Private David Peter

by Lenore Frost

David Peter was the only child of William David Peter and Elizabeth Jane, nee Robinson, born at Essendon in 1890.  The Peter family were substantial graziers with country properties and city residences.  David was born at his Peter grandparents’ home, “Peterleigh” in Brewster Street Essendon.  His parents subsequently purchased “Park View” in Fletcher Street, Essendon, the former residence of his Robinson grandparents. 

David  enlisted at a recruitment office in Melbourne on 5 December 1914, and was called to present himself at Broadmeadows on 1 February 1915.  At this time he was one month short of his twenty-fifth birthday, described as a farmer, 5 feet 9 inches tall, 14 stone, with a fresh complexion, blue eyes and brown hair. 

David Peter prior to the war.  Photo courtesy of

David Morton.

Unlike three-quarters of the other recruits, he had no prior military training, but he would have been a skilled horseman, and experienced with a rifle, and on that basis was assigned to 8 Light Horse Regiment. 

Troops of the 8 Light Horse Regiment training near Broadmeadows, Victoria,

circa March 1918.  Australian War Memorial Collection DAOD0678.

Some of the troopers had brought their personal mounts with them into the army.  If the horse passed inspection, it was bought by the Commonwealth.  Most rode the “walers” (short for New South Walers), remounts purchased for the army.  They may have come through the Army Remount Depot in Maribyrnong.

‘A Squadron’ contained many men of similar backgrounds to himself – graziers, farmers, jackeroos, station managers and farriers, as well as labourers and horse-drivers.  Many of them came from regional Victoria and New South Wales.  He may have known several of them. Training took place around the Broadmeadows area – places he would have ridden with the Oaklands Hunt Club, and on family business to “Dunalister”.  David must have ridden past his own front gate on many occasions while in training with the 8 LHR.

Loading 8 Light Horse Regiment horses onto the Star of

Victoria, prior to embarkation in February 1915.

A group of men of the 8 LHR at the Port Melbourne pier prior to Embarkation on 25 Feb 1915.

After seven weeks of intensive training in discipline and Light Horse drill,  on 25 February 1915, David Peter with  ‘A Squadron’ of the 8 LHR embarked at Port Melbourne on the Star of Victoria. 

The Light Horsemen did not rest on  the voyage.  Apart from further training on board, they had to look after their horses, and each day this involved mucking out their stalls, feeding and watering, curry-combing, and exercising them around the decks. In hot weather they tried to cool them down, and in bad weather tried to keep them from injuring themselves.  Disembarking in Alexandria four weeks later, the horses needed careful handling.  After their time at sea, they had to be exercised and re-accustomed to being ridden, which would take some weeks.

AIF Camps and Hospitals near Cairo, March 1915.

The Unit Diary  of the 8 LHR  recorded on 15 May 1915: “Ordered on service dismounted”.  On 16 May 1915:  “Embarked at Alexandria 24.30 pm, sailed 4 am.  Left all horses behind at Heliopolis, & … line transport.  Lieut Thorn & 2 O[fficers] & 30 others left with horses”.

The last appears to explain the entry in David’s service record made on 15 May 1915 “Left with base details, Heliopolis”.  Being detailed to care for the horses  was a measure of how well he was regarded in the handling of horses.

It was more than two months later that David Peter embarked for Gallipoli, on 29 July, disembarking on 2 August to rejoin his regiment.  The 8 LHR was then located at Walker’s Ridge, and a few days later was at nearby Russell’s Top*, both very precipitous areas close to the Turkish lines. 

Australian and British troops at a stores stockpile amid dugouts and steep terrain on

Russell's Top, and Walker's Ridge.  "The Dip", known as Mule Gully, is a sheer drop

of 300 feet, and one false step would probably mean death.  The turks are 80 yards

away over the top of the ridge.

It was a short time after David’s arrival that the 8 LHR took part in the infamous charge at The Nek in the dawn of 7 August.  Designed as a feint to draw attention from other parts of the battlefield, it was a monumental disaster.  A bombardment by naval vessels on the Turkish trenches ceased seven minutes too early, allowing the Turkish machine gunners to resume their positions on high ground above a narrow strip of open ground on which 3 Light Horse Brigade was to charge.  The 8, 9 and 10 Light Horse Regiments had drawn lots for the honour of leading the charge, and  8  LHR had won.  

