Leslie Morshead

1889–1959 ○ Died

Commander of the Australian 9th Division at the Siege of Tobruk and the Second Battle of El Alamein

Born in Ballarat, Victoria, he was a schoolteacher who enlisted as a private in the First World War, landed at Gallipoli and led the 33rd Infantry Battalion on the Western Front. Between the wars he worked for a shipping company while commanding Militia units. In 1941, at the head of the Australian 9th Division, he led the Australian and British garrison in the Siege of Tobruk, and he commanded the division again at the Second Battle of El Alamein in 1942. His men called him "Ming the Merciless". Back in Australia from 1943, he commanded II Corps in the New Guinea campaign and I Corps in the Borneo campaign in 1945.

Also known as: Leslie James Morshead