Major William Francis Noel Bridges DSO (30 January 1890 - 28 February 1942) was an Australian surveyor and the sixth Surveyor General of the Federated Malay States between 1938 and 1942.
William Francis Noel Bridges was born on 30 January 1890 at Middle Head, New South Wales, Australia, the second son and fourth of seven children, of Sir William Throsby Bridges and Edith Lilian née Francis (1862–1926). [1] He was educated at Melbourne Grammar School and Trinity College before attending Melbourne University.
In September 1912 he joined the Survey Department of the Federated Malay States, eventually being promoted to Assistant Superintendent of Surveys. Following the outbreak of World War I he travelled independently to England and joined the Royal Northumberland Fusiliers, he subsequently enlisted in Australian Imperial Force on 23 August 1915. On 23 October 1915 he was promoted to Captain 2nd Australian Division Headquarters. On 1 November 1916 he was promoted to Major and on 19 July 1917 to Brigadier Major. [2]
He married Doris Frances Graham-Bonar French (1890-1967) on 27 November 1917 at Hendon, Middlesex, England. [3]
Bridges served at Gallipoli and on the Western Front, with the 25th Australian Infantry Battalion, where he was wounded in Flanders on 12 August 1918. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order on 27 December 1917.
Following the end of World War I he resigned his appointment was demobilised on 21 March 1919 and returned to his post-war position in Malaysia. He was appointed Surveyor General of Malaysia on 27 March 1938.
In 1941 he was appointed Director of Military Surveys, Malaya. Bridges served a Lieutenant Colonel in the Federated Malay States Volunteer Force.
During the Fall of Singapore Bridges along with a number of senior staff from the Malayan Survey Department, boarded the SS. Ban Ho Guan, evacuating Padang before it fell to the Japanese. The ship was sunk, possibly by a Japanese submarine, on 28 February or 1 March 1942. [4] [5]
The Burma Railway, also known as the Death Railway, the Siam–Burma Railway, the Thai–Burma Railway and similar names, is a 415 km (258 mi) railway between Ban Pong, Thailand and Thanbyuzayat, Burma, built from 1940 to 1943 by civilian labourers impressed or recruited by the Japanese and prisoners of war taken by the Japanese to supply troops and weapons in the Burma campaign of World War II. This railway completed the rail link between Bangkok, Thailand, and Rangoon, Burma. The name used by the Japanese Government is Tai–Men Rensetsu Tetsudō (泰緬連接鉄道), which means Thailand-Burma-Link-Railway.
The Malayan Union was a union of the Malay states and the Straits Settlements of Penang and Malacca. It was the successor to British Malaya and was conceived to unify the Malay Peninsula under a single government to simplify administration. Following opposition by the ethnic Malays, the union was reorganised as the Federation of Malaya in 1948.
The Federated Malay States (FMS) was a federation of four protected states in the Malay Peninsula—Selangor, Perak, Negeri Sembilan and Pahang—established by the British government in 1896, which lasted until 1946, when they, together with two of the former Straits Settlements and the Unfederated Malay States, formed the Malayan Union. Two years later, the Union became the Federation of Malaya, which achieved independence in 1957, and finally Malaysia in 1963 with the inclusion of North Borneo, Sarawak and Singapore.
Manitowoc Shipbuilding Company, located in Manitowoc, Wisconsin, was a major shipbuilder for the Great Lakes. It was founded in 1902, and made mainly steel ferries and ore haulers. During World War II, it built submarines, tank landing craft (LCTs), and self-propelled fuel barges called "YOs". Employment peaked during the military years at 7000. The shipyard closed in 1968, when Manitowoc Company bought Bay Shipbuilding Company and moved their shipbuilding operation to Sturgeon Bay.
Imperial Japanese Navy submarines originated with the purchase of five Holland type submarines from the United States in 1904. Japanese submarine forces progressively built up strength and expertise, becoming by the beginning of World War II one of the world's most varied and powerful submarine fleets.
