Sydney Herring

Sydney Charles Edgar Herring
Portrait of Brigadier General Herring, DSO, commander of the 13th Australian Infantry Brigade
Born	8 October 1881 Gladesville, New South Wales
Died	27 May 1951(1951-05-27) (aged 69) Killara, New South Wales
Allegiance	Australian Army
Years of service	1904–1946
Rank	Brigadier General
Commands held	13th Infantry Battalion 45th Infantry Battalion 4th Training Group 3rd Training Brigade 13th Infantry Brigade
Battles/wars	World War I Gallipoli Campaign Western Front
Awards	Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George Distinguished Service Order Mention in Despatches (5) Volunteer Decoration Croix de Guerre (France)
Other work	Unsuccessfully ran for Australian Senate

World War I

Brigadier General Sydney Charles Edgar Herring CMG, DSO, VD (8 October 1881 – 27 May 1951) was an Australian Army colonel and temporary Brigadier General in World War I. He retired in 1946 as an honorary brigadier general.

Sydney Charles Edgar Herring was born in Gladesville, a suburb of Sydney on 8 October 1881. After a public school education he became a real estate agent.

Herring was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the 1st Australian Infantry Battalion on 26 March 1904 and promoted to lieutenant on 1 March 1906. With the introduction of universal military training in 1911 he became area officer for Drummoyne and was promoted to captain on 4 January 1911, he transferred to the 21st Infantry on 1 July 1912.

Herring was appointed to the First Australian Imperial Force on 4 October 1914 with the rank of captain in the 13th Infantry Battalion. The battalion left Sydney on 22 December 1914 for Egypt, where Herring was promoted to major and given command of 'D' Company on 1 February 1915. The 13th Battalion landed at Anzac Cove on the evening of 25 April 1915. Ordered to take his company up to Russell's Top and link up with the New Zealanders, Herring and his men climbed the thick scrub opposite Pope's Hill. After taking heavy casualties Herring decided to pull back his line a bit. By the end of the action Herring had retreated back into Monash Valley.

When the Turks broke through the line into Quinn's Post on 29 May 1915, the temporary post commander, Lieutenant Colonel Pope, ordered Herring to make a counterattack, which he fully expected would be extremely costly. Just as Herring was about to order the charge, there was a sudden burst of enemy fire, which abruptly almost ceased. Herring gave the word and his men charged across the open and made it practically unscathed, their attack having coincided with a Turkish assault further down the line and in a location where the Turkish machine gunners could not fire without hitting their own men. The remaining Turks in the post eventually surrendered.