Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War I (1914-1918)

Date of Enlistment

15/08/1914

Date of Discharge

30/09/1930

Place of Enlistment

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

16/03/1893

Place of Birth

Armidale NSW

Address (at enlistment)

Royal Military College, Duntroon ACT

School(s) Attended

Scotch College (Perth)

Occupation

Soldier

Next of Kin

John Selby (father), West Leederville, Western Australia

Final Rank

Lieutenant

Final Unit

11 Battalion AIF

Selby entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon with the first intake of cadets on 22 June 1911. He was a member of the guard of honour at the Canberra naming ceremony on 12 March 1913. Selby graduated from RMC on 2 November 1914 and was appointed as a Lieutenant in the 11th Battalion, landing on Gallipoli on 25 April 1915 as part of the covering force for the 3rd Brigade. He led as many men as possible up Plugges Plateau under heavy machine gun and rifle fire, then took his platoon forward to the next ridge, reaching as far as 110 yards beyond German Officers Trench. He established himself at Courtneys Post and dug in on the side of the hill overlooking the left of the Australians position at Quinns Post where the Turks were particularly aggressive. According to Bean on 7 May Major General Bridges ordered Captain Edward Bage, a veteran of Douglas Mawson's Antarctic expedition, to lay a tape for an attempt to establish a redoubt near the Pimple on Lone Pine. Selby led the covering force but Bage was killed and Selby was severely wounded in the right elbow. He returned to Australia and took up a position at the Officers Training School at Duntroon. He transferred to the British Army as a Major on 30 September 1930 and served with the British in World War 2 in North Africa and the Middle East. He retired with the rank of Major General on 8 February 1946 and moved to South Africa, taking up citrus farming in Natal. He died on 30 August 1966 at Greytown in Natal and was buried at Pietermaritzburg.

Description - height 6 feet 3 inches, weight 178 pounds, chest 37-41 inches, Church of England.

Colonel J.E. Lee, 'Duntroon: The Royal Military College of Australia 1911-1946', 1952
Charles Bean, 'Official History of Australia in the War of 1914-18' (Vol. I, p.259, 283, 427-429, 474, 528, 530, Vol. II p.257)
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
Peter Londey, 'Selby, Arthur Roland (1893-1966)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/selby-arthur-roland-11652/text20815, published first in hardcopy 2002, (accessed online 7 September 2016)
Monaro Pioneers Index - http://www.monaropioneers.com/pioneers.htm