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Desert Mounted Corps Memorial Artwork painted by Rosemary Gibbons with associated poem by FW Smith.

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Overview

A small painting by amateur artist Rosemary Gibbons of the Desert Mounted Corps Memorial at Mount Clarence in the daytime. The memorial is painted from the RHS showing the Australian Flag in the foreground and the New Zealand flag to the LHS and more to the back. The painting was donated in a frame that also contained a poem typed in black ink on A4 white paper “COBBERS ON MT CLARENCE” written by a local farmer FW Smith. The back is blank apart from remnants of glue/tape.

Historical information

The complete, full-scale memorial, later referred to as the 'Desert Mounted Corps Memorial', was installed in Port Said, Egypt and unveiled in 1932 by Australia's wartime Prime Minister Billy Hughes. In 1956 the memorial was destroyed by rioters during the Suez Crisis. The remaining fragments of this memorial were returned to Australia. A new memorial, made by Ray Ewers and modelled on the original Gilbert/Stephenson & Meldrum design, was installed and unveiled by Sir Robert Menzies at Albany, Western Australia in 1964.
The painter Rosemary Gibbons was born on 4th August 1927 in Albany W.A. She died on 18th October 2002 in Porongorup W.A.
The poem was written by Frank Smith who was born in Northam in 1910 and was a farmer initially at Bruce Rock and then from 1946 at Cranbrook W.A. Frank wrote a number of poems and has two oral history recordings about his life held at the WA State Library. Frank was very outspoken about conservation practices in the Stirling Range and passed away in 2004 from a farming accident at 92 years of age. He was the grandfather of Terry Redman MLA who was a member of the Western Australian Legislative Assembly from February 2005 to March 2021.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-12-2004.4.1

Item type

Landscape Paintings

Themes

Art and Design

War and Conflict > World War 1

Material

Canvas

Cardboard

Paint

Paper

Width

190 mm

Height or length

260 mm

Weight

15 g

Inscriptions and markings

The painting is signed in the LHS bottom corner “ROSEMARY GIBBONS”. The painting shows the position of the memorial inscription identified on the plinth, but the inscription is not clear.

“COBBERS ON MT CLARENCE / They keep their lonely vigil / On that mountain by the sea. / Waiting for their comrades / Who died to keep us free. / Two cobbers with their horses, / Symbols of the peace they’ve won / On a distant battle field / Against the dreaded Hun. / Soldiers with a job to do, / They were not afraid to die / Not those horsemen on the hilltop / Silhouetted there against the sky. / A million tides may come and go / But still their watch they’ll keep, / For cobbers still on distant shores / Where they now lie asleep. / The rain may fall in torrents / And the sun shine hot as hell, / But they remain undaunted / Guardians of those who fell. / And when the Last Post’s sounded / On that final judgement day, / Those men who sleep in distant lands / Will be riding home to stay. / Yes – they keep their lonely vigil / On Mt. Clarence by the sea, / Still waiting for their cobbers / Who died for you and me. / F. W. SMITH / CRANBROOK W.A.”

Keywords

Painting

WW1

Desert Mounted Corps Memorial

First World War

Albany

War Memorials

Place made

Western Australia, Australia

Primary significance criteria

Artistic or aesthetic significance

Social or spiritual significance