[1] His father, Herbert Mills Birdwood, born in Bombay and educated in the UK, had returned to India in 1859 after passing the Indian Civil Service examination.

[5] Birdwood served in the Second Boer War, initially as brigade-major with a mounted brigade in Natal from 10 January 1900 and then as Deputy-Assistant Adjutant-General on the staff of Lord Kitchener from 15 October 1900.

[10] Promoted to brevet major on 20 November 1901[11] and local lieutenant-colonel in October 1901,[12][13] he became military secretary to Lord Kitchener on 5 June 1902,[14] and followed him on his return to the United Kingdom on board the SS Orotava,[15] which arrived in Southampton on 12 July 1902.

[21] Having been appointed an aide-de-camp to the King on 14 February 1906,[22] he was given command of the Kohat Brigade on the North West Frontier in 1908[23] and promoted to temporary brigadier-general on 28 June 1909.

[24] Promoted to the rank of major-general on 3 October 1911,[25] Birdwood became quartermaster-general in India and a member of the Viceroy's Legislative Council in 1912 and then Secretary of the Indian Army Department in 1913.

[13] In November 1914 Birdwood was instructed by Kitchener to form an army corps from the Australian and New Zealand troops that were training in Egypt.

[13] The ANZAC Corps encountered high ridges, narrow gullies, dense scrub and strong Ottoman resistance and became pinned down.

[4] He launched a major attack on Ottoman positions in August 1915 (the Battle of Sari Bair) but failed to dislodge them from the peninsula.

[13] He was promoted to the permanent rank of lieutenant-general on 28 October 1915[29] and given command of the newly formed Dardanelles Army: the one outstanding success of the campaign was the evacuation led by Birdwood, which took place in December 1915 and January 1916, when the entire force was withdrawn before any Ottoman reaction.

[30][31] Birdwood was promoted to the permanent rank of full general on 23 October 1917[32][33] with command of a formation then known as the Australian Corps in November 1917.

[37] He toured Australia to great acclaim in 1920 and then became general officer commanding the Northern Army in India in October of that year.

[53] He was raised to the peerage as Baron Birdwood, of Anzac and of Totnes in the County of Devon, on 25 January 1938, in recognition of his wartime service.

He was buried at Twickenham Cemetery with full military honours;[4] the Australian Government pays for the upkeep of his grave.