William Bridges (general)

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Sir William Throsby Bridges
First World War
  • Gallipoli Campaign
Awards
Mentioned in Despatches
General Bridges' grave at Duntroon. The consultant designer and architect was Walter Burley Griffin[1]
General Bridges is listed on the Memorial Arch at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario.

Gallipoli, where he died of wounds on 18 May 1915, becoming the first Australian general officer to be killed during the war. He was the first Australian officer—and the first graduate of Kingston
—to reach the rank of major general, the first to command a division, and the first to receive a knighthood. He is one of only two Australians killed in action in the Great War to be interred in Australia.

Early life

Born 18 February 1861 in Greenock, Scotland, the son of William Wilson Somerset Bridges, a Royal Navy captain, and his Australian wife, Mary Hill Throsby.[2] He was educated at Ryde on the Isle of Wight, before attending the Royal Naval School at New Cross, London, in 1871. He remained there until mid-1872 when his family moved to Canada, after his father was badly injured in an accident and forced to retire from the navy.[3] For the next three years, Bridges was a boarder at the Trinity College School, at Port Hope, Ontario. On 10 April 1877, at the age of 16, he entered the newly established Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, as part of the college's second intake, and was assigned the student number of 25.[4]

Although tall, Bridges was of slight build and was not noted for his involvement in sport while at the college, spending most of his spare time reading; nevertheless, he became a keen canoeist as a cadet. Although he was a good student, he became unsettled and began failing his courses when his family migrated to Australia leaving him in Kingston. In June 1879, having received his Certificate of Military Qualifications, Bridges was permitted to leave the college, becoming its first drop out after his father paid a $100 fine to withdraw him.

Narrabri district.[7][8]

Military career

Early career and Boer War

In early 1885, in response to the fall of

concerns about Russian intentions in Afghanistan, the Australian colonies began expanding their military forces, and on 19 May that year he was commissioned as a lieutenant into the New South Wales Artillery. Initially his appointment was only temporary, but he was later offered a permanent position.[9]

The following year Bridges undertook an artillery officers' course at the School of Gunnery at

typhoid. After being evacuated to England, he returned to Australia in September 1900.[13]

Upon his return, Bridges took command of the Brigade Division of Field Artillery as well as holding various staff appointments. In 1901 the Australian colonies

Imperial General Staff.[12]

In 1910 Bridges was promoted to

Inspector General of the Army.[12][17]

First World War

Group portrait of 1st Division staff officers at Mena Camp, December 1914. Major General Bridges is in the front row, fifth from the left.

When war broke out, Bridges was in

Australian cabinet, was promoted to the rank of major general, and was charged with the creation of an expeditionary force of 20,000 men for overseas service, known as the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). As this force was raised, Bridges convinced the government to graduate the first class of Duntroon cadets early.[18] Once the force was raised, Bridges and his command sailed from Albany, Western Australia and Fremantle, Western Australia[19] in late October, bound for England, where they were to undertake a period of training before being committed to the fighting on the Western Front. En route, the destination was changed from England to Egypt, where they landed on 1 December.[20] In Egypt, Bridges set to work training his troops, which were organised as the 1st Australian Division. On 25 April, as part the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps, Bridges' command was among the first ashore at Anzac Cove, at the start of the Gallipoli campaign.[12]

After the initial landing, the Australian and New Zealand troops established a beachhead around Anzac Cove, but during early May a period of stalemate followed as the Turkish defenders prevented them from advancing inland. Bridges suggested withdrawing the force, but he was over-ruled.

Mentioned in Despatches,[22] having died on board the hospital ship on 18 May.[12]

Bridges was buried in Alexandria but in June his body was returned to Melbourne where he received a state funeral.[12] Bridges is the only identified Australian killed in the First World War to have had his body repatriated and buried on Australian soil.[23][24] His funeral service was conducted at St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne. He was buried on 3 September 1915 at Duntroon on the slopes of Mount Pleasant.[12]

Personal life

On 10 October 1885, Bridges married Edith Lilian Francis (1862–1926), daughter of Alfred John Dawson Francis and Margaret Agnes Anne Francis (formerly Wilson, born Green) at St John's Church,

Darlinghurst, New South Wales, which was the same church in which his parents had married in 1858.[25] They had seven children, three of whom died young.[26] Bridges was survived by Edith and their four living children; one of his sons, William Francis, later followed in his footsteps, serving on the Western Front, achieving the rank of major in the AIF and receiving the Distinguished Service Order.[12]

He was also survived by his horse "Sandy", the only Australian

Waler horse to return from the First World War, due to quarantine restrictions.[24] It is not clear when Bridges met Sandy but after his death Sandy was cared for by a number of Army vets until, by order of the Minister of Defence, the horse was returned to Australia where he lived at the Remount Depot at Maribyrnong, before being put down in 1923 due to ill health.[27]

