LATTIMORE, James Alfred
| Service Number: | 1763 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 6th Light Horse Regiment |
| Born: | Not yet discovered |
| Home Town: | Not yet discovered |
| Schooling: | Not yet discovered |
| Occupation: | Not yet discovered |
| Memorials: | Wingham St. Matthew's Anglican Church Memorial Lynch Gate |
World War 1 Service
| 18 Nov 1915: | Involvement Private, 1763, 6th Light Horse Regiment, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '2' embarkation_place: Sydney embarkation_ship: HMAT Persic embarkation_ship_number: A34 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 18 Nov 1915: | Embarked Private, 1763, 6th Light Horse Regiment, HMAT Persic, Sydney |
Our Family ANZACS - A J Lattimore
Alfred James Lattimore
Enlisted 10 August 1915 – 6th Light Horse Regiment – No 1763
Alf was nearly 23 and working as a carpenter at Wingham when he enlisted at Newcastle as part of the 12th Reinforcement of the 6th Light Horse Regiment. At the time of his enlistment, the Regiment was off fighting with the 1st Division in Gallipoli. He nominated his sister Eliza as his next of kin. He could obviously ride a horse well to be selected for a Light Horse Regiment.
He was 5 foot 7 inches tall with a fair complexion, blue eyes and light brown hair.
His unit left Sydney on 18 November 1915 on the troopship Persic bound for Egypt but the Gallipoli campaign was over before he arrived. The Regiment then joined the newly formed ANZAC Mounted Division and they were soon sent to defend the Suez Canal against any Ottoman attack.
In June 1916 he was detached for two months to help with the 7th Mobile Veterinary Section.
In August 1916 the Regiment took part in battles against the Ottomans at Romani and Katia, east of the Suez Canal and followed the retreating Ottomans into the Sinai Desert. After two months of patrolling the desert, they attacked the Ottomans in the first and second battles of Gaza but both battles were unsuccessful.
Alf spent time in hospital with an abscess on his arm but he was back in time for the famous Battle of Beersheba in October 1917. The Light Horse Regiments carried out a fully mounted charge on the heavily defended town. The charge could have been catastrophic had the Ottomans stood their ground with heavy machine gun fire. However, the Ottomans, after some initial fierce resistance, crumbled under the oncoming onslaught and the town defences collapsed.
After the capture of Jerusalem on 30 December 1917 the Regiment carried out mopping up operations around the Jordan River. In February 1918, Alf was admitted to hospital in Jericho suffering from urinary issues. After resting in Port Said in Egypt he rejoined the Regiment but three weeks later near the Jordan River he was shot in both feet, the bullets shattering bones. He was picked up by a camel field ambulance and eventually taken to the 14th Australian General Hospital at Port Said.
After months of therapy to treat his left leg which had turned septic, he was recommended for discharge. He returned to Australia on the Port Darwin, arriving on 18 August 1918. He was officially discharged as medically unfit on 3 September 1918.
The nominal strength of the Regiment was about 522 men. By the end of the war the Regiment had suffered 111 killed and 461 wounded. The Ottoman Empire surrendered on 30 October 1918.
When he returned to Australia, Alf and another soldier were given a welcome return function at Taree but then they started showing signs of influenza. They were isolated at the local hospital and both managed to survive the so called “Spanish Flu” that returning soldiers brought back to Australia and which killed many thousands.
Alf married Edith and they had at least one child. Alf died in 1954 when he was 62.
Glendon O'Connor 2015
Submitted 9 January 2015 by Glendon O'Connor