 Weir assembled and trained his battalion at the <unk> Racecourse , then embarked with them on the transport <unk> on 20 October 1914 as the first convoy of Australian troops departed for overseas service . On arrival in Fremantle , six companies of the 11th Battalion were embarked on the transport , and Weir was appointed Officer Commanding Troops for the voyage . The troops began disembarking at Alexandria on 6 December 1914 , and were entrained for Cairo , where they began to set up camp at Mena . The Australian Official War Historian , Charles Bean , described Weir as being " somewhat above average in years " for a battalion commander . Following the Allied decision to land a force on the Gallipoli Peninsula , the 3rd Brigade was selected as the covering force for the landing at Anzac Cove . The 10th Battalion embarked for the Greek island of Lemnos in the northern Aegean Sea on 1 March 1915 , and after further training on Lemnos , the battalion was one of the first two battalions ashore on the morning of 25 April 1915 . 
