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Remembrance

The Sydney Morning Herald, 25 August 1919.

 

THE FRONTIERSMEN, HOW THEY RUSHED TO THE COLOURS.

 

50 PER CENT CASUALTIES.

 

Something of the work of the Legion of Frontiersmen, whose deeds for the Empire have invested that great scattered band of fighters with all the splendour of romance and chivalry, was related at a dinner and smoke concert given by the New South Wales Command at the Voluntary Workers’ Cafe, Elizabeth-street, on Saturday night.

 

“The Legion,” said Captain J. Suffren, captain of the Now South Wales Command, “knows no boundaries within the Empire. A member in Sydney is equally a member on the Yukon or in the Falkland Islands, in London or in Hongkong, and wherever he lands he is greeted as a comrade.

 

“To come down to the present war, out of 13,500 members over 12,000 have been on active service, and of this number nearly 6000, or 50 per cent, have been killed or incapacitated by wounds or sickness. The 25th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers Frontiersmen, was comprised solely of Legion men, and bore the brunt of most of the hard fighting in British East Africa in the early days of the campaign.

 

“Of the 2000 men who passed through that regiment only 50 men were fit for service when the regiment was withdrawn, and in command was our old chief, Lieut.-Colonel Driscoll CMG, DSO, C. de G. The only white force in British East Africa was the Legion, which turned out as a body, and mainly composed the BEA Mounted Rifles. This small body of mounted troops sacrificed themselves in holding out against the Germans, who were well prepared, until troops could be rushed into the country. Then we come to that splendid body, Princess Patricia’s Canadian Light Infantry, which was almost wholly composed of Frontiersmen, and which was the first dominion regiment to take the field in France; in fact, they were rushed straight from Canada to France, and mostly fell in the second battle of Ypres. Of 1500 members in New Zealand nearly all rushed to the colours, and many squadrons and batteries were mainly composed of our members.

 

“Here in New South Wales were 350 members on active service. So that while we were not able to take the field as the Legion of Frontiersmen, we have justified our existence. If our members could not serve where they would, they served where they could; and I will say this: They made keener and better soldiers through their association with and the training they received in the Legion units before the war.”

 

The Legion’s honour roll, comprising 360 names, was unveiled by Frontiersman Nives, who holds the Legion of Honour.

 

The Frontiersmen, many of them in their picturesque uniform, others in khaki, attended in strong force. Among the gathering was Brigadier-General Herring. A number of toasts, including the loyal toast, were enthusiastically honoured.

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Ode by Rudyard Kipling at the Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne

So long as memory, valour, and faith endure,
Let these stones witness, through the years to come,
How once there was a people fenced secure
Behind great waters girdling a far home.
 

Their own and their land’s youth ran side by side
Heedless and headlong as their unyoked seas,
Lavish o’er all, and set in stubborn pride
Of judgment, nurtured by accepted peace.
 

Thus, suddenly, war took them, seas and skies
Joined with the earth for slaughter. In a breath
They, scoffing at all talk of sacrifice,
Gave themselves without idle words to death.
 

Thronging as cities throng to watch a game
Or their own herds move southward with the year,
Secretly, swiftly, from their ports they came,
So that before half earth had heard their name
Half earth had learned to speak of them with fear;
 

Because of certain men who strove to reach,
Through the red surf, the crest no man might hold,
And gave their name for ever to a beach
Which shall outlive Troy’s tale when Time is old;
 

Because of horsemen, gathered apart and hid,
Merciless riders whom Megiddo sent forth
When the outflanking hour struck, and bid
Them close and bar the drove-roads to the north;
 

And those who, when men feared the last March flood
Of Western war had risen beyond recall,
Stormed through the night from Amiens and made good,
At their glad cost, the breach that perilled all.
 

Then they returned to their desired land,
The kindly cities and plains where they were bred,
Having revealed their nation in earth’s sight
So long as sacrifice and honour stand,
And their own sun at the hushed hour shall light
The shrine of these their dead!

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