The return home of the New Zealand Mounted Rifles Brigade (NZMR) is delayed by a shortage of shipping. The men take classes designed to ease them back onto ‘civvy street’ after up to five years in the army. They also help quell a revolt in Egypt, where there is anger at the lack of progress towards the independence that has been promised after the war.
January
The Wellington Mounted Rifles Regiment (WMR) remains at Rafah undergoing training and education to prepare the men for a return to civilian life.
February
The WMR remains at Rafah for training and education.
- 14th – 27 D Class horses are destroyed under the supervision of the Brigade Veterinary Officer. 100 C Class horses are sent to the remount depot.
- 15th – 90 C Class horses are sent to the remount depot.
- 25th – The strength of the WMR is 18 officers, 321 other ranks and 80 horses.
March
- 17th – The WMR leaves Rafah by train. The NZMR is being rushed to Egypt to help suppress a nationalist revolt. Martial law is in force.
- 18th – The WMR goes into bivouac at Kantara.
- 22nd – The WMR obtains horses from the remount depot.
- 23rd – The WMR leaves Kantara and moves 35 km south-west to Salhia.
- 24th – The WMR moves 20 km south-west to Faous, where it helps the local police recover weapons looted from the police station and arrest the looters. The regiment bivouacs near the police station.
- 25th – The WMR moves 30 km south-west to Zagazig.
- 26th – The WMR moves 25 km north-west to Mit Ghamr, on the eastern distributary of the River Nile, warning villagers along the way about their future behaviour.
- The 9th (Wellington East Coast) Squadron, led by Major W.R. Foley, travels by train to Cairo, the centre of the nationalist movement, to join a composite regiment.
- 28th – The WMR rides through Mit Ghamr as a show of force. Later in the day several leading local figures are interviewed about the disturbances and given ‘good advice’ about the consequences of any future rioting.
- 29th – The WMR moves 30 km upriver to Benha. It escorts eight rioters arrested in Mit Ghamr to the Military Court.
April
- 1st – The WMR moves 12 km north to Quwesna in the Nile Delta, where it sets up a bivouac. One troop is sent 20 km south-west to garrison Minuf. While passing through Subk ed Eahhak this troop is attacked by the villagers with stones and clods of earth. The troop leader eventually dismounts a section and orders them to open fire. It is believed that three villagers are wounded.
- 10th – Three Egyptians attempting to cut the telephone line between the WMR’s bivouac and the Quwesna railway station are wounded by an ambush party.
May
The WMR remains in Quwesna carrying out garrison duties and playing sport.
June
- 22nd – The WMR travels by train from Quwesna to the Demobilisation Camp at Chevalier Island, Ismailia.
- 26th – The WMR is divided into two groups. One group moves to the New Zealand Training Unit and Depot at Ismailia to await transport to New Zealand in July.
- 30th – The second group embarks on HMT Ulimaroa. The regiment ceases to exist as a formed unit.
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