Nine hundred men in six lines of 150 abreast were formed up to charge across a narrow piece of open ground, facing machine guns, and carrying empty rifles with bayonets attached.  Empty, uncharged rifles was a ploy to ensure that the men kept running until they got to the enemy trenches.  The Australians were met with a torrent of gunfire and four out of five who took part in the assault were killed or wounded. The film Gallipoli, made in 1981, depicted events leading up to the charge.

This painting is a detail from a larger work by George Lambert showing the 8 LHR attacking the Turkish trenches at The Nek.  Australian War Memoria ART 07965.  This reproduction courtesy of Wikipedia.

One of those killed that day from the 8 Light Horse Regiment was  Robert Kerr, a commercial traveller from Brewster Street, Essendon.  They had travelled on the same transport, the Star of Victoria, and David would have known him from attending  St John's Presbyterian Church in Buckley Street, Essendon.

Whether David Peter participated in this horrific battle is not certain – he had only just arrived on the peninsula.  If he did, he was one of the very few not killed or wounded. He would have been affected by the dramatic loss of morale amongst the Australian troops which followed.  A bitter winter followed,  with illness exacting the same toll in deaths and casualties as the Turks.  Harsh and miserable conditions were endured until the generals were forced to admit that they could not overcome their adversaries on the Gallipoli Peninsula. 

In the meantime, David would have taken his turn in occupying the firing line, in lugging water, food and supplies up the slope, in trench widenening and repairs.  In September he was hospitalised for  a couple of days, but returned to duty.  He remained at his post until evacuated, a few days ahead of the last of the troops to leave, as his record shows that he disembarked at Alexandria on 20 December 1915, the same day on which the last troops left Gallipoli.

A fortnight after their return to Alexandria he was hospitalised once again on 3 January with jaundice, but returned to duty two weeks later.  The regiment moved to Serapeum in February 1916 for refitting and further training. It was employed defending the Suez Canal by aggressive patrolling in the area of the Kantara military railway.  Whether David was engaged in the patrolling is not clear – he transferred to the 3 Light Horse Reserve Regiment on 6 March 1916, and within days of that event was hospitalised at 3 Auxiliary Hospital on 9 March with influenza.  Two months later his record shows that he was  transferred from the 3 Auxiliary Hospital to Heliopolis, suggesting that he had been in hospital for that whole period of time.   On 20 May 1916 he was transferred to 1 Auxiliary Hospital with influenza, and on 23 June 1916 he was invalided to Australia from Heliopolis. 

He returned via the Port of Sydney for a six months change.  While there is nothing recorded about him being seen by a medical board, he presumably was, found to be medically unfit for further service, and discharged from the AIF in Victoria on 29 August 1916. 

After David’s  enlistment, his parents had moved from “Park View” in Fletcher Street to their property “Dunalister” at Oaklands Junction.  After his discharge David joined them there and resumed farming. 

Sometime between 1924, when he was still on the Electoral Roll at "Dunalister", and 1930, he left Victoria to take up a property called "South Mahonga" near Corowa in New South Wales.  In 1931, aged 41, he married Edna Louise Simpson, whose parents were graziers on a property called "Eagle's Nest", Balldale, not far from Corowa.   The couple had two little girls, but only months after the second child was born in 1936 David died prematurely of a heart attack and diabetes, aged 46.

Sources:

Australian Electoral Rolls

Australian War Memorial

Australian Light Horse, The, by Ian Jones.  Time Life Books/John Ferguson: Sydney, 1987

‘The best fellows anyone could wish to meet….’ 1533 Sergeant George Auchterlonie and the 8th Light Horse Regiment, AIF.  Allan Box (ed.):  Monash University, Gippsland, 2 ed 1993.

First World War Diaries - AWM4, Sub-class 10/13  8th Australian Light Horse Regiment

* NOTE.  A recent acquisition by the AWM is a Handover Report for Russell's Top, dated 7 Dec 1915.  It is described as "It is a detailed set of instruction on how the position (Russells Top) should be maintained and held against the enemy".  http://www.awm.gov.au/collection/pdf/rc09950-file-0-.pdf