William Bridges ( general ) Major General Sir William Throsby Bridges ( 18 February 1861 – 18 May 1915 ) was a senior Australian military officer who was instrumental in establishing the Royal Military College , Duntroon and who served as the first Australian Chief of the General Staff . During World War I he commanded the 1st Australian Division at Gallipoli where he died of wounds on 18 May 1915 , becoming the first Australian major general to be killed during the war . He was the first Australian — 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 World War I 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 . 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 . For the next three years , Bridges was a border 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 . 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 . Travelling on the transport " Zealandia " , Bridges arrived in Sydney in August and joined his family who had settled in his mother ' s home town of Moss Vale , New South Wales . Shortly after his arrival , he began working for the Department of Roads and Bridges at Braidwood , and by 1884 he had become an inspector in the Narrabri district . Military career . Early career and Boer War . In early 1885 , 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 consisting of an infantry battalion , with artillery and supporing 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 . Nevertheless , due to 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 . The following year he undertook an artillery officers ' course at the School of Gunnery at Middle Head , after which he was posted there as a staff officer . In 1889 he qualified as a gunnery instructor and in October 1890 , having been promoted to captain the month before , he was then sent to the Royal Military Academy , Woolwich and at the Royal School of Gunnery at Shoeburyness , for 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 he held positions on several military committees and conferences . In late 1899 , Bridges was one of four New South Wales officers seconded to serve with British Army units during the Second Boer War . During his time in South Africa he took part in actions around Kimberley , Paardeberg and Driefontein before contracting typhoid . After being evacuated to England , he returned to Australia in September 1900 . Upon his return , Bridges took command of the Brigade Division of Field Artillery as well as various staff appointments . In 1901 , the Australian colonies federated , and the various colonial military forces were formed into the Australian Army . Bridges undertook a quick succession of appointments : Assistant Quartermaster General of the Army HQ in Melbourne ; Chief of Military Intelligence ; Chief of the Australian General Staff , achieving the rank of lieutenant colonel in July 1902 and then colonel in October 1906 . In 1909 he went to London as Australia ' s representative on the Imperial General Staff . In 1910 Bridges was promoted to brigadier general and , on the recommendation of Lord Kitchener , was recalled to Australia to become the first commandant of the Royal Military College at Duntroon . On his way back to Australia , Bridges inspected various military colleges including Sandhurst , Woolwich , and West Point . He chose the site of the old Campbell homestead and in line with Kitchener ' s recommendations , Bridges largely modelled Duntroon on the United States Military Academy at West Point . He remained commandant of the college until May 1914 , when he was appointed Inspector General of the Army . World War I . When World War I broke out , Bridges was in Queensland on an inspection tour , and returned to Melbourne on 5 August 1914 . Bridges met with the cabinet and was promoted to the rank of major general and charged with the creation of an expeditionary force of 20 , 000 men for overseas service , known as the Australian Imperial Force ( AIF ) . As the force was raised , Bridges convinced the government to graduate the first class of Duntroon cadets early . Once the force was raised , Bridges and his command sailed from Albany , Western Australia , 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 . 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 . 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 overruled . During this time , Bridges inspected the front lines on a daily basis , despite the risks . On 15 May 1915 , he 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 . On 17 May 1915 , Bridges was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath , although the award was not formally gazetted until 22 May . He was also posthumously Mentioned in Despatches , having died on board the hospital ship two days earlier . Bridges was buried in Alexandria but in June his body was returned to Melbourne where he received a state funeral . Bridges is the only identified Australian killed in World War I to have their body repatriated and buried on Australian soil . His funeral service was conducted at St Paul ' s Cathederal , Melbourne . He was buried on 3 September 1915 at Duntroon on the slopes of Mount Pleasant . 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 . They had seven children , three of whom died young . 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 . He was also survived by his horse " Sandy " , the only Australian Waler horse to return from World War I due to quarantine restrictions . 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 . Legacy . Sir William Throsby Bridges is memorialised by a memorial tablet in the Anglican Parish of St John the Baptist , in Canberra . 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 . 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 " . 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 .