Major William Francis Noel Bridges (30 January 1890 - 28 February 1942) was an Australian

surveyor Surveying or land surveying is the technique, profession, art, and science of determining the terrestrial two-dimensional or three-dimensional positions of points and the distances and angles between them. A land surveying professional is ca ...

and the sixth

Surveyor General A surveyor general is an official responsible for government surveying in a specific country or territory. Historically, this would often have been a military appointment, but it is now more likely to be a civilian post. The following surveyor ge ...

of the

Federated Malay States )Under God's Protection , capital = Kuala Lumpur1 , religion = Islam , legislature = Federal Legislative Council , type_house1 = State level , common_languages = , title_leader = Monarch , leader1 ...

between 1938 and 1942. William Francis Noel Bridges was born on 30 January 1890 at Middle Head, New South Wales,

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, the second son and fourth of seven children, of Sir

William Throsby Bridges Major General Sir William Throsby Bridges, (18 February 1861 – 18 May 1915) was a senior Australian Army officer who was instrumental in establishing the Royal Military College, Duntroon and who served as the first Australian Chief of the ...

and Edith Lilian née Francis (1862–1926). He was educated at Melbourne Grammar School and

Trinity College Trinity College may refer to: Australia * Trinity Anglican College, an Anglican coeducational primary and secondary school in , New South Wales * Trinity Catholic College, Auburn, a coeducational school in the inner-western suburbs of Sydney, New ...

before attending Melbourne University. In September 1912 he joined the Survey Department of the

, 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. He married Doris Frances Graham-Bonar French (1890-1967) on 27 November 1917 at

Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the Borough of Barnet, North-West London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has been part of Great ...

, Middlesex, England. Bridges served at

Gallipoli The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles ...

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.

References

1890 births 1942 deaths People from New South Wales Administrators in British Malaya Australian civilians killed in World War II {{Australia-bio-stub