William Grant ( general ) Brigadier General William Grant ( 30 September 1870 – 25 May 1939 ) was an Australian Army colonel and temporary Brigadier General in World War I . Early life and career . William Grant was born on 30 September 1870 in Stawell , Victoria , the son of a miner . He was educated at Brighton Grammar School and Ormond College at the University of Melbourne , graduating with a Bachelor of Civil Engineering ( BCE ) in 1893 . He worked in railway construction in New South Wales but after his father ' s death in 1894 he became a pastoralist , purchasing Bowenville Station on the Darling Downs in Queensland in 1896 . Grant was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Queensland Mounted Infantry on 1 January 1901 . He advanced rapidly and became commander of the 14th Light Horse in 1910 , and was promoted from major to lieutenant colonel on 18 December 1911 . He was still in command when World War I broke out . World War I . Grant joined the First Australian Imperial Force on 16 March 1915 , taking command of the 11th Light Horse Regiment . Part of the 4th Light Horse Brigade , it was sent to Egypt dismounted and there broken up on 26 August 1915 . The 11th Light Horse Regiment was sent to Gallipoli , and there itself broken up , with a squadron being attached to each of the 2nd , 5th and 9th Light Horse Regiment s . When the commander of the 9th Light Horse , Lieutenant Colonel Reynell was killed in the fighting for Hill 60 on 29 August 1915 , Grant took over command of his regiment . He remained with the 9th Light Horse until he was sent for duty at the rest camp on 2 December 1915 . When the 11th Light Horse was reformed in Egypt on 22 February 1916 , Grant was given command again . At Romani , the 11th Light Horse formed part of a mobile column of light horse and took part in the defence of the Suez Canal . At Maghara in October , the 11th Light Horse led a column on a night march across the desert , navigating by the stars . On the second night of the march , dense fog closed in and hid the stars , but somehow Grant , who apparently had a phenomenal sense of position and direction , managed to lead the column through the desert to emerge at daybreak directly in front of the Turkish position . For his part in the Sinai and Palestine Campaign , Grant was awarded the Distinguished Service Order ( DSO ) . On 14 February 1917 , Grant led the 11th Light Horse out from Serapeum on a mission to sweep the remaining Turkish troops from the Sinai Peninsula . Grant learned from a British pilot that the Turks were evacuating , Nekhl , a significant town in the central Sinai , situated roughly in the centre of the Sinai , atop the desert ranges . His men entered Nekhl riding with fixed bayonets on 17 February . The light horse had travelled some 150 miles in seven days across steep and rocky mountain tracks . Only a few Turks and Arabs were captured , but the action marked the end of the campaign in the Sinai . In February 1917 , 4th Light Horse Brigade reformed and the 11th Light Horse Regiment rejoined it . On 13 August 1917 , Grant became commander of the 3rd Light Horse Brigade and was promoted to temporary brigadier general . Then on 13 September 1917 , he took over command of the 4th Light Horse Brigade , becoming a colonel and temporary brigadier general . The Desert Mounted Corps began its most famous campaign on the night of 30 October . The tactics were similar to those at Rafa and Magdhaba , with the mounted troops making a surprise night march , enveloping the left and rear of the enemy ' s position at Beersheba and attacking it from the east while the infantry attacked frontally from the south . The ANZAC Mounted Division was held up at Tel el Saba , the hill overlooking Beersheba , where the defenders held on until captured by the New Zealanders late in the day . Lieutenant General Harry Chauvel ordered Grant to attempt a mounted attack on Beersheba , his goal being to take the town wells before they could be destroyed . The light horse did not carry swords but had sharpened their bayonet points some days before in anticipation of such a tactic . The 4th and 12th Light Horse Regiments formed up with their squadrons in three lines , each about 300 to 500 metres apart . Wielding their bayonets like swords , they moved forward at a trot while the 13 - pounders of the British Notts Battery suppressed Turkish machine guns . Grant initially rode in the lead , but dropped back to the reserve line once the column was headed in the correct direction so as to control their subsequent movements . Three Turkish batteries opposed the light horsemen but they moved forward so swiftly that the Turks could not range on them . The light horsemen swarmed over the Turkish positions and swept into the town , capturing all but two of the seventeen wells before they could be destroyed . For his part , Grant was personally decorated with a bar to his DSO by the commander - in - chief , General Sir Edmund Allenby , the next day . Grant served as acting commander of the Australian Mounted Division from 15 December 1917 to 2 January 1918 . During the raid on Es Salt in May 1918 , Grant ' s 4th Light Horse Brigade was given the task of guarding the flank . When the plan failed , it was on his brigade that the main Turkish blow fell . The light horsemen fought hard but the Turks subjected them to fierce artillery and machine gun fire , and were able to drive them from their positions . Grant managed to avoid being overrun , and was able to withdraw by night without issue . Nine of the twelve British guns supporting the brigade were lost . Grant was blamed for the loss of the guns and for faulty defensive positions . In his final campaign , Grant was ordered to capture the town of Semakh , on the southern shores of Lake Tiberias . With only half his brigade available , Grant surprised the defenders with a quick night approach and a moonlight assault with drawn swords . Grant used his machine guns to reduce the enemy ' s fire . The garrison , half of whom were Germans , fought hard and the light horsemen had to fight from building to building , but the town was eventually captured . Grant commanded the Australian Mounted Division from 8 November 1918 to 24 December 1918 . For his services , he was made a Companion of St Michael and St George ( CMG ) in the 1919 New Year Honours List . Post war . He embarked for Australia on 29 April 1919 , where he commanded the 1st Cavalry Brigade from 1920 to 1925 . He retired from the Army in 1928 . After the war Grant returned to his property at Bowenville but he sold it in 1931 and moved to Brisbane . Then in 1934 he purchased another property near Dirranbandi in southern Queensland . William Grant died suddenly from a heart attack on 25 May 1939 and was cremated with full military honours in Brisbane . See also . List of Australian Generals Light Horse History )