John Monash was a soldier. He commanded Australian troops in Gallipoli, Belgium and France. He brought many of those men home. Under Monash’s guidance, some 160,000 men and women were repatriated to Australia in less than nine months.

Monash was an engineer. He served as chairman of Vitoria’s State Electricity Commission; President Victorian Institute of Engineers and helped to build the Shrine of Remembrance. He was a leader of post-war reconstruction

Monash had a dazzling intellect. He was the dux Scotch College and went on to become Vice Chancellor at the University of Melbourne. A man of many parts he was also an artist and musician.

John Monash’s life was one of tireless service. He was the President of Rotary; a patron of the Returned and Services League and a Champion of the Jewish community. But Australia’s greatest general of the Great War had no love of soldiering.  

‘I hate the business of war … the awful horror of it, the waste, the destruction … My only consolation has been the sense of faithfully doing my duty to my country.’

‘... Equip yourself for life, not solely for your own benefit but for the benefit of the whole community.’