Leslie Morshead
Australian soldier with a distinguished career in both world wars (1889-1959) · Australia · On the map · Died at 70
Lieutenant General Sir Leslie James Morshead, was an Australian soldier, teacher, businessman, and farmer, whose military career spanned both world wars.
Leslie Morshead is read about 61 times a day, in 12 languages.
A typical day, 30 days to 18 August 2026
The middle day of the days counted, so one week of news cannot move it. The line under it is the last 60 days, one point a day.
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Media & music
Photos 11
Morshead (right) at Lone Pine after the Battle of Lone Pine
Morshead as a lieutenant colonel in the AIF.
Group of staff officers of the 2nd Division at Victoria Barracks, Paddington, January 1937. Sat on the extreme left in the front row is Colonel Leslie Morshead.
Sir Leslie Morshead with his wife, Lady Morshead, in 1944
Australian troops occupy a front line position at Tobruk
Morshead (centre) with Winston Churchill (left) and General Claude Auchinleck (right) in August 1942
Morshead (at right) with other senior Australian officers in the Ramu Valley, New Guinea in 1943Awards
About this person
During the Second World War, he led the Australian and British troops at the Siege of Tobruk (1941) and at the Second Battle of El Alamein, achieving decisive victories over Erwin Rommel's Afrika Korps. His soldiers nicknamed him "Ming the Merciless", later simply "Ming", after the villain in the Flash Gordon comics.