| Place | Middle East: Ottoman Empire, Palestine, Beersheba |
|---|---|
| Accession Number | REL/03823.002 |
| Collection type | Heraldry |
| Object type | Uniform |
| Physical description | Cotton |
| Location | Main Bld: First World War Gallery: Sinai Palestine 1917: Beersheba |
| Maker |
Unknown |
| Place made | Ottoman Empire: Turkey |
| Date made | c 1914-1917 |
| Conflict |
First World War, 1914-1918 |
Turkish Red Crescent armband : Private G R Kenihan, 4 Light Horse Field Ambulance, AIF
Description
White cotton armband with a machined hem on the top and bottom edges. A red cotton crescent moon is machine stitched in the centre. There is a faint purple ink stamp showing the trophy of arms of the Turkish Army near the seam that joins the ends of the armband together, and faint arabic markings beside the closed side of the crescent.
History / Summary
This armband was given to 16968 Private George Roe Kenihan by a captured Turkish army medical orderly assigned to help him, while he was treating Australians wounded in the charge at Beersheba by members of 4 Light Horse Brigade on 31 October 1917. He carried it folded up in his wallet (REL/03823.001) for the rest of his service.
Kenihan, who was born at Baroota, South Australia, enlisted in the AIF in Adelaide, on 6 July 1916. He was assigned to the Army Medical Corps and sent to Seymour in Victoria to undertake specialist medical training. On completion of the course he was posted to the reinforcements for the Camel Corps Field Ambulance in Palestine. Kenihan left Melbourne for Egypt aboard HMAT A42 Boorara on 10 May 1917. On arrival in Egypt he was transferred to 4 Light Horse Regiment Field Ambulance. In September 1918 Kenihan was transferred once more to 5 Light Horse Field Ambulance, and it was while he was serving with this unit that he took part in the formal Australian entry into Damascus on 2 October 1918. He returned to Australia on 14 July 1919.