Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

#292  ARTHUR Leslie Raymond                     2nd Light Horse Regiment
 
Leslie Arthur was born at Lismore to parents John and Sarah Arthur on 5th August 1897. He attended school at Derroughby Public School in the ranges north of Lismore before the family relocated to Plainby between Crows Nest and Goombungee on the Darling Downs, Queensland. Les completed his schooling at Plainby and then worked on the family farm, “The Pines.” As a young man, Les was a member of the congregation of the Plainby Methodist Church where he showed promise as lay preacher. He was also a member of the Crow’s Nest Rifle Club for three years before enlistment. Rifle clubs were encouraged by the government as a way for those who lived in rural areas to receive some military training; which was at the time compulsory for all young men.
 
Les travelled down to Enoggera by train, walking in to the recruiting office there on 16th August 1914, barely two weeks since the declaration of war by England against Germany. Les probably embodied the sentiments of many of the young men at that time. The newspapers had been carrying stories about German demands towards Belgium for weeks during which there was great enthusiasm for the British Empire to stand up for that nation, and its neutrality. Young men like Les Arthur thronged to the recruiting depots out of a sense of duty to the empire, and a desire to not miss out in an opportunity for adventure. The general feeling at the time was that the war would be over by Christmas and so the time to join the great adventure would not last.
 
Les informed the recruiting officer he was 19 years and one month old; which according to information later supplied by his family was incorrect. He was most likely only 17 but at five feet, eleven and three quarter inches he probably looked the part. In any event, there is no evidence that Les supplied the necessary document signed by his parents as he was under age, in fact his enlistment was probably encouraged. A paragraph in a local newspaper reported breathlessly about Les being one of the first in the district to enlist, and that there was already a local “patriotic league” which had the main aim of encouraging enlistments or in the vernacular of the time; “join the colours.”
 
Les stated his occupation as farmer and named his father of “The Pines” Plainby via Crows Nest as next of kin. Les went into camp and passed the riding test which allowed his acceptance into the Light Horse. Les’ friend, Norman Dollin, a stockman, joined Les in camp at Enoggera three days later. Both were accepted into “B” Squadron of the 2ndLight Horse Regiment. The new light horsemen were kitted out in roughly the same uniform as the part time pre-war Australian Light Horse. Les had time to have studio portrait taken, prints of which were probably gifted to family and friends. He is shown as a fresh-faced youth (which he was) wearing a leather bandolier and hat which both appear to be new. On 24th September 1914, the 50 officers and 500 ordinary ranks of the 2nd LHR boarded trains at Alderley Station and proceeded to the Pinkenba Wharf where they embarked on the “Star of England.” The ship was a steamer that had operated on the England Australia run and had been hastily requisitioned by the Australian Government as a troop transport. She was fitted with accommodation for 600 men and 550 horses. The “Star” made its way south to Sydney at around the same time that fears of a German Cruiser Squadron from the Chinese port of Tsingtao was possibly in the western Pacific. Until the whereabouts of Von Spee’s ships could be verified, the troop transports carrying the first contingent of the AIF remained in coastal waters or in port. It is most likely that the “Star” in company with the “Omrah” which departed Brisbane on the same day carrying a Queensland Infantry Battalion (9th Battalion), docked in Port Melbourne on 30th September and men and animals were unloaded and accommodated ashore.
 
The Royal Australian Navy flagship H.M.A.S Australia under Admiralty orders had been scouring the waters around New Britain and New Ireland searching for the German squadron from early September but had been unable to determine the enemy’s whereabouts. Radio messages from Samoa and Tahiti indicated that the squadron was making for the coast of South America (where they engaged and sunk a British flotilla at Coromandel) and posed no further threat to Australian waters. The authorities were at that stage unaware that the light cruiser SMS Emden had detached from Von Spee’s group and was mine laying in ports around the Indian Ocean.
 
The 2nd LHR re embarked on the “Star” at Port Melbourne on 20th October and made their way to Albany Western Australia where the  convoy was assembling. On 1st November, while the convoy was at sea on the Indian Ocean, H.M.A.S. Sydney attacked the Emden off the Cocos Islands and drove the ship aground. The surviving Emden’s Officers and crew were rescued and transferred to one of the troop ships until the convoy docked at Colombo. After an interrupted passage, the 2nd LHR disembarked at Suez on 9th December and boarded a train for the journey to the AIF camp at Mena on the outskirts of Cairo.
 
