Best Fellows Anyone Could Wish to Meet, The: George Auchterlonie and the 8th Light Horse Regiment AIF

Biography of George Auchterlonie based on his wartime diaries that also includes an insight into service with the 8th Light Horse Regiment AIF. Scarce personal account of a 8th Light Horse soldier.

This unit was raised in Victoria and which saw service in Egypt, Gallipoli, Palestine and Syria during the Great War.
The action of the 8th and 10th Light Horse Regiments during the ill fated charge at The Nek on 7th August 1915 is the stuff of legends and has been immortalised on screen.

Forsaking their beloved horses during the Gallipoli campaign, which saw the 8th LHR lose over 180 officers and men killed. When the unit returned to Egypt in December 1915 where they were reunited with their horses and for the next three years participated in the campaigns which took them across Egypt and into places such as Gaza, Beersheba and many more famous towns. During early 1919, there occurred the Egyptian uprising, and units of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade including the 8th LHR spent some months assisting the British authorities to crush the rebellion.

pp. x, 34 illusts #0717/0218