Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

World War 1 was a global war fought between the Triple Alliance and the Triple Entente. The ANZACs fought alongside Britain, Russia, France and eventually America among others in the Triple Entente. Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy made up the Triple Alliance and although many battles were fought hard for many moons and devastating amounts of men were lost from both sides, after 4 years the Triple Entente was named victorious, although its hard to say anyone won with such horrible results. Caught up in the conflict, fighting for his country was Gilbert Ernest Baker, a private from Blackwood, South Australia. He fought with the 3rd Light Horse Regiment in October 1914 when he enrolled in Adelaide and embarked on the HMAT Port Lincoln A17 and went on to Egypt. Gilbert left his life as a labourer to go fight for Australia, and fortunately, unlike so many of his mates, he returned home to his mother and father after 4 years in conflict.

Gilbert fought for the 3rd Light Horse Regiment for all the years that he fought. When he enrolled he was assigned straight to the regiment which was started in Adelaide in August 1914. Gilbert joined two months later and set off to Egypt in the second week of December among mainly other South Australians and some Tasmanians. In Egypt they joined the first and second regiments and formed the first Light Horse Brigade. They deployed to Gallipoli as a brigade without their horses and landed on the 12th of December 1915 to join the A.N.Z.A.C’s. The 3rd Light Horse Regiment played a defensive role throughout Gallipoli and left for Egypt on the 14th of December 1915. Once back in Egypt they joined the mounted division as a brigade. In January they were deployed down to protect the Nile River from pro-Turks Senussi Arabs until May 1916. They joined their brigade on May 18th to protect the Suez Canal. 1st Light Horse Brigade played a huge part in pushing away the Turks at the battle of Romani. After this as a brigade they were withdrawn to rest back in Egypt. After a while they joined the Allied advances across the Sinai in November and were involved in fighting to get the Turks post on the Palestine frontier. After they fought and succeeded in the capture of Gaza the Turks in southern Palestine fell. They participated in the advance on Jaffa that followed and were then committed to operations to clear and occupy the west bank of the Jordan Bank.

Throughout the whole war the 3rd Light Horse Regiment played more of a defensive role and a lot of back up roles which might have been the reason that Gilbert was one of the few lucky ones that survived. Saying this though, he still would’ve seen a lot of dead and dying mates. That kind of stuff stays with a man forever.