THE magnificent marble monument that adorns the front wall of the Warwick Town Hall in Palmerin St contains one name that helped create the legend of the 2nd Light Horse Regiment – Major Arthur Frank Chambers, who made the supreme sacrifice on April 20, 1917.
As the 100-year anniversary of his death will take place tomorrow, here is the story of Arthur’s short, but heroic life.
Arthur Frank Chambers was born on September 29, 1886, at Nhill, in country Victoria, before his parents decided to move to Elbow Valley, via Warwick, to take up farming in the region. He was one of four sons born to Oliver and Ellen Chambers, attended Glen Innes District school and later worked on his father’s property at Elbow Vale. He was an active rugby player in the district.
Arthur never married and spent a lot of time from an early age in the Darling Downs Light Horse Brigade. In fact, he was enlisted as a Trooper for around 14 years before he received a commission as a Lieutenant in 1909.
With the outbreak of war in 1914, Arthur applied for a commission with the Light Expeditionary Force on August 15, 1914, and with his background experience as a Light Horseman, he was immediately accepted and embarked from Brisbane to Alexandria, Egypt, aboard the A15 Star of England on September 24, 1914. He was attached to B Squadron, 2nd Light Horse.
On May 9, two weeks after the Gallipoli Landing on April 25, Arthur and his detachment arrived at Gallipoli to reinforce the Anzac forces battling to take the high ground on the sheer slopes of the land. On September 14, Arthur was promoted to Captain and remained on Gallipoli until the evacuation around September, 1915.
Back in Egypt, Arthur took up duties at Heliopolis and was promoted to Major at Romani, Palestine on May 1, 1916, and placed as Commanding Officer of the 1st Light Horse Regiment in the desert campaigns. On June 27, he took command of 2nd Light Horse at Moascar before returning to Zeitoun, to undertake a course at the Imperial School of Instruction.
Posted back to the front in Palestine, Major Chambers and his regiment were immediately despatched to take part in the battle of Gaza, and ordered to take up a position at Baiket el Sana, to cut off a Turkish regiment advancing on this area.
While under heavy artillery and machine gun fire, Major Chambers was laying out trenches to dig, and shoring up battlements, to prevent the Turks from over running the position, when he was mortally wounded by Turkish machine gun fire. The Regimental Medical Officer dressed Arthur’s wounds before sending him the field hospital at Tel el Jemmi, where he succumbed to his wounds and died on April 20, 1917.
Read the article in the Warwick Daily News.