Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

14/08/1914

Date of Discharge

03/06/1919

Place of Enlistment

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Gender

Male

Other Name(s)

Nicknamed 'Dick'

Date of Birth

17/03/1894

Place of Birth

Victoria

Address (at enlistment)

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

School(s) Attended

Brisbane Grammar

Occupation

Soldier

Next of Kin

Mrs. F.C. Urquhart, Toorak Road, Hamilton, Queensland

Final Rank

Major

Final Unit

1 Division Artillery (attached 3rd Light Horse Brigade) AIF

Mention in Despatches (Commonwealth Gazette No.61, 23 May 1919)
Mention in Despatches (Commonwealth Gazette No.113, 6 October 1919)

Urquhart was the first entrant into the Royal Military College, Duntroon on 22 June 1911. He was a member of the guard of honour at the naming ceremony for Canberra on 12 March 1913. He and his class graduated early at the outbreak of war in August 1914. Urquhart was appointed as a Lieutenant with the 7th Battery of the 3rd Field Artillery Brigade. He served on Gallipoli with the artillery in 1915, then was detached to the Anzac Mounted Division as a Staff Officer in 1916 and was promoted to Major in January 1917. He served with the Light Horse in the Sinai at Romani, Bir el Abd, Mazar, El Arish, Maghdaba, Rafa and in Palestine at Gaza, Beersheba, Jericho, the Jordan Valley and Amman and was present at the capture of Damascus in 1918. He led the 3rd Light Horse Brigade on the long night march to get behind the Turks at Jenin in September 1918.

Urquhart married a French woman in Egypt after the war and they returned to Australia. He died on 24 November 1985. His eulogy included the story that, whilst on Gallipoli, General William Bridges, the first Commandant of RMC, would occasionally visit Urquhart's battery. Urquhart would plead with him to keep under cover. After one visit Bridges was mortally wounded as he was leaving. Urquhart was thus the first and last RMC cadet to see Bridges. The AWM photo shows him seated on a gun carriage during the trip to Egypt on the Rangatira in September 1914.

Description - height 5 feet 10 inches, weight 134 pounds, chest 34½ inches, Church of England.

AWM First World War Unit Embarkation Rolls
AWM Honours & Awards
AWM Collections Record : A03106, P00151.003
The Duntroon Society Newsletter, 'The Funeral of of the late Brigadier W.J. Urquhart' (1/1986, p.5-6)
Colonel J.E. Lee, 'Duntroon: The Royal Military College of Australia 1911-1946', 1952
Darren Moore, 'Duntroon: A history of the Royal Military College of Australia 1911-2001', 2001 (pp.132-33)
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)

Victorian Births, Deaths & Marriages web site