Portal:Military history of Australia/Selected biography

Selected biography 1

Portal:Military history of Australia/Selected biography/1

Lieutenant General Sir Carl Herman Jess CB, CMG, CBE, DSO (16 February 1884 – 16 June 1948) was an Australian Army officer who served in both World War I and World War II. Jess was born in Bendigo and started his military career in 1899 when he joined the First Victorian Volunteer Cadets. During World War I, he served at Gallipoli and on the Western Front, reaching the rank of brigadier. Jess saw no action in World War II, although he commanded the 6th Division for a short period but was replaced by General Blamey. He became Director of Women's National Services in 1943 and organised the Women's Land Army. He died at the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital in Melbourne on 16 June 1948 and was cremated with full military honours.

Selected biography 2

Portal:Military history of Australia/Selected biography/2

Ordinary Seaman Teddy Sheean

Ordinary Seaman Teddy Sheean was a sailor in the Royal Australian Navy during World War II. Teddy Sheean was posted on the Bathurst-class corvette HMAS Armidale in 1942 when it was given the task of landing commandos at Betano. On 1 December during the second attempt to reach Betano, Armidale came under attack. Teddy Sheean manned an Oerlikon anti-aircraft gun and was wounded by strafing Japanese planes. He was confirmed with shooting down a bomber and damaging a further two aircraft. Sheean went down with the ship, still strapped into the gun and still shooting at the attacking aircraft. For his actions during the war the Collins-class submarine HMAS Sheean was named after him, with the motto "Fight On".

Selected biography 3

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Vice Admiral Sir John Augustine Collins KBE, CB (1899–1989) was an Australian naval officer who served in World War I and World War II, and who eventually rose to become the First Naval Member of the Australian Commonwealth Naval Board and Chief of Naval Staff. Collins was one of the first graduates of the Royal Australian Naval College to attain flag rank. During World War II, he commanded the cruiser HMAS Sydney in the Mediterranean. The latest class of Australian submarine, the Collins class, bears his name. The first of these, HMAS Collins, was launched by his widow in 1993.

Selected biography 4

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General Sir John Monash GCMG, KCB, VD (27 June 1865 – 8 October 1931) Australian military commander of World War I, was born in Melbourne, Victoria, to parents of Prussian-Jewish origin. Monash entered the University of Melbourne in 1893 and studied engineering and later law. He joined a militia unit, becoming a colonel in 1913. He joined the AIF at the outbreak off World War I and steadily rose through the ranks. In May 1918, he was promoted to lieutenant general and made commander of the Australian Corps. He held several high public office position after the war, he also has a University, City and Freeway named after him. Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery later wrote: "I would name Sir John Monash as the best general on the western front in Europe."

Selected biography 5

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Field Marshal Lord William Riddell Birdwood (13 September 1865 – 17 May 1951) was a World War I general who is best known as the commander of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. From 1899 to 1902, during the Second Boer War, Birdwood served as a military secretary on the staff of Lord Kitchener an association that continued in India until the outbreak of World War I. In November 1914, Birdwood was instructed to form an army corps of Australian and New Zealand troops training in Egypt. Birdwood lead these men during the landing at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915. After the evacuation from Gallipoli, Birdwood took command of the newly formed II Anzac Corps. When the I Anzac Corps become the first corp to departed for France as senior commander Birdwood swapped with General Alexander Godley. On the 31 May 1918, Birdwood attained command of the British Fifth Army, with command of the Australian Corps passing to Lieutenant General John Monash.

Selected biography 6

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Alfred John Shout VC, MC born in Trentham, New Zealand (7 August 1881 – 11 August 1915). Following service in the Second Boer War, Shout emigrated to Australia in 1907, joined the 29th Infantry Regiment and was commissioned as second lieutenant on 16 June 1914. Shout was the most highly decorated Australian of the Gallipoli Campaign, 1915, being awarded the Military Cross during the landing at Anzac Cove in April and receiving the Victoria Cross posthumously during the Battle of Lone Pine in August. He was also Mentioned in Despatches twice.

Selected biography 7

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Ernest Albert Corey MM & Three Bars (20 December 1891 – 25 August 1972) was a distinguished Australian stretcher-bearer who fought in World War I. Corey was born in Numeralla, New South Wales and enlisted in the First Australian Imperial Force on 13 January 1916 as a member of the 55th Battalion. Corey is believed to be the only soldier to be awarded the Military Medal on four occasions; twice in 1917, and twice in 1918. Corey died in August 1972 and is buried in the Queanbeyan Cemetery. His medals are displayed in the Hall of Valour at the Australian War Memorial. In 1979 a memorial was erected in Centennial Park, Cooma in honour of Corey.

Selected biography 8

Portal:Military history of Australia/Selected biography/8

Lieutenant General Sir Iven Giffard Mackay KBE, CMG, DSO, VD (7 April 1882 – 30 September 1966) was a prominent Australian soldier who served in both World War I and World War II. Mackay was born at Grafton, New South Wales and is best known for his action as the commander of the 6th Division during the Western Desert Campaign and Greek Campaign of World War II, and later as the commander of the Second Army. Later in life, Mackay took up the post of Australia's first High Commissioner to India, serving until May 1948.

