The evolution and development of the Australian Light Horse, 1860-1945

Abstract

Despite the place that the Light Horse occupies in Australia s military history and the national martial mythology, there has not yet been a scholarly attempt to investigate the evolution and development of Australia s mounted branch. This thesis is the first attempt to fill this gap in our knowledge and understanding of the history of the Australian Army. In doing so it will consider the ways in which the Light Horse evolved, the place it had in defence thinking, the development of its doctrine, its organisational changes and the way in which that organisation and its men interacted with their society. This thesis firstly analyses the role and place of the mounted soldier in the British and colonial/dominion armies in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries before going on to examine what effects the debates about this had on the development of Australia s mounted troops. It will find that in the nineteenth century the disparate mounted units of the Australian colonies were established mainly along the organisational model of the mounted rifleman. Influenced by social ideas about citizen soldier horsemen and a senior officer with firm views, this model continued to be used by the new Light Horse until well into the First World War. During that war it was gradually discovered that this military model had its limitations and by the end of the war much of the Light Horse had become cavalry. This discovery in turn meant that during the inter-war period cavalry continued to be part of the army. Analysed in depth also are the many organisational changes that affected the mounted branch during its existence. Some of these reflected doctrinal and tactical lessons, and others were the result of various plans by the government and military authorities to improve the army. It will be seen that regardless of these plans part-time citizen horse units continued to have many problems and they rarely came to be what the government wanted of them. That they were as strong as they were was testimony to the efforts of a dedicated and enthusiastic few.