The descendants of Trooper Arthur J McIlroy of the 12th Lighthorse and Lance Corporal Keith Doyle of the 7th Lighthorse who both took part in the Battle of Beersheba in 1917, met together for a 100 year reunion at “Olinga” Bective on Saturday 29 October. A remarkable story of survival and life-long friendship united these two soldiers and this has bonded the two families ever since.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Arthur John McIlroy was a 21 year old jackaroo when he joined the 12th Regiment of the Australian Light Horse on the 24th March 2015 and took part in World War 1. He travelled overseas by boat and undertook the necessary training in Egypt. He fought in Gallipoli as Infantry and from there he returned to his mounted role with the 12th Light Horse. In 1917, The 12th and other divisions of the Light Horse regiment was moved to Palestine in an Allied attempt to rid the Turks from Gaza. Ultimately though, the 7th and 12th Light Horse regiments were successful in over running the entrenched foe in Beersheba and securing a water source for 58,000 men and 100,000 animals.
For Private Arthur John McIlroy, though, it was very nearly a fatal experience. He was shot and felled in the cavalry gallop and left, apparently a dead body. However he was not quite dead but he had received a dangerously penetrating gun shot through the chest. He was taken to Cairo and hospitalised where he was listed as “critically ill”. For months he was in a touch and go struggle but miraculously he survived and eventually he was well enough to be sent home aboard the hospital ship Ulysses and discharged in 1918. The sheer luck of his survival was due to the fact that during the charge, he had a bible and a leather wallet full of photos and a few documents in his left hand pocket of his shirt. There was just enough thickness in this to deflect the bullet from hitting his heart and killing him instantly.
In hospital in Cairo, he met the injured Lance Corporal Keith Doyle, also shot and injured in the charge, and they became close friends. After repatriation back to Sydney, in 1919, both soldiers drew soldier settlement blocks next to each other in the district of Bective, near Tamworth. The friendship was forged even closer when both soldiers met and married two local sisters. Keith married Kathleen Parkes and Arthur married Agnes Parkes. So the connection was made; neighbouring farms were established and lives shared and this has continued to the present day.
The weekend celebration was a remarkable bringing together of these two families whose Light Horsemen ancestors both had remarkable luck in surviving the Battle of Beersheba in 1917.