Ragnar Garrett

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Sir Alwyn Ragnar Garrett
Staff College, Queenscliff (1946–47, 1949–51)
Western Command (1951–53)
Southern Command (1954–58)
Chief of the General Staff
(1958–60)
Battles/warsSecond World War
Mentioned in Despatches
Other workPrincipal, Australian Administrative Staff College (1960–64)

Lieutenant General Sir Alwyn Ragnar Garrett, KBE, CB (12 February 1900 – 4 November 1977) was a senior commander in the Australian Army. He served as Chief of the General Staff
(CGS) from 1958 to 1960.

Born in

Commander of the Order of the British Empire
for his staff work.

After the war, Garrett served two terms as commandant of the

knighted in 1959. After retiring from the military in June 1960, Garrett became honorary colonel of the Royal Australian Regiment, and was principal of the Australian Administrative Staff College until 1964. He died at Mornington
, Victoria, in 1977.

Early life

Born on 12 February 1900 in

23rd Light Horse Regiment.[3] The following month he served as an extra aide-de-camp to the new Governor of South Australia, General Sir Tom Bridges.[4] In November 1923, Garrett was seconded to the British Army, and spent the next twelve months attached to the 2nd Dragoon Guards in Bangalore, India.[2][5] On his return to Australia in January 1925, he was reappointed adjutant/quartermaster of the 23rd Light Horse.[3][6] He married Shirley Lorraine Hunter, a nurse, on 9 September at St Peter's Anglican Church in the Adelaide suburb of Glenelg; the couple had a son and a daughter.[2] Garrett became adjutant/quartermaster of the 9th Light Horse Regiment at Jamestown, South Australia, in February 1926.[3] He was promoted to captain in November 1929.[7][8]

In March 1930, Garrett was posted as adjutant/quartermaster to the

Mount Gambier, South Australia.[3][9] As a speaker at Mount Gambier's Anzac Day commemorations on 25 April 1934, he was reported as warning of the poor state of Australia's preparedness for war, admonishing: "We shall not have the time that we had before the last war, and we shall not be fighting for our homes thousands of miles away. We shall be fighting at our own back door. That is what we have to prepare for."[10] In August that year he was transferred to the 4th Light Horse Regiment at Warrnambool, Victoria, as adjutant/quartermaster.[11] Garrett was posted to the staff of Army Headquarters, Melbourne, in March 1936, and departed for England in November the following year to attend the Staff College, Camberley.[3][12] He was promoted to major in July 1938, and returned to Australia upon the outbreak of the Second World War.[2][3]

Second World War

Brigadier Garrett with Lieutenant General Kanda at the Japanese surrender on Bougainville, 8 September 1945. Vice Admiral Samejima sits opposite, and Lieutenant General Savige is at the head of table.

Garrett joined the

fought in Greece under Brigadier Stanley Savige.[2][16] Savige recorded that when Garrett was posted back to corps headquarters, it "affected me more than the bombing ... I was very sorry to lose Garrett, who served me splendidly over the hectic days of the recent past".[17] Garrett was also attached to the 19th Brigade in Crete.[2]

Returning to Australia, Garrett was promoted to temporary

Bougainville under Lieutenant General Savige.[2][20][21] The campaign was controversial in that it appeared to have little impact on the main drive against Japan; Garrett was quoted as calling it "an absolute waste of time".[22]

Garrett was appointed a

mention in despatches, which was gazetted on 6 March 1947 and backdated to 2 November 1946.[29][30]

Post-war career

Two uniformed men in peaked caps
Brigadier Garrett (left) with Air Vice Marshal Alan Charlesworth in Nagano, Japan, c. 1949

Following a three-month course at the Staff College, Camberley, Garrett was appointed commandant of the

Deputy Chief of the General Staff in February 1953.[3]

In December 1953, Garrett succeeded Major General

The Army underwent significant change during Garrett's term as CGS.

US Army's pentomic formations. The Australian Army's traditional "triangular" divisional structure of three infantry battalions under a brigade headquarters was to be replaced with an organisation consisting of five larger battalions (hence "pentropic") without a brigade layer between division and battalion headquarters.[43] The plan was opposed by CMF officers as it would result in the disbandment of the citizens' brigades and many of the old militia battalions.[42][43] Under the new structure the CMF would not only shrink, its units would lose traditional ties to local communities through the establishment of new multi-battalion state-based regiments, leading to suspicion in some quarters that the entire process was designed to demolish the CMF.[43][44]

Garrett was concerned not only with changing the Army's organisation but with upgrading its equipment; by the early 1960s the Army would acquire the

Australian Army Aviation Corps was eventually established in July 1968.[46] Garrett was scheduled to retire from the Army on his sixtieth birthday in February 1960 but the government extended his term.[37] He retired on 30 June 1960 and was succeeded by Lieutenant General Reg Pollard, whom Garrett had recommended for the post in the face of opposition from the Minister for the Army, John Cramer, who had attempted to appoint Major General Ivan Dougherty, a retired CMF officer.[47] Although Garrett's proposed reorganisation of the Army along pentropic lines went ahead under Pollard, it proved short-lived. The US Army abandoned the system in June 1961, and the Australian Army returned to the triangular formation following a review commissioned by Pollard's successor as CGS, Lieutenant General Sir John Wilton, in October 1964.[48][49]

