Major General Sir William Throsby Bridges, 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. During the First World War he commanded the 1st Australian Division at 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.
A slouch hat is a wide-brimmed felt or cloth hat most commonly worn as part of a military uniform, often, although not always, with a chinstrap. It has been worn by military personnel from many different nations including Australia, Ireland, the United Kingdom, Canada, India, New Zealand, Southern Rhodesia, France, the United States, the Confederate States, Germany and many others. Australia and New Zealand have had various models of slouch hat as standard issue headwear since the late Victorian period.
Lieutenant-General Sir Edward Thomas Henry Hutton, was a British military commander, who pioneered the use of mounted infantry in the British Army and later commanded the Canadian Militia and the Australian Army.
Major General Charles Henry Brand, was an Australian Army officer and politician. He rose to the rank of brigadier general in the First World War, retired as a major general in 1933 and was elected to the Australian Senate representing Victoria for the United Australia Party from 1935 to 1947.
Major General Thomas Henry Dodds, was an Australian Army colonel in the First World War. He was promoted major general in 1930 and retired in 1934.
Major General Frederic Godfrey Hughes, was an Australian Army general in the First World War. A prominent businessman, and two time mayor of St Kilda, Hughes was also part-time Militia officer, and had served in the artillery forces of the Victorian colonial forces prior to federation. Post federation, Hughes had risen to command several light horse brigades before volunteering for service with the Australian Imperial Force in October 1914. Appointed to command the 3rd Light Horse Brigade, he subsequently led the formation to Egypt and then Gallipoli. During the Battle of the Nek his brigade suffered heavy casualties and he was later evacuated from the peninsula in September 1915, suffering with typhoid. He continued to suffer ill health, but returned to active service mid-1918, undertaking a staff role until 1920 when he retired as a major general. Post war, he returned to civilian business and died in St Kilda at the age of 86.
Major General Godfrey George Howy Irving was a senior Australian Army officer during the First World War.
Lieutenant General Sir Carl Herman Jess, was an Australian Army officer who served in the First and Second World Wars.
The 8th Battalion was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army. Initially raised in 1914 for the First Australian Imperial Force during the First World War the battalion was completely recruited from Victoria and formed part of the 2nd Brigade, 1st Division. During the war it fought at Gallipoli and in France and Belgium on the Western Front. It was disbanded in 1919, before being re-raised as a Militia battalion in 1921. During the Second World War the 8th Battalion was used primarily as a garrison unit before taking part in the Bougainville campaign late in the war. It was disbanded again in 1946 during the demobilisation process, although it was reformed again in 1948 when it was amalgamated with the 7th Battalion. Today, its honours and traditions are perpetuated by the 8th/7th Battalion, Royal Victoria Regiment.
Lieutenant General Sir Edmund Francis Herring, was a senior Australian Army officer during the Second World War, Lieutenant Governor of Victoria, and Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Victoria. A Rhodes scholar, Herring was at New College, Oxford, when the First World War broke out and served with the Royal Field Artillery on the Macedonian front, for which he was awarded the Military Cross and Distinguished Service Order. After the war he carved out a successful career as a barrister and King's Counsel. He also joined the Australian Army, rising to the rank of colonel by 1939.
Major General Sir John Charles Hoad was an Australian military leader, best known as the Australian Army's second Chief of the General Staff.
Lieutenant Colonel Richard Edmond Courtney CB, VD was an Australian soldier during the First World War. Courtney's Post, now the site of a Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery on the Gallipoli Peninsula, is named in his honour.
Air Marshal Sir Alister Murray Murdoch, was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He served as Chief of the Air Staff (CAS) from 1965 to 1969. Joining the Air Force in 1930, Murdoch trained as a seaplane pilot and participated in an Antarctic rescue mission for lost explorers in 1935. During World War II, he commanded No. 221 Squadron RAF in Europe and the Middle East, and later occupied senior positions on the staff of RAAF formations in the South West Pacific. His post-war appointments included Commandant of RAAF College from 1952 to 1953, Air Officer Commanding (AOC) Training Command from 1953 to 1955, Deputy Chief of the Air Staff from 1958 to 1959, and AOC Operational Command from 1962 to 1965.
