4th Light Horse Regiment
Memorial Association
My great uncle, John William Henderson was one of the originals in the Regiment, enlisting on 24 August 1914. He served in C Squadron.
He signed up with his best mate Percy Holloway. Jock’s service number was 420 and Percy’s was 421.
When WW1 was declared both were in Wagga Wagga shearing, having ridden their push bikes from Learmonth in Victoria to NSW for some ready cash.
Jock’s family managed to safely keep most of the letters he sent home from 1914 to 1918. The following are some of the interesting snippets of information, extracted from his letters, provide a glimpse into the troopers’ daily life experiences; the adventure they had to endure both the good and bad.
Letter home 4 Dec 1914 Life aboard the HMAT Wiltshire.
Australian Naval Victory against the German Cruiser SMS Emden
“We left Albany on the first of November, after staying a week, and we picked up the New Zealand troops there. There were ten ship loads of them. We were escorted by two Imperial Cruisers Minotaur and Hampshire plus (Australia’s) Sydney and Melbourne and a Japanese Cruiser named Ibouki.
It was a great sight to see the fleet leaving Albany. They were all in three Divisions and nine boats in each Division, but the novelty soon wore off, there was no more excitement till the tenth of November. The Minotaur picked up a wireless message from the Emden. They weren’t long getting in to her tracks, then the Sydney got into action with her at about nine in the morning. The firing lasted about an hour when they ran the Emden ashore on Cocos Island to save sinking.
The fight was fifteen miles from us, we could not see them, but could hear the shots being fired. It was a great sight to see the Japanese cruiser going across, she passed right by the bow of our boat. She was travelling about 28 knot an hour, she was making a great swell in the ocean. They took the prisoners on board one of our boats. There was great cheering when we heard Sydney won. That was the first time the Australian Navy got into action and resulted in a victory.”
4th LHR Mascot was Mick the Possum
“All went well then after we left Colombo on 15th November till November 19th when, after a very short illness, “Mick” the regimental possum passed away. He was interred with full military honours.”
Letter home 12 Dec, 1914 Arrival in Egypt -
“We never had the luck to get to England, but we might have the chance later on, it is not much of a place out here, we are camped on the edge of the Great Sahara Desert. We disembarked at Alexandria after staying there about three days. We got straight off the boat and into the train. We left Alexandria at 6 o’clock that night and got to Cairo at about one the next morning, then we had to walk about ten miles and lead our horses. We arrived at camp about five. We never got no sleep that night and I can tell you we were pretty tired on it next day. We had no tents for a couple of days but we are getting fixed up now. I think we will be here for a long time yet, they are putting up mess rooms for us and a lot more buildings about the camp. It is a terribly big camp. Broadmeadows was nothing to it, it must take a bit of money to keep it going. They have Egyptians carting all the transport to the camp, our own transport horses are not ready to work yet. It is funny to watch them getting about in their carts. They have donkeys, mules and the camels scare the life out of the horses.”
Letter home 29 Jan 1915 Mena Camp: Importance of the Mail
Mail from Australia was first sent to England, then sent back via the Suez Canal to Egypt. There was a great reliance on the news/word from home. Those out-
“ … no mail again for me. Thought that you had run out of writing paper? That I didn’t get any letters ...”
Letter home 14 Mar 1915 Mena Camp 2nd lot spoilt, we set up their horse lines for them
“There is nothing startling happening lately, some of the second Light Horse Brigade arrived here last Tuesday and they expect the rest next week. Some of our fellows went over and put down their horse lines for them, so they had nothing to do when they came. They were lucky when we came here there was nothing ready for us at all, We had to hold our horses all night. They are camped just near us. They have not got a bad lot of horses but they are not looking as well as ours did when we came off the boat.”
Susan Meyer (Henderson)
420 Trooper Jock (John William) Henderson
Broadmeadows Camp 1914
Feeding the horses, at sea, HMAT Whitshire. Jock is the trooper closer to the horses.
Letter home 16 Mar 1915 Dust storms then rain at Mena Camp:
“We had a good fall of rain here last night, about the first we have had since we’ve been here. We generally sleep out, some of the fellows slept out last night, but I got down in the mess room, and about four o’clock this morning down it came for a couple of minutes. I began to laugh to myself about the fellows that were out when the water began to came through the roof, so I got under the table. It was alright then. It made us think we were home again when we heard it raining, it seems quite a novelty to see it raining. The average rainfall in Cairo is one inch a year.”
