Eric Ronald Inglis

(Pte) Eric Ronald Inglis was an Australian World War 1 veteran who served in the 11th horse regiment. He lived near Longreach, Queensland most of his life on a property called Wellshot. Wellshot Station was regarded as one of the largest and most successful of the nation's sheep stations at the time. The Inglis family excelled in an industry that produced much of the country's wealth at the turn of the 20th century. Inglis died on the 16th of February, 1991 in his 93rd year. Inglis' life was spent on the land in central western Queensland and he maintained a successful career as a jackaroo and eventually owning his own sheep property, despite constant setbacks including numerous droughts, floods and two World Wars.

Early life
Inglis was born on the 3rd of June in 1898 at Eddington Station in Cloncurry, Queensland to Scottish parents. His Father, James Inglis, a native of the Isle of Arran, Scotland, was long associated with the Australian Pastoral Industry after arriving in Australia in 1880, (according to family records, the day notorious bushranger outlaw Ned Kelly was hung). James married Elizabeth Nicholson in Sydney before settling on Eddington station in Qld where James was the station manager. Elizabeth died at the age of 57 after a small foot operation in Longreach hospital on the 29th October 1916, two years before Eric went to Egypt with the 11th Light Horse Regiment.

Eric Inglis had one older sibling, sister Bessie. They grew up on Eddington Station until 1906 when their father became Station Manager of Wellshot Station, Central Western Queensland when Eric was 8 years old. Inglis offers an account of life on the land for his family at this time, 'When we arrived at Wellshot many of the facilities were run down and below standard, and Father had much renovation and rebuilding work done. This was greatly appreciated. There were usually about five or six jackaroos at the station, as well as an overseer, book keeper, blacksmith, engineer, horse boy, a head musterer and about seven musterers, and a married couple. The male half of the married couple would cook and his wife would do all the housekeeping at the station.'

Inglis attended Rockhampton Boys' Grammar School and one year of Gatton Agricultural College in 1915, he then returned home to be a jackaroo on Wellshot in 1916. He enrolled in the Army as a light-horseman and travelling with the 11th Light Horse Regiment, in 1918, to Egypt. When Inglis was ten, he and his family travelled on a mail ship, |HMS Otranto through the Red Sea and the Bitter Lakes. He later wrote in his memoirs, 'Little did I imagine in those days that in about eight years time I would one day be bathing a horse in Lake Tinsah'. Inglis continued his jackaroo work upon his return to Australia until 1922 when he purchased land he called Inkerman Station.

Military career
In April 1918 Inglis travelled on the |SS Wiltshire to the Suez Canal, to Egypt. The journey took about three weeks, and the men were without horses for some weeks as they were sent over later on another ship. When Eric Inglis joined the 11th Light Horse Regiment in 1917 he was nineteen and many of the men among him had rarely used a rifle except at a rifle range. There was limited training after he arrived in Egypt (maximum of three weeks) and as the war progressed, the officers in charge were increasingly under trained - as men took up positions they were not accustomed to.

During the Great World War many well-educated and clerical men were enlisted whose qualifications could have been better utilised had they remained in Australia during the war. ‘A lot of people who were necessary here (in Australia) were enlisted’ Inglis states in his interview, but they went to war ‘because there was pressure to go’.

Late in his life, Inglis wrote a ninety-page memoir and recorded his life on tape in the form of an interview conducted by his niece, Gillian Coar. In this recording Inglis goes into some detail about his time in Egypt. The types of sayings that were adopted and the technicalities about how the soldiers kept their horses watered when on long journeys - horse drawn watering carts provided the men and their horses with water while on the road (this reprieve provided the soldiers with a chance to catch up on news from the cart riders).

Personal Life and Post War Career
Upon his return from Egypt with the 11th Light Horse Regiment, Inglis received a certificate of appreciation for being a volunteer for the AIF from the Longreach District. He purchased land and began developing his own station, Inkerman. Eric married Edna Barnes Cory 'one of the district's most popular girls' on the 11th of October in 1923. The local paper described their departure from the ceremony, 'The bride and bridegroom left for Sydney by the midday train, the bride travelling in a frock of navy crepe meleor with coloured embroideries, which were also repeated in her small navy hat'. Inglis built a homestead on Inkerman and then brought Edna to live with him there. Throughout his life on Inkerman, Inglis kept impeccable records of all land appreciations, depreciations and livestock purchases, sales, wages, etc. These documents have been donated to the State Library of Queensland's John Oxley library. Eric and Edna did not have any children.

Publications and Poems
‘I have left my courage in the pocket of the trousers I am not wearing today’ is the first line of Eric Inglis' ninety page memoir, called 'Days Long Since'. This is available at the State Library of Queensland. Eric Inglis was a contributor to a couple of memoirs about himself and his father. 'A Rush for the Grass' was written as an historical document recounting James Inglis with the help of Eric. Inglis was known in his later years as the Bard of Barcoo, because of his way with words. One poem available in the Queensland State Archive is 'Campfire Records' written about life on the land in Australia.