The “ meat ticket” attached to a disabled Australian soldier at the Citadel Military Hospital , Cairo, Egypt, during WW1 , listing disabilities for stretcher bearers and medical staff . It was attached to Trooper Vincent H. Graves ,of the Australian 9th Light Horse Regiment , put aboard the Army transport vessel, Dongala, on July 24,1919.Handwritten information said he had to be kept under observation and heard voices. In small print is the chilling information that it was one of TWO MILLION such tags printed in March 1917. Graves, regimental number 1383, a labourer, aged 24, had enlisted in Adelaide June 29, 1915.
The 9th,without their horses , fought at Gallipoli , and later took part in several mounted battles with the Turks in the Middle East, at times taking outposts at bayonet point. It is possible that Trooper Graves fought in areas or battles in which former NT Administrator Abbott was involved. The 9th Light entered Damascus on October 1, 1918 and was on the road to Homs when the Turks surrendered on September 31. With the war to end all wars said to be over, the 9th was waiting to be shipped home when it was called back to quell an Egyptian revolt in March 1919, order restored after a month. From the Peter Simon Ephemera Collection