The Malayan dollar was the currency of the British colonies and protectorates in Malaya and Brunei until 1953. It was introduced in 1939, replacing the Straits dollar at par, with 1 dollar = two shillings four pence sterling.
The then British colony of Malaya was gradually occupied by the Japanese between 8 December 1941 and the Allied surrender at Singapore on 16 February 1942. The Japanese remained in occupation until their surrender to the Allies in 1945. The first Japanese garrison in Malaya to lay down their arms was in Penang on 2 September 1945 aboard HMS Nelson.
The Malaya Command was a formation of the British Army formed in the 1920s for the coordination of the defences of British Malaya, which comprised the Straits Settlements, the Federated Malay States and the Unfederated Malay States. It consisted mainly of small garrison forces in Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Taiping, Seremban and Singapore.
Robert William Rankin was a Royal Australian Navy officer who was killed in action during the Second World War. He is one of six people to have had a Collins class submarine named after him.
Dalforce, or the Singapore Overseas Chinese Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army was an irregular forces/guerrilla unit within the British Straits Settlements Volunteer Force during World War II. Its members were recruited among the ethnic Chinese people of Singapore. It was created on 25 December 1941 by Lieutenant Colonel John Dalley of the Federated Malay States Police Force. The unit was known to the British colonial administration as Dalforce, after its chief instructor and commanding officer, John Dalley, whereas the Chinese in Singapore only knew it as the Singapore Overseas Chinese Anti-Japanese Volunteer Army. This formation took part in the Battle of Singapore and some members conducted a guerrilla campaign against Japanese forces during the Japanese occupation. The British noted how ferociously the Chinese volunteers in Dalforce fought, earning them the nickname Dalley's Desperadoes.
SS Rooseboom was a 1,035 ton Dutch steamship owned by KPM (Koninklijke Paketvaart-Maatschappij of the Netherlands East Indies built in 1926 by Rijkee & Co of Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
The Malayan Peoples' Anti-Japanese Army (MPAJA) was a communist guerrilla army that resisted the Japanese occupation of Malaya from 1941 to 1945. Composed mainly of ethnic Chinese guerrilla fighters, the MPAJA was the largest anti-Japanese resistance group in Malaya. Founded during the Japanese invasion of Malaya, the MPAJA was conceived as a part of a combined effort by the Malayan Communist Party (MCP) and the British colonial government, alongside various smaller groups to resist the Japanese occupation. Although the MPAJA and the MCP were officially different organisations, many saw the MPAJA as a de facto armed wing of the MCP due to its leadership being staffed by mostly ethnic Chinese communists. Many of the ex-guerrillas of the MPAJA would later form the Malayan National Liberation Army (MNLA) and resist the British occupation of Malaya during the Malayan Emergency (1948–1960).
Cheah Cheang Lim was born in Taiping, Perak, Malaysia. Brought up by his father, Cheah Boon Hean, who was in the trading business, he grew up to become a businessman and miner. He was introduced to the tin mining industries of the time by his uncle Foo Choo Choon, the 'Tin King', who hired him as his attorney. Later, Cheah Cheang Lim was appointed to manage his affairs. Eventually, he started his own company. He also invested in rubber estates but his main interest remained in the tin business.
The Surveyor General of Malaysia was the head of the Federated Malay States Survey Department, now known as Department of Survey and Mapping Malaysia.
Charles Moncrieff Goodyear was a British surveyor, who served as the third Surveyor-General of the Federated Malay States, from 1920 to 1922.
John Robert Dewar was a New Zealand surveyor, who served as the fifth Surveyor General of Federated Malay States, between 1933 and 1938.
Percy Herbert Bonnet was an Australian surveyor who served as the seventh Surveyor-General of the Federated Malay States, from 1945 to 1949.
Lieutenant Arnold Lessel MacMorland Greig was a New Zealand surveyor who served as the eleventh Surveyor-General of the Federated Malay States, from 1960 to 1963.
Luis Sigismund Himley was an English surveyor, who served as the tenth Surveyor-General of the Federated Malay States between 1956 and 1960.
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