Description

Title: History of the Fourth Light Horse Brigade, AIF.  The War of 1914-1918, and the Egyptian Rebellion, 1919

Author: G N Nutting and E W Hammond

Condition:

Edition: 1st Edition

Publication Date: 1953

Cover: Hard Cover without Dust Jacket  – 69 pages

Comments: The history of the 4th Light Horse Brigade AIF during World War One.

The 4th Light Horse Brigade was a mounted infantry brigade of the First Australian Imperial Force serving in the Middle Eastern theatre of World War I. The brigade was formed in March 1915 and shipped to Egypt without their horses and was broken up in Egypt in August 1915. Reformed in February 1917, the Brigade was attached to the Imperial Mounted Division 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.

The 4th Light Horse Brigade was raised in response to a promise made by the Australian Government to supply a division of 20,000 Australians comprising infantry, artillery and cavalry to be used at the discretion of Britain. The 4th Light Horse Brigade was part of the 4th Contingent that was raised from 4 March 1915. The 4th Light Horse Brigade was primarily raised from recruits currently serving in the various militia light horse formations created as a consequence of the Kitchener Report 1910 and the introduction of Universal Training.

The original Brigade embarked to Egypt during months of May and June 1915. In Egypt additional training occurred at the Heliopolis Camp. Subsequent embarkations of reinforcements occurred as and when sufficient recruits were gathered and prepared for movement to a war theatre.

After returning to Egypt from the Gallipoli Campaign the 4th 11th and 12th Light Horse Regiments remained unbrigaded until the War Office agreed to reform the 4th Light Horse Brigade in January 1917. The brigade would join the 3rd Light Horse Brigade and the 5th and 6th Mounted Brigades to form the Imperial Mounted Division (later known as the Australian Mounted Division). 

The most notable action the 4th Light Horse Brigade participated in was the cavalry charge during the Battle of Beersheba in 1917.

The Brigade was disbanded in July 1919 when the individual regiments returned to Australia from June to July 1919. As each Regiment arrived in the specific home port, they were disbanded.