37 Facts About John Lavarack

On 7 August 1905, John Lavarack was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Royal Australian Artillery.

John Lavarack's division spent a month in France during September 1915, but was transferred to Salonica in Greece, where it fought in the Balkans Campaign.

In February 1915, John Lavarack was assigned to the Australian Imperial Force, but did not join it until July 1916 when he joined the Australian 2nd Division for the Battle of Pozieres.

John Lavarack was assigned as brigade major for the 5th Division, commanding two field artillery batteries during fighting at the Somme and the advance on the Hindenburg Line.

Shedden believed that the presence of the British Royal Navy in Singapore would deter any aggression from Japan, whilst John Lavarack was sure that Japan would take advantage of Britain's focus on Europe and that Australian ground forces should prepare for a possible invasion.

In 1928, John Lavarack was ordered to start making plans for a possible war with Japan, which he began with a paper questioning the Singapore Strategy and argued that the Australian Army needed "mobile land forces" to counter a Japanese invasion or raids.

In January 1933, John Lavarack was made commandant of the Royal Military College, Duntroon.

John Lavarack had serious doubts about how practical it would be to activate the Singapore strategy, and wrote in 1935 that his motto was "trust in the navy, but keep your powder dry".

John Lavarack was critical of the Royal Australian Navy as he wrote that with the RAN did "not think it necessary to have any powder of their own, much less keep it dry".

Much to the displeasure of several Defence ministers, John Lavarack argued that the Australian Army needed a mobile force to defend Australia against a Japanese invasion, an issue which was overruled on.

John Lavarack strongly argued that the best defense for Australia was a highly mobile Army that would be able to meet the Japanese whatever they landed, instead of assuming that the Japanese would land at Sydney, Brisbane and Fremantle.

At a meeting in February 1938 of the Council of Defense, Blamey stated it was "reasonable to assume an invasion was unlikely" while John Lavarack argued that Japan was "prepared to take risks" and an invasion was possible.

At another meeting of the Council of Defence in March 1939, Blamey and John Lavarack clashed again about whatever Japan would make raids upon the Australian coast or launch an invasion along with debates just how ready the Militia was for war.

In 1940, John Lavarack was considered to command 6th Division, but Thomas Blamey, now the commander of I Corps, refused his appointment, citing "defects of character".

John Lavarack instead took command of the newly formed 7th Division, accepting a demotion to major general which was almost certainly instigated by Blamey.

Blamey always insisted that his badge had been stolen, but John Lavarack expressed the viewpoint that the reason why Blamey's badge was found in a brothel was because Blamey had been visiting the brothel.

The British commander-in-chief in the Middle East, General Sir Archibald Wavell, had selected the 7th Division under John Lavarack to be the first Australian division to go to Greece, which caused a notable dispute between Wavell vs Blamey who insisted that the 6th Australian division to be the first to go to Greece as he claimed that the 6th Division was the one most ready to face the Wehrmacht.

At the beginning of April 1941, John Lavarack was supervising the embarkation of the 7th Division at Alexandria upon ships intended to take his division to Greece, when Wavell ordered him to stop the embarkation and send the 7th Division to the Western Desert, where the Afrikakorps had advancing rapidly.

John Lavarack reported to Wavell that the Tobruk had enough supplies to withstand a siege for at least four months; that morale was high among the Australian troops; and the defensive works around Tobruk could withstand a siege.

Wavell like Morshead preferred to hold the inner defensive line around Tobruk, known as the Blue Line, but John Lavarack chose the longer 28-mile long outer defensive line known as the Red Line under the grounds it was the stronger line.

Wavell requested John Lavarack take command of the Western Desert Force, but he was confounded by Blamey, who insisted that he was unsuitable for high command.

On 27 January 1942, John Lavarack met Wavell at his headquarters at Bandung, where Wavell informed him that the Japanese were advancing too fast down Malaya and the best that could hoped for was the Allies would be able to hold Singapore.

John Lavarack strongly protested against Wavell's plans, saying it would be better if the 1st Corps stayed together, saying the Netherlands East Indies Army was unreliable and it would better if the two Australian divisions stayed together.

John Lavarack was highly critical of the Netherlands East Indies Army, which he stated was ill-trained, poorly armed, immobile, and of questionable loyalty as most of the Indonesian troops were in a near-mutinous state against their Dutch officers.

John Lavarack supported Wavell in plans to send the 1st Corps to Burma, though he was careful to not to stress this point to Curtin as he instead stated the defence of the Netherlands East Indies was hopeless and it would be wise not to send any more troops to the East Indies.

John Lavarack favoured holding Burma to keep the Burma Road open, and thereby keep China in the war.

The majority of the Imperial Japanese Army for the duration of World War Two was deployed in China, and like other Allied generals John Lavarack felt that keeping the Japanese bogged down in China was the best way of halting their advance in the Asia-Pacific region.

John Lavarack continued to protest against Wavell's plans to try hold Java, saying it was only a matter of time before the Japanese conquered Java.

On 22 February 1942, John Lavarack left Java and returned to Australia.

John Lavarack was recalled to Australia, where he was made acting commander-in-chief of Australian forces whilst waiting for Blamey to return from the Middle East to fill the role.

John Lavarack then commanded the Australian First Army, with responsibility for defending Queensland and New South Wales.

John Lavarack lobbied hard to have the Australians in Java pulled out before Java was lost.

John Lavarack returned to Australia in August 1946, and frustrated by his lack of active command and constantly being passed over by Blamey and others, he retired from the military in September that year.

John Lavarack was then reappointed for a further year from 1 October 1956, but due to ill health, Lavarack only served four months of the extended term, and was relieved of his duties on 25 January 1957 by his lieutenant governor, although he officially remained governor until September 1957.

John Lavarack was survived by his wife and three sons.

John Lavarack was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1919, and Mentioned in Despatches three times.

John Lavarack was appointed a Knight Commander of the Royal Victorian Order in 1954 and a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George in 1955 while Governor of Queensland.