Later life

On retiring from the military, Garrett became principal of the Australian Administrative Staff College, a private institution delivering courses to senior business and government personnel at Mount Eliza, Victoria.[2][50] During his four-year tenure, he lobbied for the reintroduction of conscription, and when the Federal government brought in a new selective service scheme in 1965, he was invited to draw the first ballot of names.[51][52] Garrett also recommended that the Army should have a division prepared for war at all times.[53] He served as honorary colonel of the Royal Australian Regiment and the Royal Western Australia Regiment from 1960 until 1965, when he was appointed Chairman of the Western Australian Coastal Shipping Commission, a position he held until 1970. He died on 4 November 1977 at Mornington, Victoria, and was cremated. His wife had died earlier, and he was survived by his two children.[2]

Notes

  1. ^ "Garrett, Alwyn Ragnar". World War 2 Nominal Roll. Department of Veterans' Affairs. Retrieved 4 September 2017.
  2. ^
    ISSN 1833-7538
    . Retrieved 14 November 2018.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k The Army List, p. 439
  4. ^ "Citizens' fine tribute". The Register. 7 December 1922. p. 9. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
  5. ^ "Among the soldiers". The News. 19 November 1923. p. 3. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
  6. ^ "Among the soldiers". The News. 23 February 1925. p. 9. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
  7. ^ "Military social". The Advertiser. 10 March 1926. p. 20. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  8. ^ "Naval and military". The News. 25 November 1929. p. 8. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  9. ^ "Militia training". The Advertiser. 7 March 1930. p. 24. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  10. ^ "Diggers' re-union social". The Border Watch. 28 April 1934. p. 7. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  11. ^ "Army and Navy notes". The Advertiser. 3 August 1934. p. 11. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  12. ^ "Personal". The Argus. 23 November 1937. p. 4. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  13. ^ Long, To Benghazi, pp. 44, 48
  14. ^ Long, To Benghazi, pp. 85–86
  15. ^ Pratten, Australian Battalion Commanders in the Second World War, p. 327
  16. ^ a b Keating, The Right Man for the Right Job, pp. 63–64
  17. ^ Keating, The Right Man for the Right Job, p. 67
  18. ^ Lambert, Zach (Autumn 2012). "The Birth, Life and Death of the 1st Australian Armoured Division" (PDF). Australian Army Journal. p. 93. Archived from the original (PDF) on 3 January 2018. Retrieved 14 November 2018.
  19. ^ Dexter, The New Guinea Offensives, p. 279
  20. ^ Dexter, The New Guinea Offensives, pp. 780, 788
  21. ^ Long, The Final Campaigns, pp. 24–25, 97
  22. ^ Keating, The Right Man for the Right Job, p. 146
  23. ^ "Awards for service in Papua-New Guinea". The Argus. 20 July 1945. p. 6. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
  24. ^ "No. 37184". The London Gazette (Supplement). 19 July 1945. p. 3715.
  25. ^ Long, The Final Campaigns, pp. 557–558
  26. ^ James, The Hard Slog, pp. 253–254
  27. ^ "8 Infantry Brigade November–December 1945". 2nd Australian Imperial Force and Citizen Military Forces unit war diaries. Australian War Memorial. p. 3. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  28. ^ "8 Infantry Brigade January–March 1946". 2nd Australian Imperial Force and Citizen Military Forces unit war diaries. Australian War Memorial. p. 88. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  29. ^ "Recommendation: Mention in despatches". Australian War Memorial. Retrieved 14 May 2015.
  30. ^ "No. 37898". The London Gazette (Supplement). 6 March 1947. p. 1091.
  31. ^ Palazzo, The Australian Army, p. 201
  32. ^ Grey, The Australian Army, pp. 164–166
  33. ^ Palazzo, The Australian Army, p. 224
  34. ^ "Army changes". The Advertiser. 20 October 1953. p. 6. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  35. ^ Palazzo, The Australian Army, pp. 224, 238
  36. ^ "No. 41090". The London Gazette (Supplement). 13 June 1957. p. 3407.
  37. ^ a b Minister for Defence (7 May 1959). "Chief of the General Staff – extension of service" (Press release). Retrieved 30 March 2016.
  38. ^ "No. 41590". The London Gazette (Supplement). 1 January 1959. p. 38.
  39. ^ "Military Board in new headquarters". The Canberra Times. 7 March 1959. p. 3. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  40. ^ "Second Army move begins next Monday". The Canberra Times. 12 August 1959. p. 23. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  41. ^ Stretton, Soldier in a Storm, pp. 134, 138
  42. ^ a b Horner, Strategic Command, pp. 176–177
  43. ^ a b c d Grey, The Australian Army, pp. 204–207
  44. ^ Palazzo, The Australian Army, pp. 257–258
  45. ^ Palazzo, The Australian Army, pp. 229, 419
  46. ^ Horner, Strategic Command, pp. 295, 302
  47. ^ Horner, Strategic Command, pp. 194–195
  48. ^ Grey, The Australian Army, pp. 209
  49. ^ Dennis et al, Oxford Companion to Australian Military History, pp. 419–420
  50. ^ "Garrett to head staff college". The Sydney Morning Herald. 5 January 1960. p. 7. Retrieved 28 March 2016.
  51. ^ "Army call-up suggestion". The Canberra Times. 6 November 1963. p. 20. Retrieved 19 May 2015.
  52. ^ "First 1966 call-up draw tomorrow". The Canberra Times. 9 September 1965. p. 14. Retrieved 18 May 2015.
  53. ^ "Defence spending 'should increase'". The Canberra Times. 5 November 1963. p. 3. Retrieved 19 May 2015.

References

Military offices
Preceded by
Lieutenant General Sir Henry Wells
Chief of the General Staff
1958–1960
Succeeded by
Lieutenant General Sir Reg Pollard
Preceded by
Lieutenant General Horace Robertson
General Officer Commanding Southern Command
1954–1958
Succeeded by
Lieutenant General Hector Edgar