William Throsby Bridges KCB CMG (1861 - 1915)

Ancestors Descendants

Contents 1 Biography 1.1 Formative years 1.2 Response to the Sudan 1.3 Boer War opportunities 1.4 The Great War 1.5 Death 1.6 Honours and Awards 2 Sources

Biography

Major General Sir William Bridges KCB CMG was a senior Australian Army officer who was instrumental in establishing the Royal Military College, Duntroon, and who served as the first Australian Chief of the General Staff. He commanded the 1st Australian Division during the landing and subsequent weeks at Gallipoli.

"His death early in the war caused his career and achievements
to slip from public view, but he can rightfully be regarded as
Australia's first notable general."
- Chris Clark

Formative years

William Throsby Bridges was born on 18th February 1861 in Greenock, Renfrewshire, Scotland, ^[1] where his father, William Wilson Bridges, a Royal Navy Captain, was then stationed. His mother was Mary Hill Throsby, daughter of Australian pioneer grazier, Charles Throsby, of Throsby Park, Bong Bong, New South Wales. William was their eldest child. He was educated at Ryde, on the Isle of Wight, before attending the Royal Naval School at New Cross, London, in 1871. The family moved to Canada in mid-1872 after his father was forced to retire from the Navy through injury. For the next three years, William was a boarder at Trinity College School, Port Hope, Ontario. In 1877, at the age of sixteen, he entered the newly-established Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, as part of the college's second intake, and was assigned student number 25. Although he was a good student, William became unsettled and began failing his course when his family migrated to Australia, leaving him in Canada. In June 1879, having received his Certificate of Military Qualifications, William was permitted to leave the college.

Travelling on the transport Zealandia, Bridges arrived in Sydney in August 1879 and joined his family who had settled in his mother's home town of Moss Vale, in the New South Wales Southern Highlands. He soon obtained employment with the Department of Roads and Bridges, at Braidwood, and by 1884 was appointed an inspector in the Narrabri district of northern New South Wales.

Lady (Edith) Bridges

On 10th October 1885, William married Edith Francis in St John's Church of England (now Anglican Church), Darlinghurst, New South Wales; ^[2] the same church in which his parents had married in 1858. William and Edith had seven children:

• Somerset McLeod Bridges (1887-87); infant mortality
• Dorothy Stuart Bridges (1888-1971); unmarried
• Marjorie Bridges (1888-95); killed in boating accident on Sydney Harbour on 7th birthday
• Lieutenant Colonel William Francis Noel Bridges DSO (1890-1942); killed off Malayan Coast in the early weeks of the Second World War's Pacific Theatre
• Donald F M Bridges (1894-1911); died at boarding college, London
• Marion Grey W (1896-1970); married surname Maxwell; lived in Malaya and became entitled as Lady Maxwell
• Major Anthony George Bridges (1905-83)

Response to the Sudan

In response to the fall of Khartoum and the death of General Charles Gordon during the British campaign against the Dervish revolt in Sudan, the colony of New South Wales raised a military contingent in 1885 consisting of an infantry battalion, artillery battery and supporting units, for service with the British. In an effort to enlist, Bridges travelled to Sydney from Narrabri, but by the time he had arrived, the force had already been raised.

the Bridges lived here 1886-95

At this time all of the Australian colonies began expanding their military forces, due to concerns about Russian intentions in Afghanistan. On 19th May 1885 young Bridges was commissioned as a Lieutenant into the New South Wales Artillery. Bridges undertook the first artillery officers' course at the School of Gunnery at Middle Head in 1886, after which he was posted there as a staff officer. During this time he acquired a reputation as a serious student of the military art. In 1889 he qualified as a gunnery instructor and in October 1890, having been promoted to Captain, he was sent to the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, and to the Royal School of Gunnery at Shoeburyness for further specialised training. Upon returning to Australia in 1893 he became Chief Instructor at the Middle Head School of Gunnery. He was promoted to Major in September 1895, and held positions on several military committees and conferences.

Boer War opportunities

In late 1899 Bridges became one of four New South Wales officers seconded to serve with British Army units during the Second Boer War. He embarked at Sydney on 3rd November 1899 on the transport Aberdeen and arrived at Cape Town 6th December. ^[3] He took part in actions around Kimberley, Paardeberg and Driefontein, before taking command of the Field Artillery Brigade. He was awarded the Queen's South Africa Medal with three Clasps.