Air Vice Marshal Adrian Lindley Trevor Cole, CBE, DSO, MC, DFC was a senior commander in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). Joining the army at the outbreak of World War I, he transferred to the Australian Flying Corps in 1916 and flew with No. 1 Squadron in the Middle East and No. 2 Squadron on the Western Front. He became an ace, credited with victories over ten enemy aircraft, and earned the Military Cross and the Distinguished Flying Cross. In 1921, he was a founding member of the RAAF.
Air Commodore Arthur William Murphy, DFC, AFC, FRAeS was a senior engineer and aviator in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). He accompanied Henry Wrigley on the first trans-Australia flight from Melbourne to Darwin in 1919, a feat that earned both men the Air Force Cross. Murphy later played a leading role in military aircraft maintenance and production.
The military history of Australia during the Boer War is complex, and includes a period of history in which the six formerly autonomous British Australian colonies federated to become the Commonwealth of Australia. At the outbreak of the Second Boer War, each of these separate colonies maintained their own, independent military forces, but by the cessation of hostilities, these six armies had come under a centralised command to form the Australian Army.
Major General Basil Moorhouse Morris, was an Australian Army officer. He served in both the First and Second World Wars. In 1942, he was the Australian military administrator at Port Moresby at the start of the Imperial Japanese advance along the Kokoda Track after the invasion of Buna-Gona and successfully delayed the Japanese advance until units of the Second Australian Imperial Force arrived.
Brigadier Hugh Wrigley, was a senior officer of the Australian Army who served in the First and Second World Wars. He also served with the Indian Army between 1917 and 1922. After returning to Australia in 1922, Wrigley worked as an oil company representative in New South Wales and Victoria and served in the Citizens Military Force. During the Second World War he volunteered for overseas service and fought in Greece, where he commanded the 2/6th Battalion. In North Africa, Wrigley commanded the 20th Brigade, leading them during the Second Battle of El Alamein. Later in the war he commanded the 33rd Brigade in the Netherlands East Indies where he took responsibility for overseeing the repatriation of a large number of Australian and British personnel. After the war, Wrigley worked as a public servant in the area of trade and commerce, serving in a number of overseas posts. He died in 1980 at the age of 88.
Major General Ronald Nicholas Lamond Hopkins CBE was a senior officer in the Australian Army. He began his military career in 1915 when he entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon as a staff cadet and graduated as a lieutenant in the Permanent Forces in late 1917. Following this, he was deployed overseas and subsequently served in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign during the First World War. During the inter war years, Hopkins undertook a variety of regimental and staff positions in Australia, India and the United Kingdom. During the Second World War, he was promoted several times, briefly commanding the 7th Division Cavalry Regiment and was deployed to the Middle East before returning to Australia to undertook further staff positions. In this role he played a key role in organising the Australian Armoured Corps before later serving as a liaison officer to American forces taking part in the New Guinea campaign. Following the war, Hopkins commanded the 34th Brigade in Japan, before finishing his career as Commandant of the Royal Military College, Duntroon. In retirement he wrote a comprehensive history of the Royal Australian Armoured Corps before he died in 1990 at the age of 93.
The 38th Battalion was an infantry battalion of the Australian Army. Originally formed in 1916 for service overseas during World War I as part of the Australian Imperial Force (AIF), the battalion was recruited from the state of Victoria and formed part of the 10th Brigade, 3rd Division. It served throughout the war on the Western Front before being disbanded in 1919. During the inter-war years, the battalion was re-raised as a part-time military unit and during the World War II undertook garrison duties in Australia, but did not see combat. After the war, it was re-formed in Victoria and was eventually subsumed into the Royal Victoria Regiment, with its honours and traditions being preserved by the 8th/7th Battalion, Royal Victoria Regiment.
