Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

03/11/1914

Date of Discharge

31/10/1919

Place of Enlistment

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

31/08/1894

Place of Birth

Singleton NSW

Address (at enlistment)

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Occupation

Soldier

Next of Kin

Marsham Ambrose Anderson (father), Castlereagh Street, Singleton NSW

Final Rank

Major

Final Unit

Anzac Mounted Division

Distinguished Service Order

Anderson was a member of the guard of honour at the naming ceremony at Canberra on 12 March 1913. His class was graduated early on 2 November 1914 and he joined the 6th Light Horse Regiment the following day as a Lieutenant, landing on Gallipoli in May 1915. The 6th Light Horse occupied positions on the southern flank at Anzac. Anderson was promoted to Captain in October 1915 and served as adjutant for his unit. The AWM image shows Anderson with two other officers on Gallipoli. In March 1916 he was promoted to Major and later that year became second-in-command of the 6th Light Horse Regiment. However, early in 1917 Anderson was appointed to a staff position and at the end of the war he was a General Staff Officer II in the Anzac Mounted Division in the Middle East. He stayed in the army after the war and was an exchange officer in India at the start of World War 2. He returned to Australia in January 1940 and was appointed as a Colonel in the Armoured Corps. He served in the Middle East and in New Guinea where he was attached to the 8th US Army in November 1944 and went with them to the Philippines in December 1944 until the end of the war. Anderson was then sent to Japan with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force and returned to Australia in December 1946. He joined the Australian Staff Corps and was appointed as a Major General on 1 June 1949 before retiring from the army on 31 August 1951. Anderson died at home in Sydney on 10 February 1973.

Colonel J.E. Lee, 'Duntroon: The Royal Military College of Australia 1911-1946', 1952
AWM Collections Record: P01309.014
NAA RecordSearch - Series B2455 (First Australian Imperial Force Personnel Dossiers, 1914-1920)
Stories from the ACT Memorial, 'The Honour Guard at the Canberra Commencement Ceremony', ACT Heritage Library www.library.act.gov.au/find/history/stories_from_the_act_memorial