3rd Light Battery members bound for Albany

Members of a military unit with a direct link to action at Gallipoli will descend on Albany in droves this month for Anzac centenary commemorations.

When the Australian Imperial Force 1st Division formed at the outbreak of World War I, it included the 3rd Field Artillery Brigade, of which the WA component was 8 Battery.

Part of the convoy which sailed from Albany to Egypt in November, 1914 before landing in Gallipoli in May, 1915, the brigade supported Allied Forces until evacuation in December, 1915.

A gun from 8 Battery is recorded as firing the last round of artillery at Gallipoli during withdrawal, and the gun's breech block returned to WA and is kept at the Royal Australian Artillery Historical Society's collection in Perth.

Since WWI, the 3rd Field Brigade has been renamed, with its direct descendent recognised as the RAA Army Reserve 3rd Light Battery.

Mt Barker man Steve Morrow is a former 3rd Light Battery Sergeant Major and will host 100 current and former members of the unit on his Mt Barker property, with about half taking part in the troop march on November 1.

Mr Morrow, whose paternal great uncles Edgar and Bill Marrow served in the 28th Battalion at Gallipoli, said participants were eager to mark the milestone and pay their respects.

"Those links are important to us," he said.

"They did it hard in those days and that was a particularly nasty conflict.

"It is about paying our respects to them."

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