Major General Sir William Throsby Bridges KCB, CMG (18 February 1861 - 18 May 1915) Served with Australian forces during World War I, and was the first Australian to reach general officer rank. He was also the first Australian general to be killed during the war - at Gallipoli on 18 May 1915. Born in Greenock, Scotland, he was educated at Ryde on the Isle of Wight, at the Royal Naval School at New Cross, London and at Trinity College, Port Hope, Ontario, Canada. He studied at the Royal Military College of Canada in Kingston, Ontario, Canada but left before graduating. In 1879 he joined his family who had settled in his mother's home town of Moss Vale, New South Wales. Australia's top loss General Bridges at Gallipoli in 1915 - first commandant of Duntroon - and commander of the Australian 1st Division. http://www.unsw.adfa.edu.au/~rmallett/Generals/bridges.html "SANDY" General Bridges' favourite charger - 1 in 169,000 !! The only one of the 169,000 horses that left Australia for WW1 war service to return - was " Sandy," General Bridges' favourite charger. He was brought back with his master's mortal remains and, after the funeral procession, turned out to grass - a few years later, becoming blind and debilitated, he was mercifully destroyed. His head is mounted in a show case originally displayed at the 1st Australian War Memorial Museum in Sydney and later in Canberra at the AWM. http://www.diggerhistory.info/pages-leaders/ww1/bridges.htm http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/biogs/A070415b.htm Canberra, ACT. 1946-03-25. The top of the tombstone showing the marble sword on Major General Sir William Throsby Bridges' grave, Royal Military College, Duntroon.
