Lives of the First World War

In uniform of 49th Infantry Australian Imperial Force (AIF) in Egypt 1916 following the Gallipoli operation in 1915, and after receiving his commission as a 2nd Lieut in that regiment on transfer from 9th Infantry AIF.

Australian infantry at Mena Camp, Cairo (including Private Reggie Gore, 9th AIF) preparing for the Gallipoli campaign and their bloody amphibious assault which began the 8 month operation at ANZAC Beach on 25th April 1915. The Kangaroos they brought were handed over to Cairo Zoo when the Australians left for Gallipoli

Captain Gore, Indian Army, in uniform, circa 1930

Lt Col RM Gore's medals covering the period 1914-1947 over which he served throughout both World Wars fighting at Gallipoli 1915, on the Western Front in France and Belgium 1916-17, between the wars in Iraq and the North-West Frontier Province of India and in Burma (where he earned a KPM for gallantry), and finally in Burma in WWII where he was in both Arakan campaigns as CO of battalions of the 8th Punjab Regiment. He retired from the Army on Indian independence in 1947.

Australians & New Zealanders assembled on 25th April 2015 in the early morning dark to coincide with the time the first boats of the assault landing reached the beachhead. In one of those boats was Private Reginald Gore of the 9th Battalion AIF, just aged 20. He had arrived in Queensland as an English immigrant the previous year, volunteered in Sept and arrived on this hostile Turkish coast with a steep rock face to climb under fire. Then, having survived the failure and heavy losses of the 8 month campaign, he was sent with 49th AIF to the trenches in France where his elder brother, Sydney, had been killed in Oct 1914

Reginald Gore was among 14 officers and 500 men of the 9th Battalion AIF in Egypt who survived the Gallipoli campaign and were selected in Feb 1916 to be the core of the newly formed 49th AIF. The 49th, with new recruits mostly from Queensland, trained in Egypt and reached the Western Front on 2nd June 1916. From then they took their full part in the trench warfare battles in France and Belgium for the rest of the war (described at https://www.awm.gov.au/unit/U51489/ ). Reginald Gore was there until 1918 when he was granted a commission as a Lieutenant in the Indian Army. Photo: Australians at Anzac Ridge in the Ypres salient

After the post-war disbandment of 1/88th Carnatic Infantry with which Reginald Gore had served in Iraq, he transferred to the 90th Punjab Regiment in 1921 when they were on operations in the troublesome land of Waziristan (now in Pakistan). He was to return there later in 1930 for another two year operational tour by which time the 90th had had a change of name and become 2nd Battalion 8th Punjab Regiment. They still retain the ‘Chinthe’ as their emblem, the mythical lion-dragon which guards Buddhist pagodas (see centre of 90th emblem above)

The family were living at Loimwe in the Shan States of Burma where Capt Reginald Gore was seconded to the Burma Military Police. Here he had, inter alia, to deal with organised gangs of armed bandits up to 400 in strength crossing the Chinese border. In the 1933-34 season he led the action against three serious incursions so effectively that he was awarded the “King’s Police Medal for Gallantry”. IWM includes his wife, Elizabeth née Mayne, who worked for the Red Cross in France during WW1 at https://livesofthefirstworldwar.org/lifestory/5148359

In the garden of their bungalow at Loimwe which lay alongside primary jungle and a large lake. Elephants and other wild animals frequently visited the lake and occasionally their garden by night!

In 1918, the last year of the war, Lieut Reginald Gore was transferred to the Indian Army from the Australian’s with whom he had shared the trenches of the Western Front. He joined the 1/88th Carnatic Infantry which had an ethnic composition of Madras Musalmans, Tamils, Paraiyans & Christians, very different to the Punjab regiments of north India which Gore was to join in 1921. As the November Armistice arrived, his new regiment moved to Mespot (Iraq) in the campaign to support the British mandated occupation. Finally in 1920, as the 1/88th were leaving for India, came the ‘Iraq Revolt’ in which 10,000 Iraqis and some 500 British and Indians died. The 1/88th was disbanded in 1921-22 and Gore went north to the Punjab

This was Major Gore’s second operational tour in Waziristan. The subscript reads:- "Taken at Biche Kashkai during the present ops. Nothing but what we stood up in - not even a cake of soap! 15 days out like this, fighting every day and often during the night.” L to R: Henry Stead, Tom Edwards, Jonah, Reggie Gore, John Woodhouse. Two years later Lt Col Gore was back in Burma fighting in WW2. He retired when India became independent in 1947

The "War Flag" of 2nd Battalion 8th Punjab Regiment on operations in Waziristan 1936-37

In full uniform, 1920s