Dates of rank

Rank Date Position
British Army OF-1b Lieutenant May 1885 Gunnery Officer—New South Wales Contingent
British Army OF-2 Captain September 1890 Instructor—New South Wales School of Gunnery
Major
 September 1895 Chief Instructor—New South Wales School of Gunnery
Lieutenant Colonel
 July 1902 Assistant Quartermaster General—Australian Military Forces
Colonel
 October 1906 Chief of Military Intelligence
Chief of the Australian General Staff
British Army OF-6 Brigadier General May 1910 Commandant of the Royal Military College, Duntroon
Inspector General—Australian Military Forces
Major General
 August 1914 Commander of the Australian Imperial Force

Honours, awards and decorations

Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB)[21]
 Awarded 1915
Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George (CMG)[28]
 Awarded 1909
Queen's South Africa Medal[29]
1914–15 Star
British War Medal
Mentioned in Dispatches[22]

Legacy

Sir William Throsby Bridges is memorialised by a memorial tablet in the Anglican Church of St John the Baptist, in Canberra, where his wife is buried.[30] The tablet was unveiled on 9 December 1930, on the final Duntroon graduation day before the college temporarily moved to Victoria Barracks, in Sydney, having been paid for by subscriptions from former AIF officers.[31] His epitaph reads: "Major General Sir William Throsby Bridges KCB CMG died on 18 May 1915 from wounds received at Gallipoli peninsula whilst in command of the Australian Imperial Force. A gallant and erudite soldier, he was the first commandant of this College, where in recognition of faithful service his remains were publicly interred on Third September 1915".[32] As an ex- Kingston cadet, Bridges' name is also listed on the Memorial Arch at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario, and he is commemorated on the Canadian Virtual War Memorial and on page 566 of the Canadian First World War Book of Remembrance.[33]

See also

References

  1. ^ National Capital Authority, p. 5.
  2. ^ Coulthard-Clark 1979, pp. 6–7.
  3. ^ Coulthard-Clark 1979, pp. 8–9.
  4. ^ Coulthard-Clark 1979, p. 10.
  5. ^ Coulthard-Clark 1979, pp. 10–11.
  6. ^ Preston 1969.
  7. ^ Trinity College.
  8. ^ Coulthard-Clark 1979, pp. 13–15.
  9. ^ Coulthard-Clark 1979, pp. 16–17.
  10. ^ Coulthard-Clark 1979, pp. 20–21.
  11. ^ Coulthard-Clark 1979, p. 22.
  12. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Australian Dictionary of Biography.
  13. ^ Coulthard-Clark 1979, pp. 22–38.
  14. ^ Coulthard-Clark 1979, p. 40.
  15. ^ Coulthard-Clark 1979, p. 94.
  16. ^ Coulthard-Clark 1979, p. 92.
  17. ^ Coulthard-Clark 1979, p. 115.
  18. ^ Coulthard-Clark 1979, pp. 116–119.
  19. ^ First World War Service Record.
  20. ^ Coulthard-Clark 1979, pp. 128–132.
  21. ^ a b It's an Honour.
  22. ^ a b Honours and Awards.
  23. ^ Dolan 2010.
  24. ^ a b Coulthard-Clark 1979, p. 181.
  25. ^ Coulthard-Clark 1979, p. 19.
  26. ^ Coulthard-Clark 1979, pp. 5, 20 and 26.
  27. ^ Australian War Memorial.
  28. ^ Coulthard-Clark 1979, p. 44.
  29. ^ Coulthard-Clark 1979, p. 38.
  30. ^ St Johns.
  31. ^ Coulthard-Clark 1979, p. 183.
  32. ^ Coulthard-Clark 1979, p. 187.
  33. ^ Veterans Affairs Canada.

Sources

Books
  • Coulthard-Clark, Christopher (1979). A Heritage of Spirit: A Biography of Major-General Sir William Throsby Bridges K.C.B., C.M.G. Carlton, Victoria: Melbourne University Press.
    ISBN 0-522-84170-8
    .
  • Dolan, Hugh (2010). 36 Days: The Untold Story Behind the Gallipoli Landings. Sydney, New South Wales: Pan Australia.
    ISBN 9781742621692
    .
  • Preston, Richard (1969). Canada's RMC: A History of the Royal Military College. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
    ISBN 9780802032225
    .
Websites

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to William Throsby Bridges.
Military offices
Preceded by
Major General Harry Finn
as General Officer Commanding, the Forces of Australia
 Chief of the General Staff
1 January – 25 May 1909 		Succeeded by
Major General
Sir John Charles Hoad
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