Fremantle to the Land of the Pharoahs
April-May 1915

On 24 April 1915, after training at Blackboy Hill, Bert was assigned to the 5th Reinforcements to the 11th Battalion. Two days later he embarked on HMAT Hororata and, at 3:30pm, left Fremantle bound for Egypt via Colombo, Aden and Perim Island, which served as a British base at the entrance of the Red Sea, to Suez. It was the first overseas trip for Bert, and many on board. The trip was uneventful and they arrived on 20 May 1915. The next afternoon they entrained for Cairo.

“We only stopped to take on water at three places, of which one was Zagazig. A canal runs alongside the line all the way up for irrigation purposes. Thin strips of cultivation are to be seen alongside of the line with desert as far elsewhere as you can see til Zagazig is reached, when everywhere as far as you can see is under cultivation. Kitchener’s irrigation scheme had transformed much of Egypt from a wilderness to a pleasant country. He was a great man and absolutely made Egypt. 

We had a hot day for our trip up to Cairo which we reached at 6:30pm & thence to Zeitouin, where we ended our journey half an hour later and began our first camp in the land of the Pharoahs by sleeping on the sands in our overcoats during a jolly cold night on Friday May 21st 1915. 

I was in Cairo most of the next two days, Saturday & Sunday, and saw much that interested me, and spent the better part of my spare time before leaving for Gallipoli in and around that city. Everything was so different from what we Australians are used to. ...The effect of east mingling with west is very curious and motor cars and cabs are to be seen in amongst camels, mules and donkeys; while dress is either English or Egyptian or a mixture of both. The effect is very curious to a Britisher. 

I did not visit the Pyramids; having read so much of them and finding other things to see. Cairo is at once the most interesting and immoral city I have ever been in, and in some portions the latter runs rife.“

By Shannon Lovelady
Story from A Signaller’s Story Exhibit