Letter home 12 Apr 1915 C Squadron “the best unit” were picked to be the first to go.
“My Dear Mother,
As it is the last night we are spending in Egypt I thought I would drop you a line before we left. Our Squadron is the only squadron that are going. There is no use for us all, so as we are the best squadron in all the Regiment that left Australia we were picked to do the scouting. There has been a whole Army Corp gone. There are only a hundred and fifty four of us with the Machine Gun Section. If we can get landed safely we will be into action at the end of the week. We have been long enough waiting to go we are well sick of here long ago.”
Life At Gallipoli: In 1916 in a letter to his Dad Jock explained “I could write a volume about Gallipoli, but it would all be censored.” What Jock did write home 31 Jul 1915
“We are in the trenches again now. I think I would just as soon be in them as out. The only thing you are locked up in them, you can’t get the fresh air the same. When we are out, we have to work like niggers and you are not much safer than in here. It is pretty warm in here and you don’t get much cool breeze but one good thing you can get as much swimming as you like but all the same I don’t care how soon the weather gets cooler. It is nearly twelve months now since we mobilised, the year soon flies. It seems no time since we went into camp at Broadmeadows.”
Letter home 11 Aug 1915 Gallipoli August Offensive
“… all the rest of the boys are well here, except Percy Holloway. He got hit in both thighs with shrapnel a couple of days ago, but he was lucky both pieces went right through and never touched the bone.”
(Jock neglected to tell his parents in this letter that it was he who carried his injured best mate down to the beach casualty clearing station. A fact he later admitted to his father.)
Letter to Mother 26 Apr 1916 London, First Anzac Day
“I think yesterday was the best day we have had since we left Australia. We celebrated the landing at Gallipoli. About 3,000 Australians and 700 New Zealanders marched through London. We arrived at Waterloo Station at 10.30 am and marched down the Strand and past Whitehall to Westminster Abbey where we held a memorial service to the men that were killed in the landing; the King and Queen being present also Lord Kitchener. It was the first time I had seen the King. After the service we marched down Victoria St down Buckingham Palace Road then down the Mall and Trafalgar Square into the Strand then to the Hotel Cecil where we were entertained to luncheon. After lunch we marched back along the Strand again into “His Majesty’s Theatre” where there was a special matinee held. After the matinee we marched back to Waterloo Station to entrain for home. I think it was one of the most impressive sights I have seen in England. The streets were crowded with spectators. I will send you a paper with the account of it in.”
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1917 Jock spent 1917 as a mounted Light Horseman with the 1st and 2nd Anzac Mounted Corp, working on scouting, traffic control and on salvage duties with the NZ troops
In Sep, at his own request, Jock transferred to the 12th Field Artillery Brigade; the unit with 34 Light Horsemen as NCOs
1918 Jock was a driver with the artillery; as one of the “1914 men” he was allowed to go home on four months leave. He arrived safely back home in Windermere on Christmas Eve 1918.
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Knowing I had a Gallipoli veteran as a close relative piqued my interest in WW1 research. My search began with a list of “C” Squadron names and with service numbers either side of Jock’s 420.
I made contact with firstly a descendant of service number 421. Les Holloway, a nephew of Percy Holloway was delighted to be sent copies of Jock’s letter which mentioned Percy, plus the fact that Percy’s mate Jock had aided him when he was shot during the August Offensive
Then I looked for the Learmonth district boys – the Moodies (brothers Jack, Jim and Harry) and began the search for the McIntyres.
I caught up with Lt Jack Moodie’s son Vin at the 2014 opening of the Ballarat Avenue of Honour, Western Highway overpass. He knew a lot about Jock and wanted to know why he had not re-
And lastly Andy McIntyre 4thLHR. In January 2021 the Herald Sun section “desperately seeking 4thLHR descendants” gained quite a bit of interest, including a phone call from Bill McInty about his Grandfather Andy. That was the elusive McIntyre that I had been researching, as I knew he was a firm friend of Jocks. I may have worried Bill in that I knew so much about Andy and was able to provide letters, postcards and photos.
There are connections everywhere, we just need to listen, consider the possibilities and make the links. That way the troopers of the 4thLH can live on in our memories and thoughts.
Susan Meyer (Henderson)