29 March 2011

Anniversary of first Australian military deployment


According to the NSW State Records Office (see here), on this day in 1885 a NSW contingent arrived in Sudan, the first time Australian troops fought in an imperial war.  The NSW contingent consisted of an infantry battalion and an artillery battery, totalling 758 men.  They left Sydney on 3 March 1885 and returned on 19 June.  While the contingent did not fight in any major battles, there were three wounded soldiers and seven deaths from fever or dysentery.  See a Photocopy of the Soudan [sic] Contingent Roll 1885, COD474 in the Records Office reading rooms.

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