INTRODUCTION
PROFESSOR M. MACMILLAN ROYAL SOCIETY LECTURE-10th AUGUST 2018
STANLEY BURBURY THEATRE-UNIVERSITY OF TASMANIA
RESERVE FORCES DAY COUNCIL-TASMANIA
‘Distinguished guests,Ladies and Gentlemen.
Mary, thank you. I would also like to thank Elspeth Wishart, from the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery, for inviting the Reserve Forces Day Council to say a few words of introduction. Elspeth arranged tonight’s displayof MAJGEN Sir John Gellibrand’s unique set of medals. They include: not only his Boer War and WWI medals but a Knight Commander of the Bath, a Distinguished Service Order with bar, seven Mention InDispatches, the American Distinguished Service Medal, the French Croix de Guerre and the Legion d’honneur.
Tonight in Hobart and in the year of the centenary of the Armistice in November 1918, it is fitting that we should acknowledge Tasmania’s greatest soldier. Not just a soldier but a visionary man of peace.
Born at Ouse in 1874 and educated in England, he was deeply impressed
“… by the story of the Paladins’, He recalled. My mental picture was not one of supermen, physically, mentally or morally, but rather of men without reproach, positive doers and not negative slugs. They were not leaders of the nations so much as exemplary public servants”.
John Gellibrand served in the Boer War with distinction and in World War I. His second war commenced with the landing at Gallipoli on the 25th of April 1915. He was subsequently shot in the chest. He ended WWI in command of the 3rd Division at the momentous battles along the Somme in 1918.
“That unassuming commander who dressed like an ordinary Digger,was in the opinion of some who knew him the brightest intellect inthe Australian Imperial Force …. One of those officers whose bravery was conspicuous even according to the standards by which gallantrywas judged in the early days of Anzac” (Bean C.)
In 1916 BRIG Gellibrand commanded 6thInf Bde followed by the 12thInf Bde. In 1917, Bean stated that there was:
“at least one great battle now to the credit of the A.I.F. [Bullecourt] which, if ever a fight was won by a single brain and character, was won by John Gellibrand”(Bean C.)
Very few thought the First World War would end in 1918. The Hundred Days Offensive which led to the armistice, commenced with the Battle of Amiens, 100 years ago this week. That attack by Canadians and Australians included the 3rd Division which was commanded by MAJGEN Gellibrand. The 3rd Division followed Amiens with the extraordinary capture of St Quentin Canal andthen the first breach in the Hindenburg Line.
We also acknowledge John Gellibrand’s wonderful contribution to peace. Between the Boer War and WWIhe established an orchard at Risdon. Following the war he was elected the Federal Member for Denison. He also served as Tasmania Public Service Commissioner and for a time as the Victoria Police Commissioner. Tonight we not only honour a war hero but also his greatest achievement, the establishment of the Legacy movement in Hobart.
“It was Bean who later wrote that “there was a time when some thought that the best monument to John Gellibrand might be the story of Second Bullecourt.Now I feel there will be an even better – the record of Legacy”’. (Sadler P. S.)
Young officers inspired by John Gellibrand established a club in Melbourne. Other ex-Gellibrand officers established clubs in the remaining capital cities. His spirit has walked in the Legacy movement ever since. Today, there are forty nine Legacy clubs including one in London.
Legacy cares for the families of deceased or incapacitated veterans. Clive James recently reflecting on his own life spoke of his veteran father.
“Two significant telegrams landed at Clive’s working-class south Sydney home when he was six years old: one telling his factory worker mother, Minora May James, that her husband, Sergeant Albert James, had miraculously survived a … Japanese POW camp; another, later, informing Minora that the plane her husband was returning on was caught in a typhoon and crashed in Manila Bay killing all aboard”.
… Clive recalled “seeing the full force of despair”, watching his mother weep for days, to the point where he was “marked for life”, “never quite all there”.
Clive’s mother became a Legacy widow.
John Gellibrand’s vision continues to this day. Hobart Legacy cares for approximately 1000 widows. In a typical month there are four or five new widows. The youngest child will be with Hobart Legacy until 2034. The youngest widow, if she lives to life expectancy, will be with Hobart Legacy to 2062. John Gellibrand’s Legacy movement is for life.