General Sir John Monash GCMG, KCB, VD.
“…equip yourself for life, not solely for your own benefit but for the benefit of the whole community.” – Sir John Monash
The boy
John Monash was born in West Melbourne on 27 June 1865 to German-Polish Jewish parents.
As a child, he attended St Stephen’s Church of England School in Richmond, Melbourne, for three years. At the age of nine, Monash and his family moved to Jerilderie, New South Wales where he attended the public school. The school quickly recognised his intelligence, and advised his family to move back to Melbourne so John could realise his full potential.
He eventually returned to Melbourne in 1877 and enrolled in Scotch College. In his final year of school, at the age of 16, Monash was dux in mathematics and modern languages and equal dux of the school.
After completing school, John decided to enrol in arts and engineering at the University of Melbourne.
The scholar
He entered university at the age of 16 but stopped his studies after two years due to financial hardship.
He began work on the Princess Bridge to pay the bills, the first step in a very successful engineering career.
But Sir John had not lost his desire to study. By the age of 30, he had gained his Bachelor of Arts and a Masters in Science (Civil Engineering) and had qualified as a municipal surveyor, an engineer of water supply and a patent attorney.
He would go on to become a Doctor of Laws (Melb), Doctor of Engineering (Melb), Doctor of Civil Law (Oxford) and Doctor of Laws (Cambridge).
The soldier
In 1884, at the age of 19, John Monash joined the newly formed Melbourne University Company, D Company, 4th Battalion, Victorian Rifles.
He rose through the ranks, and by 1913 was a soldier with knowledge of staff work, transport, supply, engineering and intelligence.
In 1914, at the age of 49, the First World War broke out. He was among the first under fire at Gallipoli and was the only Australian brigade commander among the original troops not killed or evacuated as wounded.
But Monash’s greatest triumph was on August 8, 1918, when the five Australian divisions under his command formed the spearhead of a massive Allied offensive against the Germans at Amiens. This breaching of the German defences was the beginning of the end of the Great War. Four days later, on August 12, Monash was knighted by King George V. It was the first time in 200 years that a British monarch had knighted a military commander on the battlefield.
In his entry on Monash in The Australian Dictionary of Biography, the historian Geoffrey Serle describes Monash as “one tall poppy who was never cut down”.
He writes that by the 1920s, Monash was broadly regarded as “the greatest living Australian”, accepted by the community as a “seemingly unpretentious outsider, not really part of the Establishment”.
“His commanding intellect was sensed, as well as his basic honesty and decency … No one in Australia’s history, perhaps, crammed more effective work into a life; but, he said, work was the best thing in life.”
The engineer
During the worst of the depression of the 1890s, Sir John Monash started with the Harbor Trust, an organisation that aimed to improve access for shipping to Melbourne. While working at the trust, he also studied part time.
He completed the municipal surveyors course and enrolled as a student of the Supreme Court. He began studying the water supply engineers course and also completed his Bachelor of Arts.
In 1894 he started private practice as a consulting engineer and graduated in Arts and Law in 1895.
Monash soon became one of Australia’s foremost experts in reinforced concrete for bridges, railways and other large construction projects.
After the First World War, he returned to engineering and became Chairman of Victoria’s new State Electricity Commission.
In his last years, he supervised construction of Melbourne’s Shrine of Remembrance and oversaw the public appeal for funds. He rewrote the inscription planned for the west wall.
In 1929 the Institute of Engineers, Australia awarded Sir John its highest honour, the Peter Nicol Russell Memorial Medal, and in June 1931 the University of Melbourne gave him the Kernot Memorial Medal for distinguished achievement in Australian engineering.
His legacy
Sir John Monash was a pillar of Melbourne society. He had great success in the military and in business, but people also recognised his contributions to the community.
Monash lectured and examined at the University of Melbourne. He became Chairman of the graduates association, was president of the University Club and joined the university council as an elected member. He was also prominent in the Boy Scout movement and became president of the Victorian Institute of Engineers.
He was the natural spokesperson for returned soldiers and in 1925 he began leading the annual Anzac Day march. He was appointed Vice-Chancellor of Melbourne University in 1923, and president of the Australian Association for the Advancement of Science from 1924-26.
Sir John Monash died of heart disease in Melbourne on 8 October 1931, aged 66. He was given a state funeral attended by over 250,000 mourners.
He leaves a legacy as a scholar and a man of action. He was a man who sought, above all, to use his education and abilities for the benefit of the community.
Source; Monash University, A proud history.
Photo; National Library of Australia
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