Australian Remount Unit

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Brief History

The First Remount Service had been formed in Melbourne on 21 September 1915 and was stationed at Maribyrnong. Members were also from Western Australia. South Australia and Tasmania. Members of the Remount Service were usually older men, some having served in the Boer War. Maximum age for the unit was 50. The unit was based in Egypt but in 1917 remounts were taken to Palestine for the Palestine campaign. Members of the Remount Service looked after, and trained, the horses acquired to be used by the army before they were sent overseas and also while the horses were overseas.

Poet Andrew (Banjo) Patterson served as a Lieutenant with the 2nd Remount Squadron. Australia supplied 110,000 horses, with only one going home due to strict quarantine laws. Horses were lost at an alarming rate during the 4 years of the war. British Commonwealth Forces lost about 550,000 animals in France and Palestine. The continued resupply of horses was a major issue of the war. One estimate puts the number of horses that served during World War I (all nations) at around six million, with a large percentage of them dying due to war-related causes.

Unit Personnel

Egypt
D Squadron

• William Henry Ottey ?? Sep 1915 - 27 Aug 1916

4th Squadron

• Henry Frampton (Harry) Clarke ?? - 28 Oct 1917 & 14 Nov 1917 - 15 Sep 1918

Field Remount Section - Rafa

• Henry Frampton (Harry) Clarke 28 Oct - 13 Nov 1917

Field Remount Section - Ludd

• Henry Frampton (Harry) Clarke 16 Sep 1918 - 5 Jan 1919