1. Major General Sir John Charles Hoad was an Australian military leader, best known as the Australian Army's second Chief of the General Staff.
17 Facts About John Hoad
1. 2.
John Hoad's parents were George Hoad, born in Winchelsea, Sussex, and Catherine Kearney, born County Tipperary.
3.
The younger son, Oswald Vick John Hoad, enlisted in the Victorian militia in 1907 and transferred to permanent military forces in 1910; as Major John Hoad served as Base Commandant in South Australia, retired from the Australian Army in 1946.
4.
On 1 January 1878, John Hoad entered the Victorian Education Department as a teacher at Gooramadda State School and by September he was an assistant at Wangaratta School.
5.
John Hoad began his military career in 1884, when he joined the Victorian Rifles as a militia lieutenant.
6.
John Hoad soon resigned his position as a teacher to join the permanent military staff.
7.
On 4 June 1886, John Hoad was appointed as adjutant of the Victorian Mounted Rifles, and through his aptitude, was quickly promoted to captain, and then major, within two years.
8.
John Hoad was an astute and capable commander, and by 1895 he had been promoted to lieutenant colonel, as well as becoming the first Australian-born assistant Adjutant General at Victorian Military Headquarters.
9.
John Hoad was again sent to England in 1897, and was appointed to the personal staff of Lord Roberts and the Duke of Connaught for Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee.
10.
John Hoad saw service in the Second Boer War as a special service officer, and upon arriving in Cape Town on 28 April 1899, was given overall command of the 1st Australian Regiment, which contained colonial troops from Tasmania, South Australia, Victoria and Western Australia.
11.
In Bloemfontein in April 1900, the 1st Australian Regiment was merged with the 1st Mounted Infantry Brigade under Edward Hutton, and John Hoad was appointed as assistant adjutant general.
12.
Between 1902 and 1906 John Hoad served as aide-de-camp to the Governor-General of Australia.
13.
John Hoad was sent by Chief of the General Staff, Edward Hutton, to Manchuria on attachment to the Imperial Japanese Army.
14.
In 1908 John Hoad again visited London, this time to discuss plans for the establishment of an Imperial General Staff at the War Office.
15.
John Hoad met Lord Kitchener in Darwin on 21 December 1909 to discuss Australia's land defences, and joined him for a two-month-long tour of inspection of the whole country.
16.
John Hoad was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George upon the occasion of the coronation of King George V on 22 June 1911.
17.
Sir John Hoad died of a heart disorder in Melbourne on 6 October 1911.