Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

# 388 SINCLAIR Harold                       2nd Light Horse Regiment
 
Harry Sinclair was born around 1893. There is no mention of his parents in the official files and Mr W. F. Andrews of Woolmer stated that he and his wife had adopted Harry from the Brisbane orphanage when he was two years old. Mr Andrews became Harry’s legal guardian. Harry attended school at Meringandan and then worked on the farm at Woolmer.
 
Harry presented himself for enlistment in Toowoomba on 19th August 1914. War had only been declared two weeks before and there was a rush of enlistments to recruiting centres around the nation. Harry took the train down to Brisbane where he was given a riding test. A successful test allowed him to be placed into the 1st Light Horse Training Regiment but there was very little time for training as the first contingent of Light Horse sailed on the “Star of England” from Brisbane on 24th September. The embarkation roll shows Harry had named his guardian, Mr Andrews, as his next of kin. He had also allocated half of his overseas pay to a bank account in Toowoomba. After a three week layover in Melbourne on account of concerns about German raiders operating in the South West Pacific; the “Star of England” joined the rest of the convoy that would transport the three brigades of Australian infantry and one brigade of light horse overseas. While at sea, the news was received that Turkey had entered the war on the side of Germany and the Austro Hungarian Empire. This had important consequences for the British as it exposed the Suez Canal and Egypt to Turkish attention and possible attack. The Australians landed in the ancient port city of Alexandria in Egypt on 9th December 1914 and proceeded to a camp site under the shadow of the pyramids at Mena. Harry spent some time in a hospital nearby at Heliopolis with a case of measles.
 
The Light Horsemen began training in earnest for the anticipated Turkish incursion into Egypt. The Light Horse were not cavalry but rather mounted infantry. Their method of operation was to quickly ride to a location and in a section of four riders would dismount to assume positions from which to engage the enemy. One member of the section would be designated to care for the horses behind the post. During the early months of 1915, the Light Horse also engaged in patrolling the Suez Canal area for signs of enemy activity. Some units were also tasked with engaging local Senussi tribesmen who were creating problems. When the three brigades of Australian infantry began to be shipped to the island of Mudros in preparation for the landings at Anzac Cove on 25th April, the Light Horse remained on the Suez Canal.
 
When the Gallipoli landings did not go anywhere near as well as hoped, the Light Horse were despatched to the Anzac beachhead, without their horses, where they would be used as infantry reinforcements. The 2ndLHR landed at Anzac Cove on 12th May 1915 and immediately proceeded up the slope to Quinn’s post where they relieved the 15th Infantry Battalion. Harry had been in the trenches at Quinn’s less than a day when he received a gunshot wound to the leg. He was taken down to the beach at Anzac Cove and from there taken out by lighter to the Hospital Ship “Caledonia.” On 19th May, Harry was admitted to the 15thAustralian Hospital at Alexandria. After a little less than a month, Harry was discharged and sent back to Gallipoli, arriving on 25th June. The 2nd LHR would spend most of its tour in the defensive line at Quinn’s Post, mounting a single attack in August to coincide with the attack further up the ridge at Lone Pine.
 
The 2nd LHR was evacuated from Gallipoli on 14th November 1915, just as winter was closing in. The rest of the Australian force was evacuated before Christmas and by early in the new year was back in camps in Egypt.
 
In the early months of 1916, the Light Horse returned to its traditional role of patrolling the Sinai Desert and forming a defensive line against Turkish forces. In July, the two Light Horse Brigades moved out to the terminus of the Sinai railway to block a combined Turkish and German force at Romani. The Battle of Romani in August marked the end of the Ottoman advance. The Egyptian Expeditionary Force, comprising English, Indian, Australian and New Zealand Forces then pushed back against the Ottoman forces taking El Arish and Raffa on the border with Palestine. Harry was engaged in most of these actions, interspersed with periods in rest camps.
 
As the Ottomans withdrew from Egypt, they established a defensive line inside Palestine which stretched from Gaza on the Mediterranean coast to the railway terminus at Beersheba. The 2nd Light Horse were part of the attacking force which attempted to break through unsuccessfully at Gaza on 19th April 1917. The Gaza defences held until November 1917 when units of the 4th Light Horse Brigade (4th and 12th Light Horse Regiments) staged a daring attack at Beersheba. The Gaza line quickly folded and the 2nd Light Horse moved into Palestine proper, capturing Jaffa and Jerusalem before Christmas.
 
The 2nd Light Horse remained on the Jordan River’s west bank during the first months of 1918. Harry’s file contains an intriguing notation that on 17th March he faced a Field General Court Martial. The details in the file are very sketchy but it appears that Harry and a Trooper Flanagan were being disruptive in the township of Bethlehem. The full transcript of the FGCM is held in the National Archives, but is only available after paying a fee of $36 and a wait of six or more weeks. Suffice to say that Harry was sentenced to 21 days of Field Punishment #2 (prisoner to spend up to two hours per day in manacles) for the crime of yelling out “woo-hoo!” Sensibly, this sentence would appear to have been remitted. Flanagan did not face any charges.
 
During the latter half of 1918, the Anzac Mounted Division under Lt Gen Harry Chauvel commenced a campaign in Jordan, moving gradually northward on the river’s east bank toward Damascus in Syria. On the 1st of October 1918, the garrison of Damascus surrendered to Chauvel’s Anzac Mounted Division and an Arab Army. Sometime in the next ten days, Trooper Sinclair fell ill with dysentery. He was admitted to the former German hospital in Damascus where he subsequently died of dysentery on 15th October 1918 at the age of 24. The Ottoman Forces surrendered unconditionally on 30th October and the war in the middle east was over.
 
Harry Sinclair was buried in the Damascus British Cemetery. His stepfather, Mr Andrews of Woolmer chose the following inscription for his headstone: LOVED BY ALL WHO KNEW HIM.