family, reaching Hobart on 14 June 1912. He hoped to be able to take over one of his family's properties, but none were willing to sell out to him, so he bought an apple orchard at Risdon, and settled into life as a farmer. Charles Bean later wrote that "It was a constant wonder, to those who knew in Gellibrand one of the best and ablest officers in any army with the experience of the Australians, how a man with these qualities and with staff college training could have been allowed—much less almost compelled—to slip out of the British Army. It was standing evidence of the hopeless defects in a system under which staffs were often appointed on the principles of a hunt-club." First World War When the First World War broke out on 4 August 1914, Gellibrand offered his services to the commandant of the 6th Military District (Tasmania). On 20 August 1914, he was appointed to the Australian Imperial Force (AIF) as a captain, and given the post of Deputy Assistant Quartermaster General (DAQMG) on the staff of the 1st Division. Staff college graduates like Gellibrand were scarce in Australia; only six Australian Army officers had graduated from staff colleges. There were also four of the British Army's graduates on secondment. For the 1st Division's General Staff (G) Branch, the division commander, Major General William Bridges, chose two of Gellibrand's Camberley classmates, Lieutenant Colonel Brudenell White from the Australian Army, and Major Duncan Glasfurd from the British Army, and Captain Thomas Blamey, an Australian Army officer who had graduated from the Staff College, Quetta. The Administration (A) Branch was headed by the AA & QMG, Colonel Victor Sellheim. Lieutenant Colonel W. G. Patterson was his deputy, the DAA & QMG. As DAQMG, Gellibrand was responsible for logistics; Major Cecil Foott, an Australian 1913 Camberley graduate, was the Deputy Assistant Adjutant General (DAAG), responsible for personnel matters. On 23 September 1914 Gellibrand was promoted to major, the usual rank for his post. The 1st Division headquarters left Port Melbourne on the Orient liner SS Orvieto on 21 October 1914, which reached Alexandria on 3 December. Sellheim left to command the new Intermediate Base Depot on 12 January 1915. Patterson stepped up to become AA & QMG, and Gellibrand to become DAA & QMG. Foott took Gellibrand's place as DAQMG, and Captain Thomas Griffiths became DAAG. Gellibrand landed at Anzac