Once settled into tents the 2nd Light Horse joined up with two other light horse regiments (1st and 3rd LHR) to form the 1st Light Horse Brigade. Egypt provided the first opportunity for the light horse to train as a brigade although at that early stage there was no clear idea as to what their actual role would be. The Light Horse was not cavalry but mounted infantry and did not train to fight on horseback. The most common manoeuvre practiced was “Cossack defence,” in which a section of four men would ride to a commanding position, dismount, and while one of the four remained some distance to the rear holding the horses, the three riflemen would engage the enemy. The light horse was also added to the garrison based along the Suez Canal where they could patrol out into the Sinai to gather intelligence on Ottoman forces that threatened the vital shipping route.
 
It is unclear if there was any serious thought given to including the light horse into the Mediterranean Expeditionary Force, the combined naval and military force that had been assembled to force the Dardanelles to force Turkey out of the war. The plans for the MEF changed quickly after the naval forces were unable (or unwilling) to force the strait between the Gallipoli peninsula and Aisa minor. The plan then called for amphibious landings on the Gallipoli peninsula by a hastily assembled infantry force, to which the three Australian infantry brigades of the 1st Division AIF and the New Zealand division were added in preparation for a landing on 25th April 1915. Up until this point the Light Horse had no role in the campaign.
 
Once it was realized that the overly optimistic objectives of the landings at Anzac and Cape Helles could not be met without committing more ground troops, the Light Horse were ordered into the campaign. On 9th May 1915, the 2ndLHR took a train to Alexandria where they boarded the “Derano” without their horses and sailed directly to Anzac Cove, landing on 12th May. The new arrivals were soon put to work carrying water, rations and ammunition up Monash gulley to Quinn’s Post on the firing line. From then on, the Light Horse men adopted a routine of rotating into the front line at Quinn’s post, resting in Shrapnel Gulley and performing fatigue work on the beach at Anzac Cove or assisting with tunnelling.
 
Les’ prowess with a rifle may have had him designated as a sniper but if he was, he was no match for a sharpshooter from the 5th Light Horse named Billy Sing. Sing was a part Chinese kangaroo shooter from Central Queensland who as a sniper claimed at least 150 official casualties during the Gallipoli campaign. For the first few months at Anzac, the British command was forever hopeful of forcing a breakthrough but the Turks used the advantage of height to keep the Australians and New Zealanders confined to a narrow front which had not significantly progressed from the frontline established on the first day.
 
In August, a night attack on the Sari Bara ridge, supported by a British landing at Suvla Bay was the best hope of gaining the heights. To support these actions, diversions were called for all along the Anzac front, one of which was a massed attack by the 2nd Light Horse from Quinn’s post across the open ground in front of the Turkish trenches. The Australians charged across no man’s land into sustained machine gun fire in the hope of gaining the first Turkish trench. The attack failed and 16 men were killed and another 38 were wounded. Among those killed was Trooper Les Arthur who received multiple machine gun bullets to his torso. According to eyewitness reports, Les was cut down soon after leaping out of the Australian trenches. His mates carried him back to the Anzac lines covered by a blanket. Once identified to an officer’s satisfaction, Les was carried down to the cemetery at Shrapnel Valley where he was buried with Chaplain Merrington in attendance.
 
Eventually John and Sarah Arthur received Leslie’s personal effects which included with the usual cards and letters, a torch, broken sun goggles, camera and film, and a locket. An identity disc was recovered from the Shrapnel Valley cemetery when Grave Registration teams returned to Gallipoli in 1919. When the Imperial War Graves Commission began to erect permanent grave markers, Leslie’s parents chose a biblical quote from Hebrews XI : HE BEING DEAD YET SPEAKETH. John Arthur sent a copy of the photograph to the authorities taken before his son sailed for overseas with the notation “he was killed in action just two months after his 18th birthday.” This is incorrect as his birthday was 5th August, making his date of death just two days after his 18th birthday.
 
In 1967, the Australian Government issued the Gallipoli Medallion to surviving veterans or family members. Leslie’s eldest surviving brother Selby applied for the medallion on Lelie’s behalf.