1. John Northcott was the first Australian-born Governor of New South Wales.
54 Facts About John Northcott
1. 2.
John Northcott was wounded in the landing at Gallipoli on Anzac Day and invalided to Egypt, the United Kingdom, and ultimately Australia, taking no further part in the fighting.
3.
John Northcott attended the Staff College, Camberley and Imperial Defence College and spent time overseas as an exchange officer with the British Army and as a military attache in the United States and Canada.
4.
John Northcott retired from the Army in 1946 to become the Governor of New South Wales.
5.
John Northcott was born on 24 March 1890 at Creswick, Victoria, the eldest son of a storekeeper, John Northcott, and his wife Elizabeth Jane, nee Reynolds.
6.
John Northcott was educated at Dean State School, Grenville College, Ballarat, and the University of Melbourne.
7.
John Northcott was commissioned as second lieutenant in the 9th Light Horse, a Militia unit, on 14 August 1908, and was promoted to lieutenant on 31 October 1910 and captain on 31 July 1911.
8.
John Northcott was assigned to staff of the 6th Military District, the military district covering the state of Tasmania, where he was serving when the First World War broke out in August 1914.
9.
John Northcott joined the AIF as a lieutenant on 24 August 1914 and was appointed adjutant of the 12th Infantry Battalion, which was forming at Anglesea Barracks near Hobart.
10.
John Northcott was promoted to captain in the AIF on 18 October 1914.
11.
John Northcott embarked for Egypt from Hobart with the 12th Infantry Battalion on the transport A2, HMAT Geelong on 20 October 1914.
12.
John Northcott lay among a pile of dead bodies until the evening, when he was found to be alive.
13.
John Northcott was evacuated to Alexandria and later to England.
14.
John Northcott returned to Australia on 30 December 1915 and took no further part in the fighting, it being "a rigid rule that no regular officer once invalided to Australia could again go overseas".
15.
John Northcott was granted the honorary rank of major on 1 January 1919, and the brevet rank on 1 January 1920, but this was not made substantive until 1 October 1923.
16.
John Northcott attended the Staff College, Camberley from 1924 to 1926.
17.
On returning to Australia, John Northcott served as Staff Officer, and later Director, Stores and Transport, at Army Headquarters in Victoria Barracks, Melbourne.
18.
John Northcott was appointed a Member of the Royal Victorian Order on 8 July 1927 for coordinating the transport for the 1927 six-month Royal Tour of the Duke and Duchess of York that year to open the Old Parliament House, Canberra.
19.
John Northcott served on the staff of the 4th Division from 17 September 1931 to 31 January 1932 and then with the 3rd Division from 1 February to 22 November 1932.
20.
John Northcott returned to England as an exchange officer with the British Army, where he served the staff of the 44th Infantry Division.
21.
John Northcott was one of only six Australian Army officers to attend this prestigious course between 1928 and 1939, the others being Frank Berryman, John Lavarack, Henry Wynter, Vernon Sturdee, Sydney Rowell and William Bridgeford.
22.
John Northcott was given the brevet rank of lieutenant colonel on 1 July 1935, which was made substantive on 1 January 1936.
23.
John Northcott attended the Senior Officers' School at Sheerness in 1936, and was seconded to the Committee of Imperial Defence.
24.
John Northcott then served as an Australian defence attache in the United States and Canada from September 1936 to June 1937.
25.
John Northcott was promoted to the brevet rank of colonel on 1 July 1937 and substantive rank on 13 October 1939.
26.
John Northcott served on the staff of the 4th Division until 1 September 1939, when he became Director of Military Operations and Intelligence.
27.
John Northcott was promoted to the local rank of major general on 13 October 1939, when he was appointed Deputy Chief of the General Staff.
28.
John Northcott accompanied Richard Casey to the Dominions' Conference in London in later that year as his military adviser.
29.
On 26 January 1940, John Northcott became acting Chief of the General Staff following the death of Lieutenant General Ernest Ker Squires.
30.
The post of commander of the 8th Division thereby became available but John Northcott was excluded from consideration because his knowledge was vital to the new CGS.
31.
John Northcott joined the Second Australian Imperial Force as a major general on 1 September 1941 and was given the AIF serial number VX63396.
32.
John Northcott was attached to the British 7th Armoured Division in the Middle East to study armoured warfare, returning to Australia in December 1941 to organise the new 1st Armoured Division.
33.
The job was a challenging one that some of his subordinates felt that John Northcott was not up to, given his lack of command experience.
34.
In March 1942, John Northcott found out from The Herald newspaper that he was to be promoted to command II Corps.
35.
John Northcott was succeeded as commander by Major General Horace Robertson, an officer with a distinguished combat record in the desert.
36.
However, on 10 September 1942, John Northcott was appointed Chief of the General Staff.
37.
John Northcott's job involved liaison with Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force, and he frequently had to represent Blamey in meetings with the Minister for the Army, Frank Forde.
38.
John Northcott spent much of his time from 1943 on in a long battle with the government over the number of men and women allocated to the Army.
39.
John Northcott attempted to do so without Blamey being dragged into a political fight but this proved to be impossible.
40.
However, when Blamey travelled to Washington, DC and London in April 1944, he arranged for John Northcott to act as Commander-in-Chief in his absence.
41.
John Northcott made it a condition of his acceptance that Northcott be given the appointment of Commander-in-Chief of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan.
42.
Sturdee felt that John Northcott had missed out on opportunities for active service through his being CGS and saw the BCOF post as a just reward for that service.
43.
John Northcott headed the BCOF from December 1945 until June 1946.
44.
John Northcott was offered, and accepted, the post of Governor of New South Wales in April 1946.
45.
On 1 August 1946, John Northcott became the first Australian-born, and one of the longest-serving, Governors of New South Wales.
46.
John Northcott was televised in the hotel's ballroom as he opened the demonstration.
47.
John Northcott was a freemason who, during his term as governor, was Viceregal Grand Master of the Grand Lodge of New South Wales.
48.
John Northcott was Administrator of the Commonwealth in the absence of the governor-general from 19 July to 14 December 1951, and again from 30 July to 22 October 1956.
49.
John Northcott was awarded honorary degrees of Doctor of Letters by the University of Sydney in 1952 and the University of New England in 1956, and Doctor of Science by the New South Wales University of Technology in 1956.
50.
Sir John Northcott's wife, Winifred Mary predeceased him on 7 June 1960.
51.
John Northcott was accorded a state funeral with military honours and was cremated with his ashes interred with his wife at Northern Suburbs Memorial Gardens.
52.
John Northcott continued to take an active in its affairs for the rest of his life.
53.
John Northcott is remembered through Cranbrook School, Sydney by having one of the houses named after him, Northcott House.
54.
John Northcott was a long-standing Freemason, and served as Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory.