Australian Army Lieutenant General. A combat veteran of World Wars I and II, he rose in rank to command the 3rd Australia Infantry Division and the 2nd Australian Army Corps. The oldest of eight children, his father was employed as a butcher. He left school at the age of 12 to work for a blacksmith. In 1907 he moved with his family to Prahran, Victoria and he worked odd jobs while serving in the Prahran senior cadets. After World War I erupted in July 1914, he enlisted in the 1st Australian Imperial Force and the following March and was assigned to the 24th Infantry Battalion which was sent to Egypt two months later. He was promoted through the enlisted ranks and received a commission as a 2nd lieutenant following his unit's assignment to Gallipoli, Turkey in September 1915. After the Allied forces were evacuated from Gallipoli in December 1915, he was sent with his unit to the Western Front in France and saw combat action at the Battle of Pozières (July to September 1916), the Battle of Mouquet Farm (August to September 1916, part of the Battle of the Somme), the Battle of Bullecourt (April to May 1917, part of the 2nd Battle of Arras), and the Battle of Passchendaele (or 3rd Battle of Ypres, July to November 1917). He was then hand-picked to deploy to Iran, to protect the Baku oil fields in nearby Azerbaijan from Turkish forces, due to the overthrow of the Russian Tsar and collapse of the Russian Army. While there, he was instrumental in defending thousands of Assyrian refugees with a small number of volunteers, who were fleeing the atrocities committed on them by the Persians and Kurds. After recuperating from a bout of malaria in Bombay (now Mumbai), India, he returned to Australia in January 1919 and joined the Militia a year later. In 1920 he wrote a book about his experiences serving in Iran, called "Stalky's Forlorn Hope." After working as a salesman in Melbourne, he entered politics and unsuccessfully ran for the Victorian Legislative Assembly Electoral district of Caulfield on the Nationalist Party of Australia ticket. He was promoted through the ranks and by May 1938 he had attained the rank of brigadier general. When World War II broke out in September 1939, he was chosen to command the 17th Infantry Brigade of the 2nd Australian Imperial Force and was sent to Libya and saw action at the Battles of Bardia, Tobruk, and Derna (January 1941). The following April his unit was sent to Greece but the Allied forces met with defeat and his unit evacuated to Palestine where they participated in the Syria-Lebanon Campaign (June 1941). By that time he was suffering from exhaustion and in January 1942 he returned to Australia to engage in a recruiting campaign and was given command of the Australian 3rd Division and promoted to the rank of major general. In March 1943 he took the 3rd Division to Port Moresby, New Guinea where they fought in the Battles of Salamaua and Bougainville, and he accepted the Japanese surrender at Bougainville on September 8, 1945. After the end of World War II, he returned to Australia and retired from the Army in 1946 with 31 years of military service. Following his retirement, he became director of Olympic Tyre & Rubber Ltd and chaired the Moran & Cato Ltd and the Central War Gratuity Board (1946 to 1951). In 1951 he became commissioner of the State Savings Bank of Victoria. Among his military decorations and awards include the Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, the Companion of the Order of the Bath, the Distinguished Service Order, the Military Cross, the Greek War Cross (Class A), and was mentioned in dispatches (whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which is described the soldier's gallant or meritorious action in the face of the enemy) on four separate occasions. He died of coronary artery disease at the age of 63.