A Call to Action!
This is an opportunity to make an enduring legacy to our Australian military history through securing the future of this unique collection for many future generations and support for its founders as they build further on its presentation and share their unique knowledge. The time for such heritage items to come out of storage and be shared by both young and old is now.
An Invitation
Your donations, letters of support, influence and ideas are most welcome as it is with working shoulder to shoulder this heritage will be protected, accessible and its founders afforded the respect and support they deserve. We look forward to your support, so please do not hesitate to contact the museum.
Your contribution will help the museum to continue sharing for years to come.
Thank-you so much!
Light Horse & Field Artillery Museum Brick Appeal
Remember with gratitude the men, women and animals who served. Purchase a brick inscribed with your own personal message of remembrance and help re-open the museum.
Lest We Forget
Bricks will be placed on the Museum's memorial wall.
The Brooke Hospital
Can you help the animals?
The Brooke Hospital is a charity that we have long supported (visit www.thebrooke.org). They are an international animal welfare organisation dedicated to improving the lives of working horses, donkeys and mules in some of the world's poorest communities. The Brooke provide treatment, training and programmes around animal health and wellbeing, operating across Africa, Asia and Latin America.
HOW WE STARTED
The story begins with Dorothy Brooke and her husband Geoffrey relocating to Cairo in October 1930, as he had recently been appointed to command the British Cavalry Brigade in Egypt.
Horses already featured heavily in the Brookes’ lives - Geoffrey was the author of several books on horsemanship, and Dorothy had been a devotee of all things equine since childhood.
Before embarking on their new life in Cairo, Dorothy had become aware of the fate of former war horses that were now languishing in poor conditions in Egypt.
These horses had been born in the UK and were shipped overseas to serve in WW1, but they had never been returned home. The official reason given at the time for this was ‘lack of transport’, but it was a commonly held view that they were sold to Egyptian horse traders as the easiest option after the war. Many British horse lovers felt a sense of betrayal.
Now resident in Cairo, Dorothy felt a strong urge to seek out these horses and do whatever was needed to ease their suffering. It wasn’t an easy task at first – it took weeks of enquiries before she found her first one, an emaciated old chestnut horse with a clear army brand on his near quarter, whom she named Old Bill.
Old Bill had served in Palestine once, but was in a terrible state now, with lifeless eyes and a gaunt frame supported by four shapeless swollen legs that trembled under his weight.
Dorothy went on to find hundreds of poorly and worn-out animals desperately in need of help. She set up the Old War Horse Campaign of Rescue, and began raising the funds needed to buy the horses from their owners, the first stage in lifting them out of a life of pain.
To raise more funds she wrote a letter to the Morning Post (which later became the Daily Telegraph) exposing their plight. The public were so moved they sent her the equivalent of £20,000 in today's money to help end the suffering of these once proud horses. Click here to read more.
