Major General Sir William Bridges

Places
Accession Number ART03355
Collection type Art
Measurement Overall: 75.8 cm x 63.5 cm x 2.2 cm; framed: 86.5 cm x 73.5 cm x 10 cm
Object type Painting
Physical description oil on canvas
Location Main Bld: First World War Gallery: Australia Goes To War
Maker Rodway, Florence
The Commanders ed. by D M Horner, Allen and Unwin (front endpaper)
Place made Australia: New South Wales, Sydney
Date made 1920
Conflict Period 1920-1929
First World War, 1914-1918
Copyright

Item copyright: Copyright expired - public domain

Public Domain Mark This item is in the Public Domain

Description

A posthumous portrait of Major-General Sir William Throsby Bridges, KCB, CMG (18 February 1861 - 18 May 1915). At the outbreak of the First World War, Bridges was selected to raise and command an Australian force for overseas service that, at Bridges suggestion, was called the Australian Imperial Forces. He landed with the 1st Australian Division at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915. On 15 May 1915 Bridges was mortally wounded by a Turkish sniper while inspecting positions in Monash Valley, Gallipoli. His body was returned to Australia and interred on Mount Pleasant, overlooking Duntroon. He was the only Australian soldier of the First World War to be honoured in his way.