Australia supplied many troops to fight in the Great War 1914 -1919, some of Australia's soldiers were mounted on horse back. The Australian Light Horse regiments fought mainly in the Middle East, although some went to Europe. The first major engagement for these mounted troops was at Gallipoli, where they fought without their horses, along side other infantry regiments. Terrible losses were suffered by both Australians and the Turk defenders. Australian troops were part of a combined Allied assault force, but were eventually forced to withdraw.

The Light Horse regiments were then used as mounted infantry throughout Palestine, assisting in turning the tide of the War against Turkey, and eventually causing the defeat of the Ottoman Empire.

The Australians were kitted out with a wool tunic and breeches. This clothing became less than desirable in the desert conditions that the soldiers found themselves. Many contemporary photographs show these soldiers wearing shirts, sleeveless underwear, and cotton garments, during their campaigning.
The figure here is wearing a cotton made tunic and trousers. The cotton tunic is made of a very light weight cotton material, perhaps more suited for shirts than a tunic.
At the neck there is a high collar, of a stand and fall arrangement. Australian small rising sun collar badges are attached to the front of the collars. The shoulder straps both have 'Australia' titles. All the buttons on the tunic are a pressed leather button, the leather is patterned to give the appearance of a woven button, similar to that seen on many Sports Coats (this button also is mistaken for 'map of Australia' buttons when seen in black and white photographs of the time). The cuffs of the tunic, unlike the button up cuff of the woollen tunic, is plain with an officer's type 'V' cuff. Another similarity to the officer's tunic is the waist. The woollen tunic usually had a waist band-belt fitted (missing from later pattern tunics), but this cotton tunic has a simple sewn on band, with no buckle or tongue, this is the same as the officer's 1902 pattern tunic. The four front pockets are patched and have covering flaps.

This particular tunic shows signs of having had a pair of colour patches to the 3rd Light Horse Regiment, on each shoulder, unfortunately they have been removed. It is interesting to note that where-as most Australian WW1 era patches were made from different pieces of coloured wool felt, there also existed a series of patches that were made of a woven silk. These silk patches were woven onto a piece of kakhi cotton material, in a fashion similar to the WW2 German 'bevo' weave. It has been suggested that this style of tunic was made for wearing about whilst on leave. Some of the features of the tunic certainly support that theory. The high collar and the cuffs that do not unbutton, would be two features that would not recommend its use as a fighting tunic. However, there are photographs of it being worn in all circumstances.

The breeches are made of the same material as the tunic. These breeches follow the pattern of contemporary mounted pattern breeches. Being made of such a light material, they show more damage that the standard pattern would be expected to display.

The fighting equipment that would be worn with this uniform is the British pattern of 1903, leather bandoleer equipment. This P'03 equipment usually consisted of a waist belt, two 10 round ammunition pouches, two 15 round Ammunition pouches, a bayonet in a leather frog, a 9 pouch bandoleer (10 rounds per pocket), water bottle in a carrier and sling, and a slung haversack. More equipment would be carried about the saddle on the horse.

Grant Napier

This page was last updated by Russell Napier 26th June, 1997.