Lieutenant General Sir George Tom Molesworth Bridges (20 August 1871 – 26 November 1939) known as Sir Tom Bridges, was a British Army officer and the 19th Governor of South Australia.
Bridges had a distinguished military career, seeing service in Africa, India, South Africa, and most notably Europe during the First World War, where he was involved in the first British battle of the war at Mons, and later commanded the 19th (Western) Division during the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and then in the Battle of Passchendaele the following year. After the war, he served in Greece, Russia, the Balkans, and Asia Minor before becoming Governor of South Australia from 1922 to 1927.
Early life
Bridges was born at Park Farm, Eltham, Kent, England, to Major Thomas Walker Bridges and Mary Ann Philippi. He was educated at Newton Abbot College and later at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. He was married in London on 14 November 1907, to a widow, Janet Florence Marshall; they had one daughter, Alvilde Bridges, who was married first to Anthony Chaplin, 3rd Viscount Chaplin, and then to James Lees-Milne.
Early military career
After graduating from the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich Bridges joined the Royal Artillery as a second lieutenant on 19 February 1892, and soon served in India and Nyasaland (now Malawi). He was promoted to lieutenant on 19 February 1895, and was seconded to the Central Africa Regiment from July to November 1899.
In 1899 he transferred to South Africa to serve in the Second Boer War. Attached to the Imperial Light Horse, he took part in the relief of Ladysmith, and received the rank of captain supernumerary to the establishment on 5 April 1900. For a few months in 1901 he was in command of two West Australian Mounted infantry contingents, and was severely wounded. He was confirmed as captain in the Royal Artillery on 8 January 1902, and served in South Africa till the end of the war in June 1902, after which he left Cape Town in the SS Plassy in August, returning to Southampton the following month. For his war service, he was mentioned in despatches (including the final despatch by Lord Kitchener dated 23 June 1902,) and received a brevet promotion as major on 22 August 1902.
Later that year saw him leave United Kingdom for Berbera, where he took charge of Guns in a Flying Column serving in Somaliland. In 1908, he became the chief instructor at the Cavalry School at Netheravon. Seeking a more rapid promotion in the army, Bridges transferred to the 4th Queen's Own Hussars in 1909, attaining the substantive rank of major. He was appointed military attaché to the Low Countries and Scandinavia between 1910 and 1914.
First World War
Early in World War I, Bridges was involved in the Battle of Mons, where he suffered a shattered cheekbone and concussion. During the British Army's retreat from Mons, he met two battalions of exhausted British soldiers at Saint Quentin, whose officers planned to surrender to save the town from bombardment. In a celebrated incident on 27 August, the injured Bridges used a tin whistle and toy drum purchased from a toy shop to rally the men and led them to rejoin the British Expeditionary Force (BEF), commanded by Field Marshal Sir John French In October, French flew Bridges to the besieged Belgian city of Antwerp to provide intelligence there for the British headquarters.
He was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in late 1915 and given command of the 19th (Western) Division, a Kitchener's Army formation, which was demoralised after severe casualties at the Battle of Loos. In 1916 he was promoted to major general. He set about turning the 19th Division into an efficient fighting unit, purging the senior officers. The division was in reserve on the disastrous first day of the Battle of the Somme, and thus avoided serious casualties. It acquitted itself well in the small subsequent attacks around La Boiselle in July.
In 1917, Bridges was sent on the Balfour Mission, the military liaison to the United States under Arthur Balfour, soon after the American entry into World War I in April 1917, to coordinate the sending of American soldiers to Europe. He ran into some difficulty because, like most senior British commanders and politicians, he pushed for the amalgamation or incorporation of Americans into understrength British units to be commanded by British officers. This caused much friction with the senior American commanders, who felt that American troops should be commanded by American officers.