Sir William Glasgow

SIR WILLIAM GLASGOW, Soldier, Senator and Diplomat

Peter Edgar

Big Sky Publishing, 2011, 407pp.

As a student in the 1960s, I occasionally walked past the statue of Sir William Glasgow in its then obscure location. At that time I knew little of Glasgow, except that he was Queensland’s senior military officer of the First World War. Peter Edgar has filled the gaps in my knowledge with this biography.

Glasgow started his military career in the Queensland militia. He soon met men who could later influence his career, serving with Chauvel in the Queensland shearers’ strike and in Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee contingent, while Brudenell White was a fellow bank clerk in Gympie. Chauvel was also Glasgow’s company commander in South Africa, where Glasgow served under Sir Edward Hutton, GOC of the Australian Army after Federation, and Hamilton, British commander on Gallipoli.

Glasgow’s principal military service was during the First World War. Initially second-in-command of the 2nd Light Horse Regiment in Chauvel’s 1st Light Horse Brigade; Glasgow was wounded at Pope’s Hill, on Gallipoli, and later commanded the 2nd Light Horse Regiment. Rather than remaining with the Light Horse, he took command of the 13th Brigade, apparently at White’s instigation. It seems unlikely that Glasgow would have had the same opportunity to develop as a soldier had he remained with the Light Horse in Palestine.

Military planning improved in parallel with Glasgow’s career. Within the 13th Brigade, the need for units to coordinate with each other was not well understood at Mouquet Farm, albeit it improved at Noreuil, as Glasgow’s skills developed. By Messines planning had improved, but the skills of troops and commanders remained insufficiently developed. At Zonnebeke, the operation went according to the plan for the first time in the 13th Brigade’s experience.

By Dernancourt and Villers-Bretonneux, the benefits of training and experience to Glasgow and his men were clear. The brigade and its staff were so well trained that they moved around 13 kilometres on foot to the battlefield, the staff reconnoitred the ground and coordinated planning with ‘Pompey’ Elliott’s 15th Brigade and the 8th British Division, and orders were issued, all in around twelve hours.

Training, good organisation, and experience were essential parts of Glasgow’s success, as was moral courage. While Glasgow abandoned an attack at Pope’s Hill that had the potential to be another Nek, his skills (and, perhaps, confidence) in the early Western Front battles were not sufficient for him to do the same there, and he accepted poor plans without demur. By 1918, however, he told a British major-general that if ‘God Almighty … gave the order, we couldn’t do it in daylight’.

On 30 June 1918, Glasgow took command of the 1st Division. Under his command the division followed the 8 August offensive with an advance to Chuignes. It took Hargicourt in mid-September, but Glasgow’s final action was marred by a mutiny in the 1st Battalion. Believing that men should accept the consequences of their actions, Glasgow rejected Monash’s suggestion that those convicted should be released. They were pardoned after the war ended by Hobbs, then commanding the Australian Corps.

After the war, Glasgow entered Parliament, later becoming Minister for Defence, with Chauvel as CGS. Edgar traces Glasgow’s efforts to improve Australia’s defences in the late 1920s. Later, Glasgow rose in the Senate to honour the life of his comrade, ‘Pompey’ Elliott, who committed suicide in 1931.

After being defeated in the 1931 election, Glasgow’s last public duty was during the Second World War, as High Commissioner in Canada. His responsibilities included oversight of Australians training there under the Air Training Scheme. The reader can get the impression that, except for the Air Training element, Edgar found this chapter less interesting to write than earlier chapters, but it is covered in a workmanlike fashion.

Late in the book, Edgar describes Glasgow explaining to the present Queen that one of his medals was received for attending her great-great-grandmother’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations early in his career.

This is a readable biography of a great Australian, whose statue now stands in central Brisbane overlooking ANZAC Square, memorial to so many of his comrades.

JOHN DONOVAN