1. Iven Mackay served with the 4th Infantry Battalion at Gallipoli, where he distinguished himself in hand-to-hand fighting at the Battle of Lone Pine.
79 Facts About Iven Mackay
1. 2.
Iven Mackay was promoted to brigadier general in June 1918, and led the 1st Infantry Brigade at the Battle of Hazebrouck, the Battle of Amiens and in the attack on the Hindenburg Line.
3.
Iven Mackay remained in the Militia between the wars, and was a major general by the time the Second World War broke out.
4.
Iven Mackay was selected to command the 6th Division in 1940, and led it through the Australian Army's first battles of the war.
5.
Iven Mackay suffered a series of reverses in Greece, but impressed the troops under his command with his courage under fire.
6.
Iven Mackay was recalled to Australia in 1941 to serve as General Officer Commanding Home Forces.
7.
Iven Giffard Mackay was born in Grafton, New South Wales, on 7 April 1882.
8.
Iven Mackay was educated at Grafton Superior Public School, Newington College, and the University of Sydney, where he opened the batting for the university's cricket team, and won Blues for rugby union football and rowing.
9.
Iven Mackay graduated with his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1904.
10.
Iven Mackay had served in the Newington College cadet unit, reaching the rank of sergeant and winning a trophy in 1899 for being the school's best rifle shot.
11.
Iven Mackay was promoted to captain on 1 June 1914.
12.
Iven Mackay joined Sydney Church of England Grammar School in 1905, teaching various subjects and coaching the rowing and rugby teams.
13.
Iven Mackay joined the Australian Imperial Force on 27 August 1914 as adjutant of the 4th Infantry Battalion, with the rank of captain.
14.
The couple had met while Iven Mackay was on holiday in Paterson, New South Wales, in 1910.
15.
In October 1914, Iven Mackay suffered a riding accident and was taken to Royal Prince Alfred Hospital with a punctured lung and broken ribs.
16.
Iven Mackay sailed for Egypt with the 1st Reinforcements of the 13th Infantry Battalion, departing Sydney on the transport Berrima on 19 December 1914, arriving at Alexandria on 31 January 1915.
17.
Iven Mackay was then posted back to the 4th Infantry Battalion as the Transport Officer.
18.
Iven Mackay observed the landing at Gallipoli from the transport SS Lake Michigan, but did not go ashore with the battalion, as his job was to take care of the horses.
19.
Iven Mackay re-joined the battalion on shore on 8 May 1915.
20.
Heavy casualties in the early fighting had depleted the officer ranks and Mackay was promoted to major on 14 July 1915, and given command of a company in August.
21.
On 6 August 1915, Iven Mackay was involved in the Battle of Lone Pine.
22.
Iven Mackay ignored the first Turkish trench, taking a direct line to his objective.
23.
Iven Mackay positioned himself at the junction of two trenches, shooting down more enemy troops.
24.
Iven Mackay took up a position on a fire step, a raised part of the trench floor which allows men to fire over the top.
25.
Iven Mackay lunged at the Turks, grazing one and making all three run.
26.
Iven Mackay then instructed his party to fortify the position with sandbags.
27.
Iven Mackay personally kept the enemy at bay with his rifle while new barricades were constructed.
28.
Iven Mackay's injuries were severe enough for him to be evacuated to Malta and then England, and he did not rejoin his battalion until February 1916, by which time it had been withdrawn to Egypt.
29.
Iven Mackay was overlooked for the award, although he was later mentioned in despatches.
30.
Iven Mackay sailed for France on 20 March 1916 on the transport Minnewaska as part of the Advance Party of the 1st Division.
31.
Colonels Stevens and Iven Mackay had left their headquarters and walked forward up Dead Man's Road to its junction with the main road for the purpose of making hurried plans for the advance of their men, and instructing the company commanders.
32.
Iven Mackay was awarded the Distinguished Service Order for his gallantry at Lone Pine, his part in the capture of Pozieres, and his role in repelling a German counterattack at Mouquet Farm, near Pozieres.
33.
Iven Mackay held the temporary position of commander of the 1st Infantry Brigade in January 1917, for the first of what would be five times totalling 92 days in 1917.
34.
Iven Mackay commanded the 4th Infantry Battalion in the advance to the Hindenburg Line, including the capture of the fortified town of Hermies.
35.
Iven Mackay later received his medals from King George V in a ceremony at Buckingham Palace.
36.
Iven Mackay led his battalion once more at the Battle of Broodseinde, earning a fourth mention in despatches.
37.
Iven Mackay was given the brevet rank of major in the 26th Infantry Battalion in the AMF back home on 3 June 1918.
38.
On 6 June 1918, Iven Mackay was heading on leave to London to visit his wife, who had managed to reach England after a long battle with wartime travel restrictions, when he was stopped and turned back at Boulogne by British military police.
39.
Iven Mackay had been appointed to command the 1st Infantry Brigade and had to return at once.
40.
Iven Mackay was immediately promoted to colonel and temporary brigadier general.
