Tom Bridges

Lieutenant General Sir George Tom Molesworth Bridges (20 August 1871 – 26 November 1939) known as Sir Tom Bridges, was a British Army officer and the 19th Governor of South Australia. Bridges had a distinguished military career, seeing service in Africa, India, South Africa, and most notably Europe during the First World War, where he was involved in the first British battle of the war at Mons, and later commanded the 19th (Western) Division during the Battle of the Somme in 1916 and then in the Battle of Passchendaele the following year. After the war, he served in Greece, Russia, the Balkans, and Asia Minor before becoming Governor of South Australia from 1922 to 1927. Early life Bridges was born at Park Farm, Eltham, Kent, England, to Major Thomas Walker Bridges and Mary Ann Philippi. He was educated at Newton Abbot College and later at the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich. He was married in London on 14 November 1907, to a widow, Janet Florence Marshall; they had one daughter, Alvilde Bridges, who was married first to Anthony Chaplin, 3rd Viscount Chaplin, and then to James Lees-Milne. Early military career After graduating from the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich Bridges joined the Royal Artillery as a second lieutenant on 19 February 1892, and soon served in India and Nyasaland (now Malawi). He was promoted to lieutenant on 19 February 1895, and was seconded to the Central Africa Regiment from July to November 1899.