Clermont’s Scott Hensley knows that if he had lived a hundred years earlier, the odds of his name being on a headstone at Gallipoli or Jerusalem war cemeteries would have been high.
It was one of the most valuable messages he gained from his recent trip to the Middle East with the In the Steps of the Light Horse tour to commemorate the centenary of the Light Horse charge at Beersheba.
“I was walking around the headstones, seeing most of the boys buried there were younger than me,” the 24-year-old central Queenslander said. “Their sacrifice really hit home to me then.”
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Scott’s great-great-uncle Jack served in the Light Horse, while his grandfather, Robert, broke in the horses used to carry the troopers to battle.
“He was too young to go so they gave him that job,” Scott said. “He was on a ship when the war ended so it turned around.”
He hadn’t done a lot of research on his great-uncle’s war service but said the trip would be a catalyst to explore more.
“This has given me very special memories.
“To be lined up ready to charge and hear the announcement that we were doing it to the minute of when the original charge took place – that sent chills down my spine.
“I won’t experience that ever again.”
Scott was one of 99 horsemen and women who travelled to Turkey, Egypt, Jordan and Israel over the last month to trace the campaigns of the Australian Light Horse and New Zealand Mounted Rifles in the Sinai-Palestine front of the first World War, and to learn the full significance their victories had on the war and on subsequent world events.
Organised by the Australian Light Horse Association, it culminated on October 31 with a re-enactment of the famous Light Horse charge at Beersheba.
Sally Gall
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
Based at Blackall, CW Qld, where I've raised a family, run Merino sheep and beef cattle, and helped develop a region - its history, tourism, education and communications. Get in touch at 0427 575 955 if you've got a story idea for me.
