Great Scot September 2018 Gt Scot_154_September_online | Page 14

Sir John Monash
Monash was often
sought out for his
advice and leadership.
He was 1922 President
of Melbourne Rotary. He
successfully commanded the
Special Constabulary Force
when the Victoria Police went on strike in
November 1923. Monash was 1924-26
President of the Australian Association for
the Advancement of Science. From 1925
he led Melbourne’s Anzac Day march
and became its chief organiser, and he
was a significant driver of the Shrine of
Remembrance project. As Vice-Chancellor
from 1923 (and Acting Chancellor 1925-
26) of Melbourne University, Monash
had a heavy workload. In 1927 he was
national President of the Australian Zionist
Federation, and in 1930 he was considered
as a possible Governor-General.
Throughout Monash’s tireless efforts, his
affection for Scotch never waned. When the
Old Scotch Collegians’ Club was formed in
1895 he became a member that year, and
again in 1896. Membership records also
show him as a member from 1904 to 1907,
and in 1906 he was a Vice President. One
of Monash’s items in the Australian War
Memorial’s collection is his 1911 Scotch
College Diamond Jubilee medallion. When
the first Scotchies set off to serve in World
War I, Monash was noted as being a colonel
in command of the Second Victorian Infantry
Brigade, and his photograph was published
in The Scotch Collegian. His progress during
the war was keenly noted in its pages,
and his successes and knighthood were
celebrated.
The August 1918 Scotch Collegian
included his portrait, and a full page greeting
‘To the Boys of Scotch College’ dated 29
June 1918 (which was published on page
nine of the April 2018 Great Scot and also
appears on page five of this edition).
Referring to the congratulations that
poured in following his knighting, he wrote
that ‘… none of them was more welcome,
or touched me more deeply than the
cablegram just received [from Mr Littlejohn
14
on behalf of the Scotch boys]. As the years
roll on, my regard for the Old School and
my pride in it have steadily grown, and the
realisation of the high renown which has
been achieved by so many men who were
launched upon their careers by Scotch
College has been for me always a stimulus
and an inspiration … I have never ceased to
think of the Old School with affection, and …
look forward to being spared to return some
day to … tell the boys something of the very
fine traditions which have been created by
Old Scotch Collegians in this war ...’
After the war, Monash was in demand
from all quarters, and yet he found or made
time for Scotch. On 16 February 1919 he
telegraphed his acceptance of a place on
the committee of the Scotch College War
Memorial Buildings Fund, lending his name
and prestige to the fundraising required
to build the Senior School at Hawthorn.
Although his wife died on 27 February
1920, Monash was present at the site of
the new Senior School at Hawthorn to lay
the foundation stone of Memorial Hall on 5
March 1920. He trowelled out the mortar,
and, once the stone was swung into place,
tapped it twice with the trowel, declaring the
stone well and truly laid. At the end of the
year he addressed Speech Night, telling the
boys that none had surpassed Old Scotch
Collegians in the war in giving the feeling
that all they did was to uphold the honour
of their school. He declared that boys
honoured to attend a great Public School
such as Scotch were being educated for a
life of national service, and that their main
aim should be to make Australia great.
When the House system was reorganised
in 1921, Monash House was created in his
honour, and he gave it its motto: Mak siccar
(Make sure). It did, by winning the Cock
House competition that year.
Monash was the 1927 President of the
Old Scotch Collegians’ Association. He
addressed Scotch at the 1928 distribution of
annual prizes, and, on giving Joseph Robert
Archibald Glenn (‘29) his prize, one great
Great Scot Number 154 – September 2018
Old Scotch Collegian created another when
Monash advised Glenn to study engineering.
In 1929, Monash’s grandson John
Monash Bennett followed him at Scotch.
Although Bennett died after less than a
month at Scotch, he was followed by two
brothers, and four of Monash’s great-
grandsons also later attended Scotch.
Monash is remembered in numerous ways
throughout Australia, but particularly at
Scotch, where, apart from Monash House
there are Monash Drive,
Monash Gates, and
Monash Lodge, while
the Monash Freeway,
renamed by Old Boy,
Jeff Kennett (‘65), sweeps
past Scotch to Monash
University.
Scotch’s greatest son
never forgot his school,
and will never be
forgotten by it.
PAUL MISHURA
—SCOTCH
COLLEGE
ARCHIVIST
RIGHT: LIEUTENANT
GENERAL SIR JOHN
MONASH, CIRCA 1918