1. The scion of a prominent Tasmanian family, Gellibrand graduated top of the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, and was commissioned a second lieutenant in the South Lancashire Regiment in October 1893.
72 Facts About John Gellibrand
1. 2.
John Gellibrand served in the South African War, participating in the Relief of Ladysmith.
3.
John Gellibrand graduated from the Staff College, Camberley, in December 1907, and served on the staff of the garrison commander in Ceylon.
4.
John Gellibrand landed at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915, and served in the Gallipoli Campaign until he was wounded on 11 May John Gellibrand returned to Anzac on 31 May 1915, but put in for a transfer to the staff of the 2nd Division.
5.
John Gellibrand was relieved of his command at his own request, and posted to the AIF Depots in the United Kingdom.
6.
John Gellibrand returned to the Western Front in November 1917 to command of the 12th Infantry Brigade, which he led in the Battle of Dernancourt in April 1918.
7.
John Gellibrand was promoted to major general on 1 June 1918, and commanded the 3rd Division in the Battle of Amiens and the Battle of the Hindenburg Line.
8.
John Gellibrand investigated the conditions of the service, and recommended reforms.
9.
John Gellibrand then took up a position as Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police in Victoria, but failed to get the Victorian government to agree with his recommendations for reform, and resigned in 1922.
10.
John Gellibrand entered Federal politics in 1925, and was elected the member for Denison.
11.
John Gellibrand was defeated in the 1928 and 1929 elections, and returned to farming, first in Tasmania, and then in Victoria.
12.
John Gellibrand campaigned for an increase in the size of the Australian Army, and, after the outbreak of the Second World War, lobbied the Menzies government to appoint Major General Sir Thomas Blamey as Commander in Chief of the Army.
13.
John Gellibrand was born at Leintwarden, near Ouse in Tasmania, on 5 December 1872, the sixth child and third son of Thomas Lloyd Gellibrand, a grazier, landowner and local politician and his wife Isabella nee Brown.
14.
John Gellibrand had two older brothers, Tom and Walter; three sisters, Annie, Lina and Mary; and a younger brother, Blake.
15.
John Gellibrand's father died on 9 November 1874, and on 7 February 1876, his mother took her seven children to live in England, sailing on the clipper Sobroan.
16.
John Gellibrand was initially educated at Crespigny Preparatory School at Aldeburgh in Suffolk.
17.
John Gellibrand passed the entrance exam, topping the list of candidates, which was published on 17 August 1892, and entered on 1 September.
18.
John Gellibrand graduated at the top of his class of 87 on 18 October 1893, and was awarded the General Proficiency Sword for gaining the highest aggregate marks in the final exams.
19.
John Gellibrand was commissioned a second lieutenant in the South Lancashire Regiment on 21 October 1893, and was posted to its 1st Battalion, then on garrison duty in Birr, County Offaly, in Ireland.
20.
John Gellibrand married Elsie in an Anglican ceremony at the parish church in Ilkley, Yorkshire, on 27 July 1894.
21.
John Gellibrand attended a course at the School of Musketry in February and March 1895, qualifying him as an instructor in small arms and the Maxim gun, and was promoted to lieutenant on 24 April 1895.
22.
John Gellibrand commanded C Company from October 1895 to October 1897.
23.
John Gellibrand's salary was insufficient to live on, so Gellibrand and Elsie supplemented it by translating German works by Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, Prince Kraft zu Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen and others into English, for which they were paid 10 shillings per thousands words.
24.
John Gellibrand eventually received orders to embark for South Africa with reinforcements on 3 January 1900.
25.
John Gellibrand arrived in South Africa on 25 January 1900.
26.
On 26 May 1900, John Gellibrand was promoted to captain in the newly raised 3rd Battalion of the Manchester Regiment, joining his new command at Aldershot on 29 November 1900, where his second daughter, Cynthia Lloyd was born on 22 June 1901.
27.
John Gellibrand remained on St Helena, where he became a justice of the peace and garrison adjutant, until he too left for South Africa on 5 January 1904, becoming adjutant on 24 January.
28.
John Gellibrand entered the Staff College, Camberley, in January 1906.
29.
John Gellibrand arrived in Colombo with his family on 22 May 1908.
30.
John Gellibrand resigned his commission, and returned to Tasmania with his family, reaching Hobart on 14 June 1912.
31.
John Gellibrand hoped to be able to take over one of his family's properties, but none were willing to sell out to him, so he bought an apple orchard at Risdon, and settled into life as a farmer.
32.
Staff college graduates like John Gellibrand were scarce in Australia; only six Australian Army officers had graduated from staff colleges.
33.
On 23 September 1914 John Gellibrand was promoted to major, the usual rank for his post.
34.
John Gellibrand landed at Anzac Cove with the second echelon of 1st Division Headquarters at around 09:00 on 25 April 1915.
35.
John Gellibrand helped organise the beach parties, rounded up stragglers, and organised the movement of supplies and ammunition forward.
36.
