 Northcott joined the Australian Army as a reservist in 1908 , before becoming a regular officer in 1912 . On duty in Tasmania when the Great War broke out in 1914 , he joined the 12th Infantry Battalion , a unit from that state . He was wounded in the landing at Gallipoli on Anzac Day and invalided to Egypt , the United Kingdom , and ultimately Australia , taking no further part in the fighting . After the war , Northcott served on a series of staff posts . He attended the Staff College , Camberley and Imperial Defence College and also spent time overseas as an exchange officer with the British Army and as a military attaché in the United States and Canada . 
