Arthur Chambers died of wounds on this day in 1917
Arthur Frank Chambers was born on 29 September 1886, at Nhill, in Victoria, Australia. He was one of four sons born to Oliver and Ellen Chambers and went to Glen Innes District school before working on his father's property at Elbow Vale.
Arthur was an rugby player and also spent a lot of time in the Darling Downs Light Horse Brigade, at first as a trooper before he received a commission as a Lieutenant in 1909.
With the outbreak of war in 1914, Arthur applied for a commission with the Expeditionary Force and, with his experience as a Light Horseman, was promptly accepted. He embarked from Brisbane to Alexandria, Egypt, aboard the Star of England on 24 September 1914. He was attached to B Squadron, 2nd Light Horse.
On 9 May, exactly a fortnight after the initial landings on the Gallipoli peninsular, Arthur and the 2nd Light Horse reinforced the Anzac troops who were attempting to take the high ground. On 14 September, Arthur was promoted to Captain and remained on Gallipoli until the evacuation around September 1915.
Returning to Egypt, Arthur took up duties at Heliopolis and was promoted to Major at Romani, Palestine in May 1916, and took over as Commanding Officer of the 1st Light Horse Regiment in the desert campaigns.
On 27 June, he returned to the 2nd Regiment and took command and later undertook a course at the Imperial School of Instruction.
Posted back to the front in Palestine, Major Chambers and his regiment were ordered to take part in the battle of Gaza, and took up a position at Baiket el Sana, to intercept Turkish troops who were 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.
Major Arthur Frank Chambers of the 2nd Light Horse Regiment was buried with full military honours in Palestine. His body is interred in Gaza War Cemetery. Such was the regard in which Major Chambers was held, members of his squadron were given time off combat duties to attend his funeral. It would have been incredibly poignant when his younger brother (who was also a member of the regiment) conducted his funeral. It was very bad time for the Chambers family as another brother, Stuart, was also killed in Belgium on 4 July, less than three months after Arthur's death.
Arthur is one of those remembered on the plaque at Warwick Town Hall. This remembers Rugby League players of Warwick and District Amateur Rugby Football League.