Selected biography 9

Portal:Military history of Australia/Selected biography/9

John Simpson Kirkpatrick (6 July 1892 – 19 May 1915), also known as Jack Simpson, was a stretcher bearer with the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps at Gallipoli during World War I. He landed at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915 and, on that first night, took a donkey and began carrying wounded from the battle line to the beach for evacuation. He continued this work for three and a half weeks, many times under direct fire, until he was killed. Today, Simpson and his Donkey are an Anzac legend. Kirkpatrick is probably the best known soldier of the First Australian Imperial Force.

Selected biography 10

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Lieutenant General Henry Gordon Bennett CB, CMG, DSO (16 April 1887 – 1 August 1962) was an Australian soldier who served in both World War I and World War II. Bennett (who was always known as Gordon) was born in Melbourne and at 29 became at the time the youngest Australian general. Despite his highly decorated achievements during World War I, including at Gallipoli, Bennett is best remembered for his role in the Fall of Singapore during the Pacific War when, as commander of the 8th Division, he escaped while his men became prisoners of the Japanese.

Selected biography 11

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Clive Robertson Caldwell DSO, DFC & Bar (28 July 1910 – 5 August 1994) was the leading Australian fighter ace of World War II. Caldwell was born in Lewisham, Sydney and joined the Royal Australian Air Force at the outbreak of war. Caldwell is officially credited with at least 26 aircraft claimed shot down, 4 shared destroyed, 11 probables and 25 damaged in over 300 operational sorties. His nickname was Killer because of his habit of shooting up any enemy vehicles spotted when returning from a sortie. In 1945, he led the "Morotai Mutiny", in which several senior flyers resigned in protest following the relegation of RAAF fighter squadrons to dangerous and strategically worthless ground attack missions. Caldwell retired in 1946.

Selected biography 12

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Major General Philip Michael Jeffery AC, CVO, MC (born 12 December 1937) was the 24th Governor-General of Australia. Jeffery was born in Wiluna, Western Australia and was educated at state schools in Perth. Jeffery military service started by attending the Royal Military College, Duntroon, where he graduated in 1958. During a tour of duty in Vietnam he was awarded the Military Cross. He retired from the Australian Army in 1993 to become Governor of Western Australia. On 11 August 2003, Jeffery became the first Australian career soldier to be appointed Governor-General.

Selected biography 13

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Clare Grant Stevenson, AM, MBE (18 July 1903 – 22 October 1988) was the inaugural Director of the Women's Auxiliary Australian Air Force (WAAAF). Formed as a branch of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) in March 1941, the WAAAF was the first and largest Australian uniformed women's service during World War II, numbering more than 18,000 members by late 1944 and making up over thirty per cent of the RAAF's ground staff. Initially ranked squadron officer when appointed in May 1941, she rose to become group officer by April 1942. After her discharge in 1946, Stevenson resumed her civilian career at Berlei and was active in adult education and social welfare, helping to form several aid organisations including the Carers Association of New South Wales after retiring from her business career in 1960. In 2001, she was described as "the most significant woman in the history of the Air Force".

Selected biography 14

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William Ellis (Bill) Newton, VC (8 June 1919 – 29 March 1943) was a Royal Australian Air Force bomber pilot and Australian recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest decoration for gallantry in the face of the enemy that can be awarded to a member of the British and Commonwealth armed forces. He was honoured for his actions while serving with No. 22 Squadron RAAF in Papua New Guinea during March 1943 when, despite intense anti-aircraft fire, while flying a Boston light bomber he pressed home a series of attacks on the Salamaua Isthmus, the last of which saw him forced to ditch his aircraft in the sea. Newton was taken captive by the Japanese, and executed by beheading.

Selected biography 15

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General Sir Henry George Chauvel, GCMG, KCB (16 April 1865 – 4 March 1945), more usually known as Sir Harry Chauvel, was a senior officer of the Australian Imperial Force who fought at Gallipoli and during the Sinai and Palestine Campaign in the Middle Eastern theatre of the First World War. He was the first Australian to attain the rank of lieutenant general and later general, and the first to lead a corps. As commander of the Desert Mounted Corps, he was responsible for one of the most decisive victories and fastest pursuits in military history. After the war, he served as Chief of the General Staff from 1923 until his retirement in 1930. During the Second World War, he was recalled to duty as Inspector in Chief of the Volunteer Defence Corps.

Selected biography 16

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Reginald Walter "Reg" Saunders, MBE (7 August 1920 – 2 March 1990) was the first Aboriginal Australian to be commissioned as an officer in the Australian Army. Saunders enlisted in 1940 for service during the Second World War. He saw action in North Africa, Greece and Crete, before being commissioned as a lieutenant and serving as a platoon commander in New Guinea during 1944–1945. After the war, Saunders was demobilised and briefly returned to civilian life. He later served as a company commander with the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (3 RAR) during the Korean War, where he fought at the Battle of Kapyong. He left the Army again in 1954 and worked in the logging and metal industries, before joining the Office of Aboriginal Affairs (later the Department of Aboriginal Affairs) as a liaison officer in 1969. In 1971, he was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE). He died in 1990, aged 69.