St John's Cathedral, Brisbane and the Anzac Legend

In 1941 Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Donald Cameron, the former Commanding Officer of the 5th Light Horse Regiment, attempted to have the portion of the mosaic that had been given to St John’s Cathedral transferred to the Australian War Memorial and reunited with the full mosaic. However, the fragment of the mosaic in St John’s could not be returned as it had been embedded in the pavement of the Cathedral sanctuary near the High Altar. The St John’s portion of the mosaic was given by Woods with the specific intention that it be placed near the High Altar of the Cathedral as a memorial to Australian soldiers who had fought in the Middle East. He wrote that he wanted “the wonderful Greek inscription in black and white marble mosaic … in Brisbane Cathedral under the Altar there where it would be a fitting witness to the bravery of our Anzacs in Palestine.” Unfortunately the inscription is too incomplete to enable a proper deciphering of its meaning, but its former position at the west end of the ancient church at Shellal suggests that it was intended as an exhortatory greeting for those entering the building. Woods also sent to St John’s a fragment from another mosaic uncovered by Australian troops. The fragment is part of the floor of the Ain Duk Jewish Synagogue, in the village of Na’aran, near Jericho, on the West Bank of the Jordan. The synagogue also dates from the 6th Century and, like the Shellal Mosaic, the mosaic from the floor of the synagogue is permanently embedded in the sanctuary pavement of the Cathedral. As Lieutenant Colonel Woods intended, the fragments of the Shellal (and Na’aran) mosaics at St John’s recall the memory of the Anzacs in Palestine. Historian Peter Burness writes:

The Na’aran Mosaic which was uncovered from the West Bank of the Jordan, also dating from the 6th Century.

Aimee Catt

“Throughout the war the [Australian] light horse regiments were at the centre of the British Army’s achievements in the Sinai and Palestine. An army, from a nation not 20 years old, had won victories across some of history’s most ancient battlegrounds. They were there from the initial advance from the Suez Canal until the defeat of the Turkish forces. “Henry Gullet the war historian observed them around Damascus. ‘They rode, very dusty and unshaved, their big hats battered and drooping, through the tumultuous populace of the oldest city in the world, with the same easy, casual bearing, and the self confidence that are their distinctive characteristics on their country tracks at home.’

“The light horsemen did not share all of the ordeals that faced their countrymen on the Western Front. But they fought long and hard campaigns over great distances, often in extremes of temperature and weather, and sometimes across terrible country. Their sacrifice and achievements, and the fate of their horses, which had to be left behind after the war, are a unique part of the story of Australia in the war. In these operations, about 1,500 men were killed in action or died of wounds or from other causes; sickness and disease took a particularly heavy toll.”

Following pages: A long column of Australian Light Horsemen makes a triumphal entry into Bethlehem or Jerusalem following the Battle of Beersheba.

Australian War Memorial B01619

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