 1916, after the Gallipoli campaign, the Australian Light Horse brigades remained in Egypt and, with the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade, were formed into the ANZAC Mounted Division under the command of Major General Harry Chauvel. Light Horsemen were hardy, self-reliant and independent minded. They could shoot straight and ride well. Harry Chauvel was no exception and his soldiers knew it.

He emerged from the First World War as one of Australia’s most effective and widely respected generals. It was Chauvel who issued the order to charge at Beersheba in the third and successful attack on the Gaza defensive line of the Turks. His able and dynamic command spearheaded the British advance through Palestine in 1917 and 1918, and projected it through Damascus to the northern Syrian border and the final capitulation of the Turkish forces.

James McBey, a British official war artist, has captured this very candid image of Chauvel as the commander of the Desert Mounted Corps in Homs at the end of the campaign in mid-October 1918. He is shown proudly wearing his slouch hat and the emu plumes worn by many Light Horse regiments. Chauvel looks older than his 53 years, but appears very much to be a man in the moment. By this stage he was responsible for thousands of Turkish prisoners, hospitals over-flowing with wounded soldiers and others struck by serious diseases including typhoid and malaria, and for restoring order in the large cities like Damascus that were suffering from the chaos that followed the Turkish withdrawal. Chauvel was shocked by this portrait:  I think he probably hadn’t realised how much the war had aged him. He wrote to his wife in London that the painting was drying in his hotel room and he expected that it would give him night mares. read on

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These tours are advertised elsewhere on our website, but just in case you’ve not seen them, either Robyn or myself are running tours of the exhibition at 10.45 am on the following dates:

14, 21, 24 and 27 February

5, 10, 12, 19 and 26 March

2, 9, 16, 23, 24* and 30 April

7, 14, 21, and 24 May

They usually last around an hour, unless we get carried away. Of course you can always download the audio tour and bring it with you on an MP3 player.

* Please note: the tour scheduled for 24 April has now been delayed by 30 mins and will now commence at 11.15 am. Mal

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I now have a better set of images of the exhibition taken by one of our professional photographers, Kerry Alchin. I had thought that I might just replace some of my terribly dark and grainy images, but after talking to our web team, we thought we might upload this new set as a slide show.

You can stop the slideshow (by double clicking an image) to view more information or you can look at the previous posts, or even post a question in a comment. Here we go, mind the step … read on

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 The launch team

Beth McGeachy-Blay and her events team made sure that the launch of our exhibition on 6 December 2007 was over the top. She is shown above (third from the right) with members of her team and the two camel mascots she managed to “borrow” from the Australian Army’s 26 Transport Squadron in Puckapunyal, with their handlers Privates Arron Daniel (far left) and Michael Francis (far right).

 Launch tent exterior, Memorial’s Western Courtyard Launch tent interior 2 Launch tent interior Western courtyard gallery (before it was packed with guests!)

read on

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Australian Flying Corps feature (1) AFC feature (2) Stuart Reid’s “Handley Page reaches rendezvous with Lawrence of Arabia” Lawrence’s black robes

In terms of the links between Lawrence and Australians, this is one of the most fascinating parts of the exhibition. The Australian Flying Corps (AFC) had many pilots who had begun their service as members of the Light Horse, such as Captain Sir Ross Smith, who is shown in a portrait above by W.B. McInnes. The AFC provided air support to both Lawrence and the Light Horse. In the low showcase we see Ross Smith’s decorations and logbook as well as a letter by another AFC officer, Stan Nunan, who describes Lawrence in heroic terms to his family in early 1918. Stuart Reid depicted the arrival of the huge Handley Page aircraft in September 1918, piloted by Ross Smith and was given the black silk robes (right) by Lawrence, which his widow later donated to the Memorial. They are displayed in this exhibition for the first time. read on

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Here are some images of the exhibition. We haven’t got the professional photos yet, so these are just my snaps. They’ll be good enough to give you a look at most of the features we have on display. (I still need to add a couple that I seem to have missed when I took these, so check back sometime in January 2008.)

Main entrance showcaseThe two films - “Lawrence of Arabia” and “Forty Thousand Horsemen”The two books: “Seven pillars of wisdom” & “The Australian Imperial Force in Sinai and Palestine, 1914–1918″

This initial feature recognises what most people may know about the legends of both Lawrence and the Light Horse. Above you can see: the entrance showcase containing a full light horseman’s uniform, saddle and kit alongside a set of T.E. Lawrence’s robes and headdress from All Souls College in Oxford; a feature on the two legendary films, Lawrence of Arabia (1962) and Forty Thousand Horsemen (1941); and the two early histories, Henry Gullett’s The Australian Imperial Force in Sinai and Palestine, 1914-1918 (1923) and T.E. Lawrence’s Seven pillars of wisdom (1926). The DVD screen shows both original feature film trailers and there is a mirror under Seven pillars of wisdom so that the binding by Roger de Coverly & Sons is visible. Beyond this we explore the history behind the legends. read on

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Well, the exhibition is now open and my feet have barely hit the ground since. When things slow down I’ll post some images and information about the opening, but currently I am still spending about 3-4 hours a day running tours as the exhibition seems pretty popular so far. Don’t panic! It is open until 25 May 2008.

As many of you will have read, Jeremy Wilson came out to the opening of the exhibition and presented a public talk on the Lawrence and taking of Akaba on 9 December in the Memorial’s Telstra Theatre. This visit was sponsored very generously by the British High Commission in Canberra.  While he was here Jeremy also recorded a long interview with Phillip Adams on his Late Night Live show on the ABC’s Radio National. This show went to air late on Wednesday night, 12 December 2008. It was replayed from 4-5 pm the following afternoon and was also available as a podcast on the ABC’s website. (It looks like this podcast is now no longer available from the ABC. Updated by MMB 16 January 2008)

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Our installation is almost complete now and we will open tonight. This week a few of us have done a lot of media interviews, so it looks to be attracting a good deal of attention already.

We released some edited film footage taken by Harry Chase for Lowell Thomas during his short stay with Lawrence and the Arabs in 1918. It was provided by the Imperial War Museum as it comes from their collection. You can view this footage and read a press report on the ABC’s website here.

An interesting thing about this footage is that Lawrence appears to be wearing a black “aba” (a long, loose sleeveless outer garment of aba or fine silk worn by Bedouin Arabs). You can see one of his abas in the exhibition and this one now belongs to the Memorial. I think it is beautifully displayed, for the first time in our history, along with an “agal” (a cord that secures a headdress). Both were given to the Memorial by the widow of artist Stuart Reid, who’s work is featured in the exhibition.

Lawrence aba belonging to the Memorial read on

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