W1 AUSTRALIAN WAR MEDAL LT COLONEL GEOFFREY HARRIS MC 1ST LIGHT HORSE GALLIPOLI

Offered is a single British War Medal to Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Hamlyn Lavicount Harris, who served during the Boer War with the Australian Commonwealth Horse and First World War with the 1st Light Horse Regiment. He was wounded trying to take Baby 700 at Gallipoli, was awarded a Military Cross for his service during the action and received 3 Mentions in Despatches by wars’ end.  

British War Medal (1914 – 18), impressed named MAJ. G.H.L. HARRIS. A.I.F. Comes with copies of WW1 service records, Boer War list, photographs, extracts from Beans The Story of Anzac, and newspaper articles.

Military Cross London Gazette 11/1/1916.

Mentioned in Despatches London Gazette: 5/11/1915. 20/1/1916. 5/3/1919.

Military Cross citation: Gallipoli, Deadmans Ridge on the night 6/7th August 1915. Commanded a troop in attacking Popes Position on Turkish Trenches on Deadmans Ridge. Was early wounded but remained in action till the fight was over, throwing bombs for two hours and with his troop covered the withdrawal of the assault force.

Lieutenant Colonel Geoffrey Hamlyn Lavicount Harris was born on 28/10/1881 in Tumut, New South Wales. He first served in South Africa with the Australian Commonwealth Horse (service No 1012) during the Boer war. He qualified for the Queens South Africa Medal with claps Dreifontein, Johannesburg, Diamond Hill, Belfast, Cape Colony. He started as a Private serving for 14 months and finished as a Sub Lieutenant with ‘A’ Squadron serving for a further 6 months.

A grazier by trade between the wars, he was serving with the 1^st Light Horse Regiment as a 2^nd Lieutenant when mobilised on 27/8/1914, he embarked with the unit on 20/10/1914 bound for Egypt landing on 8/12/1914.

The Regiment was landed at Anzac Cove on 12th May. For the next three days the Regiment was in reserve and familiarising itself with the trenches. it suffered its first fatality, 8 men were also wounded.

On 15th May the Regiment took over the trenches at Pope’s Post. On 19th May the Turks attacked in huge numbers across the whole line. At least 100 reached as far as the 1st Light Horse Regiment’s trenches and fierce hand fighting took place. Eleven men were killed and 2 officers and 15 men were wounded during this fight. The Turks suffered over 5,000 casualties that night. For the next week the Regiment underwent continuous sniping and by 26th May it had suffered a total of 71 casualties since landing at Gallipoli. The Turks made another minor attack on 29th May and the Regiment had another 2 men killed and 15 wounded.

On 7th August 1915 the Regiment was ordered to attack the Turkish ‘Chessboard’ trenches north of Bloody Angle in cooperation with units at Walker’s Post (the Nek) on the left and Quinn’s Post on the right. The principle objective of the attack was a hill known as Baby 700, which overlooked the Lone Pine trenches.

The attack by the 1st Light Horse was to be made by two of its squadrons comprising 200 men. Instructions were to go over the top when the 8th Light Horse left their trenches on the left to charge across the Nek. Orders were issued that rifles were to remain unloaded during the charge and that no shots were to be fired without authority from an officer. Bayonets were to be fixed and rifles were not to be loaded until the enemy trenches were occupied.

The storming party reached as far as the third line of the enemy’s trenches at ‘Chessboard’ and held them for 2 hours. The enemy counterattacked in great strength and the attackers soon ran out of bombs. The Turks were then able to bomb the already thinned out regiment back to its own lines.

The Regiment lost 15 men killed, 98 wounded, and 35 missing as a result of the attack out of 200.

Beans The Story of Anzac Vol II Pages 626 – 628 covers the action during which he was wounded. Beans talks of a grenade wound to his back, his records state bullet wound to the shoulder. He was evacuated to Egypt and returned on 25/10/1915. Promoted to Temporary Captain on 14/11/1915.

The regiment withdrew to Alexandria on 27/12/1915. Promoted to Captain on 13/4/1916, he was wounded during the Battle of Romani. suffering a gunshot wound to his left hand on 4/8/1916. He was evacuated to England returning to Egypt on17/12/1916. Promoted to Major on 11/7/1917 and returned to Australia 19/4/1919.

Post war he remained in service rising to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and commanded the 7th Light Horse Regiment, dying in 1964 at Manly, New South Wales.

Note he was originally nominated for a Croix de Guerre which was changed to the Military Cross.