Federation, an Australian Army and a Military College
In 1901, the six British Colonies of Australia federated into the Commonwealth of Australia; with the various colonial military forces co-alescing into a single Australian Army. Bridges undertook a quick succession of staff appointments: Assistant Quartermaster General of the Army HQ in Melbourne; Chief of Military Intelligence; Chief of the General Staff (1906-09). In 1909, he went to London as Australia's representative on the Imperial General Staff, taking his family with him as he expected it to be a lengthy appointment. He was, however, recalled to Australia the following year on promotion to Brigadier General, to become the first commandant of an Australian military college. He chose the site of the old Campbell homestead at Duntroon in the new Federal Capital Territory and modelled the college on the United States' West Point more so than the British and Canadian models. His wife and children were still in Europe. His seventeen-year old son, Donald died in London in 1911 and Edith had moved the family to Switzerland. William joined them on leave there in 1913 and brought them home to Duntroon. He remained commandant of the Royal Military College until May 1914, when he was appointed Inspector General of the Army, based in Melbourne.

The Great War

Upon the government's declaration of war in August 1914, Bridges met the Federal Cabinet, was promoted to Major General, and charged with the creation of an expeditionary force of 20,000 men for overseas service, to be known as the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). ^[4] En route to England aboard HMAT Orvieto A3, the destination was changed to Egypt, where they landed on 1st December.^[5] Bridges set to work training his troops, which were organised as the 1st Australian Division.

On 25th April 1915, as part of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC), Major General Bridges' command was among the first ashore at Gaba Tepe, commencing the Gallipoli campaign. Very soon afterward he argued for immediate evacuation, owing to what he saw as a hopeless situation. After the initial landing, the Australian and New Zealand troops established a beachhead around what became known as ANZAC Cove, but by early May a 'stalemate' developed as the strong Turkish defences prevented the Allied forces from advancing inland.

Death

On 15th May 1915, Bridges was shot through the femoral artery in his right leg by a Turkish sniper. Dragged to safety, he was evacuated to the hospital ship Gascon. Infection set in but amputation was deemed impossible since he had lost so much blood. Bridges was created Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) on 17th May, although the award was not formally gazetted until 22nd May. ^[6] Bridges passed away on 18th May 1915 on board the hospital ship anchored off Gallipoli, Gelibolu, Çanakkale, Turkey. ^[7] He was also posthumously Mentioned in Despatches; gazetted in London 5th August 1915. ^[8]

"We Shall Remember Them-Lest We Forget"
1st Australian Division, Gallipoli

Sir William Bridges' body was buried in Alexandria, Egypt, but in June it was exhumed and returned to Melbourne where he received a state funeral. Bridges is the only Australian killed in The Great War to have had his body repatriated and buried on Australian soil. It is expected that his wife's close friendship with the wife of the then Governor General of Australia helped to 'sideline' the explicit government decree that fallen soldiers' bodies would not be brought home. His funeral service was conducted in St Paul's Cathedral, Melbourne, followed by a funeral procession through the city. He was re-buried on 3rd September 1915 at Duntroon, on the slopes of Mount Pleasant. Bridges was survived by Edith and their four remaining children. One of his sons, Noel, followed in his footsteps, serving in the Australian Imperial Force on the Western Front, achieving the rank of Major and being appointed Companion of the Distinguished Service Order (DSO). Sir William Throsby Bridges's name is located at panel 2 in the Commemorative Area at the Australian War Memorial, Canberra. He is memorialised by a tablet in the Anglican Church of St John the Baptist, Reid, Australian Capital Territory.

Honours and Awards

• Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath
• Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George
• Queen's South Africa Medal with Clasps for Kimberley, Paardeberg and Driefontein
• 1914-1915 Star
• British War Medal
• Victory Medal with Mention in Despatches oak leaf palm Clasp
• memorial tablet in the Anglican Parish of St John the Baptist, Reid, Australian Capital Territory

Grave of Major General Sir William Bridges

Sources

1. ↑ Scotland'sPeople Birth Index #564/3 146 1861
2. ↑ New South Wales Marriage Index #1601/1885
3. ↑ Australian War Memorial nominal roll: Major William Throsby Bridges
4. ↑ Australian War Memorial nominal roll: William Throsby Bridges; accessed 11 May 2019
5. ↑ Australian War Memorial embarkation roll: William Throsby Bridges; accessed 11 May 2019
6. ↑ Australian War Memorial Honours and Awards: Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath; accessed 11 May 2019
7. ↑ Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour; accessed 11 May 2019
8. ↑ Australian War Memorial Honours and Awards: Mention in Despatches; accessed 11 May 2019

See also:

• Coulthard-Clark, Christopher. Bridges, Sir William Throsby (1861–1915), Australian Dictionary of Biography. National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, published first in hardcopy 1979; accessed online 23 May 2018.
• Coulthard-Clark, Christopher. A Heritage of Spirit: A Biography of Major-General Sir William Throsby Bridges K.C.B., C.M.G.. Melbourne University Press, Carlton, Victoria, 1979. ISBN 0-522-84170-8.
• Wikipedia profile: William Bridges; accessed 23 May 2018.