Brigadier Frederick Alexander Burrows, DSO, MM (10 November 1897 – 23 May 1973) was a salesman and an Australian Army soldier who served in the First and the Second World Wars.
Frederick Alexander Burrows was born at Wahgunyah in the Australian state of Victoria on 10 November 1897.
He went to schools in New South Wales and was working as a grocer's assistant at the time of his enlistment in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) in April 1915.
[1] Embarking for Egypt in July 1915, Burrows was posted to the 7th Battalion,[1] at the time serving on the Gallipoli peninsula.
[2] In August 1918, during the German spring offensive, Burrows was awarded the Military Medal for his leadership of a bombing party assaulting German-held trenches.
[1] Returning to civilian life, Burrows found employment at an engineering company in Melbourne.
[1] During this time, he had to achieve a fighting withdrawal of his battalion at Er Regima, near Benghazi, in the face of advancing German armour[7] and was an aggressive commander at Tobruk, striving to extend the defensive lines.
[10] During these operations, he arranged and conducted a night attack at Ed Duda on 30 November, successfully recapturing the position that had been lost earlier in the day.
He commanded the 1st Infantry Brigade, a CMF formation stationed in New South Wales, for the rest of the war.