Australian Army Museum of Western Australia > Records

World War 1, Middle East, Sinai, Rafa, Australian Light Horse, ROYSTON, 1917

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1918

Overview

General Royston with captured Turkish gun at Raffa

Historical information

Brigadier General John Robinson Royston, CMG, DSO (29 April 1860 – 25 April 1942) was a South African-born military officer who commanded a brigade of Australian Light Horse during the First World War.
A farmer and citizen soldier, during the late 1870s and early 1880s, Royston served in the Natal Mounted Rifles as an enlisted soldier and fought during the Zulu War. During the Second Boer War he was commissioned in the Imperial Light Horse, and fought at the Siege of Ladysmith, before later commanding a contingent of the Western Australian Mounted Infantry.
He was appointed a Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for his service during the war, and received the decoration from the Prince of Wales during a large coronation parade of colonial troops in London on 1 July 1902. After the end of the war, he was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG) in the October 1902 South African Honours list.
Later he served during the Zulu Rebellion before organising the Natal Light Horse—made up primarily of Australians who had remained in Africa after the Boer War—upon the outbreak of the First World War. After seeing action against the Germans in South-West Africa, Royston was transferred to Egypt and placed in command of the 12th Light Horse Regiment, commanding them through the Battle of Romani in 1916. He was later promoted to command the 2nd Light Horse Brigade temporarily, before taking command of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade, and leading them in the Sinai and Palestine campaign against the Ottoman Empire until October 1917 when he returned to South Africa having been relieved of his command due to medical reasons.

Details

Registration number

cwa-org-32-P2009.81.1e

Item type

Photographs

Themes

War and Conflict
War and Conflict > World War 1

Contextual Information

The Battle of Rafa, also known as the Action of Rafah, fought on 9 January 1917, was the third and final battle to complete the recapture of the Sinai Peninsula by British forces during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign of the First World War. The Desert Column of the Egyptian Expeditionary Force (EEF) attacked an entrenched Ottoman Army garrison at El Magruntein to the south of Rafah, close to the frontier between the Sultanate of Egypt and the Ottoman Empire, to the north and east of Sheikh Zowaiid. The attack marked the beginning of fighting in the Ottoman territory of Palestine.

Year

1918

Geotag

31.223976592375, 34.191744429417

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Links to additional resources

Battle of Rafah

Australian Army Museum of Western Australia

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