Sir John Monash

General Sir John Monash was born on 27 June 1865 at West Melbourne of German-Polish, Jewish parents. He attended Scotch College, Melbourne, for four years and was equal dux of the school in 1881. He entered the University of Melbourne in 1882 but after two years had to continue part-time because of financial hardship. In 1895 he had completed degrees in arts, engineering and law and had also qualified as a municipal surveyor, an engineer of water-supply and a patent attorney. In 1894 he began private practice as a civil engineer, specialising in the new techniques of reinforced concrete.

Monash joined the militia in 1884 and was commissioned in 1887; by 1913 he was commanding a brigade. On the outbreak of war in 1914 he took command of the 4th Brigade, AIF, and served with it throughout the Gallipoli campaign and in France in 1916. He then became major-general commanding the 3rd Division until May 1918 when he was given charge of the Australian Corps.

At the close of the war Monash's reputation stood extraordinarily high; many who were in a position to judge considered him the foremost military commander on the Allied side. He was also a general who detested war but who took fierce pride in the achievements of the Australians as an independent force.

In 1919 Monash carried out the repatriation and demobilisation of the Australian forces in Europe. In 1920 he accepted the general managership of the new State Electricity Commission of Victoria and in 1921 became full-time chairman of the commission. The immense task of developing the State's brown coal in the Latrobe Valley as a source of electrical power, and organising the distribution and marketing of this power throughout Victoria, was carried out with notable success. He died on 8 October 1931, aged sixty-six.

Monash was a man of highly unusual intellectual range who exemplified this university's motto in his continued study and drive for knowledge, and who was well-informed in fields other than engineering and soldiering. Perhaps his greatest skill was his command of the English language. He also painted and drew, was an accomplished pianist, spoke French and German, enjoyed chess, carpentry and bushwalking.

He pursued knowledge for its own sake, but always with an eye to its application. He was a scholar and a man of action.

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