41.
Iven Mackay commanded the 1st Infantry Brigade in the later stages of the fighting around Hazebrouck.
42.
Iven Mackay was awarded the French Croix de guerre for his service on the Western Front.
43.
Iven Mackay's first child, Jean Margaret, was born in Cambridge in 1919.
44.
Iven Mackay returned to lecturing in physics at the University of Sydney.
45.
From 1932 to 1940 Iven Mackay worked evenings as a Commonwealth Film Appeals Censor.
46.
Iven Mackay normally avoided publicity, but this incident brought him to national attention.
47.
Iven Mackay remained active in the Militia throughout the inter-war period.
48.
Iven Mackay held the rank of honorary brigadier general from 21 January 1920 to late June 1937, when he was promoted to that rank substantively.
49.
Iven Mackay commanded the 9th Infantry Brigade from 1 July 1920 to 30 April 1921; the 8th Infantry Brigade from 1 May 1921 to 30 April 1926; and the 5th Infantry Brigade from 1 May 1930 to 31 December 1932.
50.
Iven Mackay was promoted to major general on 1 July 1937.
51.
Iven Mackay was one of only four Militia officers to be substantively promoted to that rank between 1929 and 1939.
52.
At the outbreak of war in 1939, Iven Mackay was ranked seventh on the army's seniority list.
53.
Iven Mackay was selected to command the 7th Division on the advice of General Sir Brudenell White but Cabinet, after consulting with Blamey, switched this appointment to the 6th Division.
54.
Iven Mackay assumed command on 4 April 1940, receiving the serial number NX363, and sailed from Melbourne for the Middle East on the ocean liner RMS Strathaird on 15 April.
55.
Colonel Alan Vasey, his assistant adjutant and quartermaster general, asserted that Iven Mackay lacked the ruthlessness to remove Militia officers who were not performing well.
56.
Iven Mackay impressed others with the way he cared for soldiers' lives.
57.
Iven Mackay was the only Australian general to face the Waffen-SS in battle.
58.
Iven Mackay neither looked at the planes nor at the men dashing about, but they saw him, and those moving towards shelter stopped, and many of those who had gained shelter returned to their duties.
59.
Iven Mackay resolved to reform the battalions that had been destroyed in Greece, and to rebuild his shattered division from the remnants that had been evacuated to Alexandria.
60.
Iven Mackay developed a training program in Syria in which he attempted to apply the lessons of the campaign in Greece.
61.
In July 1941, Ernest Turnbull, representing the motion picture industry, approached Menzies and several members of his Cabinet about the possibility of Iven Mackay becoming Chief Commonwealth Film Censor.
62.
On 14 August 1941, Iven Mackay handed over command of the 6th Division to Herring.
63.
Iven Mackay assumed command of Home Forces on 1 September 1941, with the rank of lieutenant general.
64.
Iven Mackay's task was to prepare the Militia to repel a Japanese invasion.
65.
Iven Mackay found that his authority did not extend over the forward areas of New Guinea and the Northern Territory; nor was he to be responsible for "the defence of Australia" as such, as this responsibility remained with General Sturdee, the Chief of the General Staff.
66.
Iven Mackay was a gallant and successful soldier, with a long record of distinguished service to his country, and a man of instinctive and unassuming courtesy.
67.
The period was a quiet one, with no major operations being carried out, and Iven Mackay handed back to Herring and returned to command of the Second Army at Parramatta, New South Wales, in May 1943.
68.
On 28 August 1943, Iven Mackay assumed command of New Guinea Force.
69.
Junior commanders felt that Iven Mackay should have been more forceful, and should have enlisted the help of his superior, Blamey, at an earlier stage.
70.
Iven Mackay left New Guinea in November 1943, handing over command of New Guinea Force to Lieutenant General Sir Leslie Morshead, and on 20 January 1944 Iven Mackay relinquished command of Second Army and New Guinea Force.
71.
When Lieutenant Iven Mackay was liberated, the Supreme Allied Commander of South East Asia Command, Admiral Lord Louis Mountbatten had him brought to Delhi to be reunited with his family.
72.
India was not yet independent, but was about to become so, and Iven Mackay met with future leaders Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Muhammad Ali Jinnah.
73.
Iven Mackay promoted trade between India and Australia, and fostered a plan for Indian students and technicians to study and train in Australia.
74.
Iven Mackay was approached to consider nomination as a Liberal Party of Australia candidate for the Australian Senate, but declined.
75.
When Blamey died in 1951, Iven Mackay rushed to Melbourne to be one of his pallbearers.
76.
Iven Mackay visited Greece in 1952 for the unveiling of a memorial to British Commonwealth servicemen who died in the 1941 campaign.
77.
Iven Mackay climbed from the beach at ANZAC Cove up to Lone Pine once more.
78.
Iven Mackay died at his home in East Lindfield, New South Wales, on 30 September 1966 and was cremated after a service at St Stephen's, Sydney.
79.
Iven Mackay was survived by his wife, his son and his two daughters.