Australian Overseas Bases Middle East

[Ringwood Guy]

My grandfather went to the ME with the 5th reinforcements for the 6th LHR. Examination of his personal record refers to an Overseas Base in the first line which I cannot interpret. Any thoughts?

[WhiteStarLine]

Hi and hope you're doing really well at Ringwood - must be a bit grim at the moment.

 

I'm going for Ghazirah.  There was a Pont de Ghazirah - a bridge over the Nile at Cairo.  Lucky they had a nice rubber stamp for Maadi!

[TullochArd]

Yes Ghezirah, Cairo ......... sometimes Gezirah/Gezirah/Gazirah/Ghazirah ........no two entries ever seem to be the same.  It seems to be a focal point for some Australian activity including 2nd Australian General Hospital which was at Ghezirah Palace at one point.

 

Not sure what the "51" could be.

 

The attached informative link shows a good map and tells us "the British took over many districts of Cairo to establish massive training camps for the troops arriving from Australia and New Zealand. Camps were established at Mena, Maadi and Heliopolis. In addition, the main administrative centre of the British Military was on the island of Gezirah. The hospitals were located in the Abbassia area and the training schools at Zeitoun."

 

http://alh-research.tripod.com/Light_Horse/index.blog?topic_id=1

 

Edited 15 July , 2020 by TullochArd

[Ringwood Guy]

Thanks for the quick response. That's answered one question. I did some research to try and understand the Administrative organization in the ME that might allow me to understand the record but I found little to help me. It was either at too high a level or too insular. I have seen other references to Overseas Bases and was trying to know how many there were and what really was their function. My Grandfather arrived in the ME probably sometime July 1915 (on HMAT A41 Bakara), spent 18 days in No 1 AGH in September and the next reference is to rejoin unit at Maadi. I should be happy that so much info survived.

[Guest]

Mate,

 

From my understanding of AIF records and dealing with the ALH and Camel Corps, an AIF soldier when he arrived in Egypt went something like this;

 

When he arrived he was placed in a hold unit for two weeks, this was to see if he add contracted some illness on the ship?

 

IF after two weeks he was then sent to a Training unit form what ever LH Bde he was in.

 

1 LHTR (1 LH Bde)

 

2 LHTR (2 LH Bde) to 4 LHTR (4 LH Bde)

 

These are sometimes shown as Res Regts, thats because the stamp was over used during 1916 and was still being used after the name change.

 

OF cause if during the two weeks the soldier became ill then he would be sent to a hosp to get better, then to a holding unit, these can be a number of units, but many were just sent Res/Traning unit.

 

After some time at a Training unit the soldier would be sent to a unit.

 

That unit would depend on the state and unit he joined?

 

A soldier was not always sent to the unit he joined, the Army can be fickeled that way.

 

S.B

 

[Ringwood Guy]

Thanks for the thoughts.