John Gellibrand felt that Gellibrand had mishandled the move of the 2nd Infantry Brigade to Cape Helles, where it participated in the First Battle of Krithia.
37.
John Gellibrand expected Gellibrand to organise a proper officers' mess at Gallipoli and was annoyed at the poor quality of what Gellibrand had scrounged from ships' canteen supplies.
38.
John Gellibrand might have even been dismissed by Bridges but fate intervened.
39.
John Gellibrand took this in bad grace although Foott was in fact the senior major.
40.
Dissatisfied, John Gellibrand put in for a transfer to the 2nd Division, then being formed in Egypt under the command of Major General James Gordon Legge.
41.
John Gellibrand was struck down by typhoid again on 11 October and evacuated a second time, returning on 23 October 1915.
42.
On 4 December 1915, John Gellibrand received a promotion to lieutenant colonel, and was given command of the 12th Infantry Battalion, the 1st Division's Tasmanian battalion, then resting on Lemnos.
43.
John Gellibrand went to England on leave on 25 November 1916.
44.
John Gellibrand was evacuated again on 13 December 1916 with influenza, returning on 30 January 1917.
45.
John Gellibrand was acting commander of the 2nd Division until 5 March 1917, directing it in probing attacks against Malt Trench when it was suspected that the Germans were withdrawing to the Hindenburg Line.
46.
Nonetheless, the attack was very nearly a disaster, and only decisive and forceful leadership from John Gellibrand retrieved the situation.
47.
John Gellibrand's Brigade reached its third objective, but was ordered back owing to the division on the right being held up at the first objective.
48.
John Gellibrand's Brigade repelled several counter-attacks and held on when the Brigade on the right was in difficulties.
49.
John Gellibrand was sent to the AIF Depots in the United Kingdom as Brigadier General, General Staff to Major General James Whiteside McCay.
50.
McCay was known as a hard task master, but he had nothing but praise for the work of John Gellibrand, who helped him overhaul the organisation and the training syllabus.
51.
John Gellibrand returned to the Western Front on 14 November 1917, taking over command of the 12th Infantry Brigade vice Brigadier General James Campbell Robertson, who was returning to Australia on leave.
52.
John Gellibrand soon placed his own distinctive stamp on his new command.
53.
On 30 May 1918, Major General John Monash was appointed to command the Australian Corps, and Birdwood selected Gellibrand to take Monash's place in command of the 3rd Division.
54.
John Gellibrand was promoted to major general on 1 June 1918.
55.
At the Battle of Amiens, Monash and John Gellibrand had serious disagreements over tactics and troop dispositions.
56.
John Gellibrand disliked part of the plan that called for the leapfrogging of divisions, generally regarded as Monash's master stroke.
57.
John Gellibrand angrily claimed that his battalions were only 200 strong.
58.
John Gellibrand was a man of interesting personality, more a philosopher and student than a man of action.
59.
John Gellibrand was appointed an Officer of the Legion of Honour, and awarded the Croix de Guerre by the French, and the Distinguished Service Medal by the Americans.
60.
John Gellibrand boarded the troopship RMS Kaisar-i-Hind in London on 4 May 1919, and reached Hobart on 30 June, after a long sea voyage, a rail trip from Fremantle to Melbourne, passage across the Bass Strait, and a week in quarantine on Bruny Island due to the 1918 flu pandemic.
61.
John Gellibrand investigated the conditions of the service, and found that public servants were agitating for a 40 per cent pay rise, as no pay rises had been granted since before the war.
62.
John Gellibrand resigned as Public Service Commissioner to take up a position as Chief Commissioner of Victoria Police in Victoria on 2 September 1920.
63.
John Gellibrand felt that urgent action was required to increase force numbers and improve working conditions, but was unable to get his recommendations approved.
64.
John Gellibrand clashed with his political master, the Chief Secretary, Matthew Baird, and Gellibrand resigned on 7 February 1922.
65.
John Gellibrand had to resign on 20 February 1922, when he returned to Tasmania.
66.
Concerned about the plight of fellow ex-servicemen, whose businesses were often failing, John Gellibrand banded together with like-minded individuals to form the Hobart Remembrance Club.
67.
John Gellibrand entered Federal politics in the November 1925 election, at which he was elected the member for Denison on the Nationalist Party of Australia ticket.
68.
John Gellibrand was involved in the campaign for the 1926 referendum, which failed.
69.
John Gellibrand lost his seat in the 1928 election, and failed to regain it in the 1929 election.
70.
John Gellibrand bought a foreclosed 214-hectare property near Smithton, Tasmania, called Garth, from the AMP Society, of which he was a director.
71.
John Gellibrand campaigned for an increase in the size of the Australian Army, writing letters to newspapers, and a series of articles for Reveille, the Returned Sailors and Soldiers Imperial League of Australia's organ.
72.
John Gellibrand died at Balaclava from a cerebral haemorrhage on 3 June 1945, and was buried in Yea Cemetery.