Morale. A Story of Australian Light Horsemen
Sydney, Holland & Stephenson, 1949.
Octavo, [ii], 252, [2] (blank, colophon) pages.
Cloth lightly rubbed and bumped, with minimal uneven fading to the spine; front inner hinge cracked in a few spots, but firm; a very good copy with the dustwrapper lightly worn at the extremities, and a little chipped and torn at the ends of the spine.
The inscription on the front flyleaf is up there with the best we have read: 'To T.P. Gourlay from R.D. Webb. In memory of 24 years association on Witchelina Station. 1928 to 1949. From one Light Horseman to another'. 3559 Robert Dutton Webb, 31st Reinforcements, 9th Light Horse, was a 40 year-old station overseer when he enlisted in February 1917. 747 Thomas Philip Gourlay, 3rd Reinforcements, 3rd Light Horse Regiment, was a 20 year-old stockman when he enlisted in December 1914. In 1949, Witchelina Station, about 670 kilometres north of Adelaide, was part of the Kidman empire (it changed hands the following year); it is now part of a nature reserve. Although this book is a work of fiction, 'a story of the Australian Light Horse campaigns in Gallipoli and Palestine during World War 1' (dustwrapper blurb), the author, Lieutenant George Berrie, embarked with the 2nd Reinforcements, 6th Light Horse Regiment, in August 1915, and rose through the ranks. He also wrote 'Under Furred Hats', the history of the 6th Light Horse Regiment. Dornbusch 378; not in Fielding and O'Neill.
Item #110857
Sold