# Thomas William Glasgow

Thomas William Glasgow (6 JUN 1876 – 4 JUL 1955); child of Mary Margret Trotter Anderson; born in Queensland, Australia; died in Queensland, Australia.

**Lifespan:** 6 JUN 1876 – 4 JUL 1955

## Parents
- [Mary Margret Trotter Anderson](/p/mary-margret-trotter-anderson-65156.md) (mother)

## Spouses
- _unknown partner_ — m. 21 APR 1904

## Timeline
- 6 JUN 1876 — **Born** at Queensland, Australia
- 1893 — **Occupation (Bank clerk, Queensland National Bank)** at Gympie, Queensland, Australia — Left Maryborough Grammar School and began work as a junior clerk in the office of a mining company at Gympie, later becoming a clerk in the Queensland National Bank there. The Parliamentary Handbook records his bank employment at Gympie and Charters Towers.
- FROM 1899 TO 1900 — **South African War service, 1st Queensland Mounted Infantry** at South Africa — Volunteered for service in South Africa and was commissioned lieutenant in the 1st Queensland Mounted Infantry Contingent, having joined the Wide Bay Regiment of the Queensland Mounted Infantry while still in his teens. He took part in the relief of Kimberley, the capture of Cronje's laager on the Modder and the occupation of Bloemfontein. He was mentioned in despatches and awarded the Distinguished Service Order. In 1897 he had gone to London as one of twenty Queensland volunteers representing the colony at Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee.
- 19 APR 1901 — **Title (DSO)** — Distinguished Service Order, awarded for service in the South African War with the 1st Queensland Mounted Infantry Contingent, together with a mention in despatches.
- FROM 1902 TO 1913 — **Occupation (Storekeeper)** at Gympie, Queensland, Australia — After returning from South Africa he formed the partnership T. W. & A. Glasgow with his younger brother Alexander and took over his father's grocery store at Gympie. He gave up storekeeping and had just bought a cattle station in central Queensland when the First World War broke out.
- FROM 1915 TO 1916 — **Commanding Officer, 2nd Light Horse Regiment, AIF** at Queensland, Australia — Enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on the outbreak of war and was appointed major in the 2nd Light Horse Regiment, embarking on 24 September 1914 and landing at Gallipoli on 12 May 1915. He succeeded Lieutenant-Colonel F. M. Rowell as acting commandant of Pope's Hill and on 7 August 1915 led 200 light horsemen in the attack on Dead Man's Ridge, in which all but 46 were killed or wounded; he was among the last to withdraw, carrying a wounded trooper. He was given command of the 2nd Light Horse the next day and held it, as lieutenant-colonel, until after the evacuation.
- FROM 15 FEB 1916 TO 30 JUN 1918 — **Commander, 13th Infantry Brigade, AIF** at Queensland, Australia — Promoted temporary brigadier and given the task of raising and commanding the 13th Infantry Brigade when the 4th and 5th Divisions were formed. He led the brigade for over two years on the Western Front, at Pozieres, Mouquet Farm, Messines, Passchendaele and Dernancourt. On 25 April 1918, with Harold Elliott's 15th Brigade, the 13th recaptured Villers-Bretonneux after the Germans had overrun the British 8th Division. Before the counter-attack Glasgow refused a British order to attack at 8 p.m. across the enemy's front, saying it could not be done in daylight; the attack went in at 10 p.m. and succeeded.
- 3 JUN 1916 — **Title (CMG)** — Companion of the Most Distinguished Order of St Michael and St George, appointed while commanding the 13th Infantry Brigade.
- 1 JAN 1918 — **Title (CB)** — Companion of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, appointed for service on the Western Front.
- FROM 30 JUN 1918 TO 1919 — **General Officer Commanding, 1st Australian Division** at Queensland, Australia — Promoted major general and appointed to command the 1st Australian Division in Flanders. On 8 August 1918 the division rejoined the Australian Corps on the Somme for the Hundred Days Offensive, and he led it at Lihons, Chuignes and Hargicourt on the Hindenburg Line. He remained in command until the end of the war, embarked for Australia on 6 May 1919 and was demobilised on 19 August 1919. He was nine times mentioned in despatches. He later commanded the 4th Division in the militia from 1921 and led the Anzac Day parade in Brisbane for twenty years.
- MAY 1919 — **Title (Officer of the Legion of Honour (France))** — Appointed an Officer of the Legion of Honour by the French government. He was also awarded the French Croix de Guerre in May 1919 and the Croix de Guerre avec Palme in August 1919, and a Belgian Croix de Guerre.
- 9 JUN 1919 — **Title (KCB)** — Knight Commander of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, appointed in recognition of his war service as a divisional commander. He was thereafter styled Sir William Glasgow.
- FROM 1 JUL 1920 TO 30 JUN 1932 — **Senator for Queensland** at Queensland, Australia — Elected to the Senate for Queensland at the 1919 federal election as a Nationalist, taking his seat on 1 July 1920, and re-elected in 1925. In February 1923 he declined the leadership of the non-Labor forces in Queensland and the prospect of the premiership. He joined the United Australia Party on its formation in May 1931, was deputy leader of the Opposition in the Senate during the Scullin government, and was defeated at the 1931 general election, his term running to 30 June 1932.
- FROM 18 JUN 1926 TO 5 APR 1927 — **Chairman, Australian War Memorial Board of Management** at Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia — Joined the Australian War Memorial's board of management on 18 March 1926 and chaired it from 18 June 1926, the day he entered cabinet, until 5 April 1927.
- FROM 18 JUN 1926 TO 2 APR 1927 — **Minister for Home and Territories** at Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia — Promoted to cabinet in the Bruce-Page government, succeeding Sir George Pearce as Minister for Home and Territories.
- FROM 2 APR 1927 TO 22 OCT 1929 — **Minister for Defence** at Canberra, Australian Capital Territory, Australia — Held the defence portfolio until the Bruce-Page government's defeat at the 1929 election. In this period the government completed its five-year defence programme, which increased the citizen army to 45,000 and modernised and expanded the Royal Australian Air Force. In 1928 he led an Australian delegation to the Empire Parliamentary Association conference in Canada and visited England to study modern war methods.
- FROM 24 DEC 1939 TO 1945 — **Australian High Commissioner to Canada** at Ottawa, Ontario, Canada — Appointed the first Australian High Commissioner to Canada, arriving in Ottawa late in March 1940. His work included negotiation on the Empire Air Training Scheme, and he regularly visited the camps and schools where Australians were training, establishing Anzac clubs in Ottawa and Halifax. He advocated closer liaison on Pacific strategy, oversaw the Australia-Canada mutual aid agreement concluded in March 1944, and attended the 1943 and 1944 Quebec conferences between Churchill and Roosevelt. The University of Manitoba awarded him an honorary LL.D. in 1942. He returned to Australia in 1945.
- 4 JUL 1955 — **Died** at Queensland, Australia

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