Military mastermind’s secret battles

HE became Australia’s greatest military leader. But John Monash faced three personal struggles: weight, women and his own background.

AnzacLive .. JOHN MONASH Brigadier General (later General) John Monash. Monash is one of the soldiers featured in News Corp Australia's Anzac Live project. (Note to editors: He has ties to Victoria.) Picture: Supplied

EARLY on April 24, 1915, Colonel John Monash, a portly and often vain Melbourne businessman who has never seen a shot fired in anger, prepares for the greatest sea invasion in history.

Nearing 50, Monash has been fighting his own private battles ever since he was born into an ethnic minority as the son of German Jewish immigrants in a small cottage in Melbourne. His non-stop attack on life has put him on a path to become Australia’s most celebrated military commander even though he hates the senseless waste and destruction of war.

Monash has no doubt his men will fight heroically at Gallipoli but he wonders aloud how long he will live to see them in action.

ANZACLIVE: TRAVEL WITH MONASH IN REAL TIME

Deep pride ... John Monsah was devoted to his wife and family.

He and his men of the 4th Brigade sail from the Greek island of Lemnos on one of more than 200 ships taking part in the massed invasion of the Turkish coast.

The 4000 men under Monash’s command are whistling, singing and cracking jokes but he is in a far more reflective mood as he writes farewell letters to his family.

He tells his 22-year-old daughter Bertha that she has “always been a sweet and loving daughter and my deepest pride” and hopes that while she will grieve his loss she should feel gratification that her father has done his country some service.

Determined ... John Monash struggled with weight issues but managed to drop 30kg by the time he became Australia’s supreme commander.

And to Vic, his wife of 24 years, he says that after a full and active life he is ready for a sudden end and that she should remember how deeply he always loved her.

There’s had been a stormy and tempestuous relationship with two conflicting egos, the social lioness and the hard-driving engineer first attracted to the Victorian militia because his fancy uniform was a big hit with the ladies.

Monash was a brilliant scholar who dragged himself out of humble origins and reached the top of the Melbourne business and artistic world through hard work and relentless application of his elastic mind.

In his youth he was unstoppable in his pursuit of the opposite sex and when he married Vic he knew that despite their physical attraction their clashing personalities meant he would be “entering upon years of toil and anxiety.”

Prized possession ... Sir John Monash's gave this watch to Sergeant Richard John Garcia during the First World War.

By the time the Great War broke out the hostilities at home had subsided, yet having seen awful slaughter all around him, in 1917 while in London, Monash took comfort in the arms of the slightly scatty Lizzie Bentwitch, and their relationship would last for 14 years.

Monash also fought a fierce battle with his weight. Only 175cm tall he hovered around 100kg through most of his 40s and struggled to climb the steep cliffs of Gallipoli. Yet with that unyielding determination he combined strict diet and exercise to drop almost 30kg by the time he became Australia’s supreme commander three years later.

Fiery ... Sir John Monash had a stormy and tempestuous relationship with his wife.

Monash also defied the barbs of his most fierce critic, war correspondent Charles Bean who complained that Monash had the “Jewish capacity of worming silently into favour.”

As he headed toward Gallipoli Monash told his wife that he was about to take part in “great events which will stir the whole world” and which will go down in history “to the eternal glory of Australia.”

He survived the horrors there to lead the Australians to mighty victories on the Western Front at Amiens, Villers-Bretonneux and finally at the Hindenburg Line to end the war.

Much of his success lay in his unshakeable self-belief.

When an early girlfriend told him that his only fault was that he made women adore him, Monash could think of only one reply.

“How very true.”

Originally published as Military mastermind’s secret battles