Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Trooper Arthur Roy Earl:

Arthur Roy Earl was born on the 4^th of August 1892 in the town of Mallala, South Australia. Named after his father, also Arthur Roy Earl, he was the first of six children to Arthur Roy Earl and Eliza Ann Earl (nee Jury.) He was educated at Mallala Public School.

Arthur Earl responded to the Empire’s call and enlisted on the 10^th of April, 1916 and was placed in the 21^st Reinforcements of the 9^th Light Horse Regiment  He embarked at Adelaide on RMS Mooltan on the 24^th August, 1916 bound for Egypt.

Arriving in Egypt on the 21^st of September, 1916 he was marched into camp just outside Cairo by the Pyramids. A month later on the 21^st of October, 1916 he was transferred to the 3^rd Light Horse Training Regiment which was attached to the 3^rd Light Horse Bridge. This was where Arthur Earl underwent his Light Horse training. From here he was marched out to the Imperial School of Instruction at Zeitoun Camp, Egypt on the 4^th of November to undergo machine gun training. Finally on the 20^th of November, 1916 Arthur Roy Earl was transferred to the 3^rd Light Horse Machine Gun Squadron and joined them six days later at Bir El-Mazar.

Between, November, 1916 and June, 1917 Arthur Roy Earl fought with the 3^rd Light Horse Machine Gun Squadron in the Middle East against the Turkish advance there. Most notably during this time he was involved in the battle of Rafa in the Sinai on the 9^th of January 1917. During the battle Earl was in one of the six machine gun sections that were involved in the fighting. He was also involved in the first and second attack on Gaza in the Palestine from March until April, 1917.   

While fighting in the Middle East on the 26^th of June, 1917, at Um Urgan in Palestine, Earl was accidentally killed. At approximately 3:00pm Arthur Earl had approached a newly constructed dug out where Walter Benthien and Loy Doran, both 3^rd Light Horse Machine Gun Squadron men were resting. A few minutes later he crawled in and was about to warn them that their dug out had a chance of collapse when it did collapse on top of the three men. After about 20 – 25 minutes Trooper Walter Benthien was rescued and was still conscious. He reported to the rescue party - unaware of Trooper Earl’s presence at the time of collapse - that he had also being buried. Unfortunately as the rescue party didn’t know this fact they had being dumping the excess dirt onto of the already cover Trooper Earl. After about another minute, however, the party found Trooper Arthur Roy Earl unconscious. Several minutes after that Trooper Loy Doran was also recovered unconscious. Despite many efforts that lasted about an hour both Trooper Earl and Trooper Doran couldn’t be revived. On the 27^th of June, the next day, Earl was buried in Tel-el-Fara Military Cemetery. He was aged 24.   

An inquest into the deaths of Trooper Arthur Roy Earl and Trooper Loy Doran was held the next day with 5 statements presented to the board. At the end of the day both deaths, “occurred from sources entirely beyond… control, no blame being attached to anyone.” In essence the inquest findings placed the deaths down to accidental means. In 1919 Arthur Roy Earl’s remains were exhumed from Tel-el-Fara Military Cemetery and reburied in the Beersheba Military Cemetery, Palestine, now Israel.                  

Many remembered Arthur Earl as a competent, fine young man.  

Below is the statement given to the inquest board by Walter Benthien, the trooper to survive and tell the tale of his ordeal:

“At about 1500 on June 26^th Doran and myself were digging a Dug out which we had finished and were sitting in it talking when Trooper Earl came along and remained in the entrance on his hands and knees talking to us. Shortly after he came in a piece of earth fell and hit him on the head and apparently stunned him. More earth fell on myself and Doran, and Doran in attempting to get out was covered. I stopped when I was afraid a move would cover me further and heard Doran and Earl calling out for about 5 minutes when they suddenly stopped. I was rescued about 15 or 20 minutes afterwards. As soon as I was taken out I called that Earl was there as well as Doran. Several men knew we were digging the dugout. While digging it we several times hit the roof and walls with a shovel to test their safety and all being well we went on and finished it. Earl was dug out a minute or two after myself and Doran the same time after Earl. Earl advised us when he came in to make an arch of the roof as the flat roof was liable to fall. This we intended to do when the accident occurred.”  

Information from Trooper Earl's service record.  Nathan Rohrlach