SERVICE PERSON RESEARCH
SERVICE PERSON DETAILS
Service Person’s
Name
Rank
Service Number
Regiment/Unit or
Ship or Squadron
Arthur Ernest Anderson
Trooper
596
2nd Australian Light Horse Regiment (C Squadron)
(one of the 3 regiments of the 1st Light Horse Brigade)
Date of Birth
1893
Place of Birth
Ravenswood, Queensland
Family Details
Single
Older brother – George Otto Anderson. Enlisted two months after Arthur.
Survived WW1 and returned to Australia in 1918 – served with 5th Australian
Light Horse Regiment, A Squadron (2nd Light Horse Brigade) and later in Anzac
Provost Corps.
Younger brother – Frank Anderson – worked in Mount Isa
Mother: Martha Anderson
Father: Sergeant Major Otto Andersen (3rd Queensland (Kennedy) Regiment)
Age at Enlistment
Place of Enlistment
21 years 9 months
Townsville, Qld
Date of Death
14 May 1915
Place of Death
Monash Gully, Gallipoli
Cemetery or
Memorial Name
Grave or Memorial
Number
Quinn’s Post Cemetery
D3
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PHOTO:
ROLL OF HONOUR, 1915, The Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld: 1866 - 1939), p.25. http://nla.gov.au/nla.newsarticle22298388 (accessed 14 February 2015)
SERVICE PERSON’S STORY/EULOGY:
Prepare by Max Kirsch
Arthur Ernest Anderson was a Trooper in the 2nd Australian Light Horse Regiment and fought at Gallipoli
until 14 May 1915 when he was killed in Monash Gully.
Arthur was born in 1893 in Ravenswood, Queensland, and was the middle son among three boys. His
father, Sergeant Major Otto Anderson and older brother, George Otto Anderson, were both soldiers.
Arthur was the first young man to enlist in Ravenswood and was also the first from his town to be killed in
action.
The 2nd Light Horse Regiment trained at the Enoggera army base in Brisbane from August to September
1914. They were part of the first Australian mounted formation raised by Australia during the First World
War. The Regiment, together with the rest of the 1st Light Horse Brigade, boarded HMAT Star of England
on 25 September bound for Egypt. They disembarked in Egypt in December and remained there until the
2nd Light Horse Regiment landed at Gallipoli on 12 May 1915. Anderson was killed in action two days later.
The diary of Major Allan William Nash and the writing of Charles Bean both provide strong descriptions of
what happened that fateful day in Monash Gully:
On May 10, word came to the soldiers at Anzac Cove that the 1st Light Horse Brigade would come to relieve
them. On 12 May 1915, the 1st Light Horse Brigade arrived without horses to relieve the infantry who were
there. The Regiment was led — under strong shellfire — into Shrapnel Gully. Many of the men from these
regiments came from farms and were seen as fine young men; unfortunately they were mostly
inexperienced.
By 13 May, the Regiment had relieved the 15th Battalion at Quinn’s Post and took up the fighting there. On
14 May, C Squadron made a night attack on the Turkish front line at Quinn’s Post. They were to assault the
enemy position, fill in the trenches between the Turkish and the Australian line, and return before daylight.
The attack was intended to be a surprise.
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A division of troops from C Squadron charged over the top but about 20 yards to the Turkish front line,
they were brutally cut down by machine guns on both sides and enemy sniper fire in front of them. The
few that actually made it to the front line caused the Turks to pull back but there weren’t enough men to
hold the trench and the soldiers of C squadron retreated.
Trooper Arthur Ernest Anderson was one of the 25 men who were killed that night. Of the 60 men who
made the sortie, 25 died and 27 were wounded.
Anderson was originally buried at Pope’s Hill Cemetery, above Monash Gully, on 15 May 1915. His body
was reinterred in 1923 to Quinn’s Post Cemetery.
Anderson died before his time as a young man intent on the protection of his beloved country.
Arthur Ernest Anderson - Rest in peace.
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Australian War Memorial 2015, Collection http://www.awm.gov.au/search/all/?op=Search&format=list
(Accessed 10 February 2015)
Australian War Memorial 2015, First World War Embarkation Rolls – Arthur Ernest Anderson
http://www.awm.gov.au/people/rolls/R1967853/ (Accessed 10 February 2015)
Australian War Memorial 2015, War diaries – 1st Light Horse Brigade
http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/RCDIG1013513/?image=3&fullscreen=true#display-image
(Accessed 10 February 2015)
Australian War Memorial 2015, War diaries – 2nd Light Horse Regiment
http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/RCDIG1012138/?image=3#display-image (Accessed 13 February 2015)
Bean, Charles Edwin Woodrow (C E W), 1941, Official History of Australia in the War of 1914–1918 (Volume
II – The Story of ANZAC from 4 May, 1915, to the evacuation of the Gallipoli Peninsula)
http://www.awm.gov.au/histories/first_world_war/AWMOHWW1/AIF/Vol2/ (Accessed 10 February 2015)
Family Notices 1916, Townsville Daily Bulletin (Qld : 1885 - 1954), p. 4. Retrieved February 12, 2015, from
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article58913334
Hamilton, John, 2008, Gallipoli Sniper, Pan Australia
National Archives of Australia 2015, Record Search: Arthur Ernest Anderson
http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=1974386
(Accessed 12 February 2015)
National Archives of Australia 2015, Record Search: George Otto Anderson
http://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=1976084
(Accessed 12 February 2015)
ROLL OF HONOUR, 1915, The Queenslander (Brisbane, Qld. :
http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article22298388 (Accessed 14 February 2015)
1866
-
1939),
p.
25.
Starr, Joan and Christopher Sweeney, 1989, Forward: The history of the 2nd/14th Light Horse (Queensland
Mounted Infantry), University of Queensland Press
State Library of Queensland, Picture Queensland http://hdl.handle.net/10462/deriv/127828
(Accessed 12 February 2015)
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University of New South Wales, Canberra, The AIF Project – Arthur Ernest Anderson
https://www.aif.adfa.edu.au/showPerson?pid=4417 (Accessed 13 February 2015)
University of Queensland, Anzac Day - Allan Nash's Gallipoli diary,
https://www.library.uq.edu.au/blog/2014/04/22/anzac-day-allan-nashs-gallipoli-diary
(Accessed 10 February 2015)
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