British War Medal 1914-20 : Captain G Fay, 8 Light Horse Regiment, AIF

British War Medal 1914-20. Impressed around edge with recipient's details.

George Fay was a 38 year old farmer from Creighton Creek, Victoria, with six young children, when he was appointed a 2nd Lieutenant in 8 Light Horse Regiment (8 LHR), AIF, on 16 July 1915. He had previously served with the militia for 15 years, with the Victorian Mounted Rifles and 16 Light Horse Regiment and had become a commissioned officer in 1908. Fay sailed from Melbourne with the 9th reinforcements to 8 LHR, aboard HMAT A20 Hororata, on 27 September 1915. At the end of December he joined his regiment in Heliopolis in Egypt where he was appointed to A Squadron. He was promoted to lieutenant in March 1916. In 1916 Fay took part in battles at Bir el Abd and Magdhaba, followed by Rafa early in 1917. He was shot through the thigh during the Second Battle of Gaza in April 1917 and did not rejoin his regiment until July, when he was promoted to captain. On 12 November Fay was slightly wounded in the final stages of the Third Battle of Gaza but elected to remain with his regiment. On 26 November 3 Light Horse Brigade, of which 8 LHR was a part, together with 4 Brigade was sent to the relief of the British Yeomanry. This unit had been fighting to take control of the Nablus Road in the face of determined Turkish resistance for over a week. The two light horse brigades were sent into the line with the British 52nd Divison on their right near El Burj and the 74th Division to their left. The country was steep and rocky, the weather wet and cold. All horses except those needed by regimental runners were sent back to Ramleh and the light horsemen fought purely as infantry. Both brigades were reduced in strength; 8 LHR had only 105 men available, which were organised into two squadrons. The 3rd Brigade went into the line in the evening of 29 November. Because its regiments were so depleted 4 Brigade was sent in for added strength the following day. This meant that 3 Brigade had to move closer to El Burj. The 8th regiment's two depleted squadrons occupied two low hills 200 yards apart and went into position after nightfall in unfamiliar country. Shortly after midnight on 1 December, in intense darkness, the Turks rushed one of the 8th's positions. The men managed to hold them off briefly before withdrawing to the second hill held by the regiment. As the two squadrons waited in the darkness for the next assault the regiment sent an urgent message for reinforcements and sent up flares to call in British artillery support. After another silence about 500 Turks rushed up the hill at the regiment's position. The light horsemen held their fire until the last minute and then counter attacked with rifle and machine gun fire and grenades. The Turks continued their assault but the Australians were reinforced by a small number of British troops and were able to hold their position until dawn, when the remaining Turks, of what turned out to be one of their elite German-trained battalions, surrendered. Seven men from 8LHR, including Captain Fay, were killed in the action. Their bodies were buried in a mass grave north of El Burj, and reinterred in individual graves in the Ramleh War Cemetery after the war.