The masthead shows Morell Bridge in Melbourne.  I cross the bridge several times a week, and each time I get a thrill at its prettiness and elegance and the fact it was built by the man dubbed “the best general on the western front”:  John Monash.

The bridge was built in 1899, and apart from its grace and its famous builder, is notable for being made of reinforced concrete, one of the first such structures in Australia.  At the time Monash worked as a civil engineer, though he had also already begun his spectacular military career by joining the university militia in 1884.

Fifteen years after the bridge was built, when World War I broke out, Monash became a full-time Army officer.  Four years, and many battles later – including Gallipoli, Passchendaele, Amiens and the Battle of the Hindenburg Line – Monash returned to Australia having acquired

an outstanding reputation for intellect, personal magnetism, management and ingenuity.

His troops from the Battle of Hamel recalled the most extraordinary aspect of the battle was

not the use of armoured cars, nor simply the tremendous success of the operation, but the fact that in the midst of battle Monash had arranged delivery of hot meals up to the front line.

John Monash’s face is featured on Australia’s $100 note, our highest value currency, and he is commemorated in many buildings and structures, including the university I attended, Monash.  But I like to think of him when crossing the Morell Bridge.

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Some interesting facts about John Monash:

• He was born in Melbourne to German-Jewish parents; when he first set out for the war, there seems to have been little comment on his origins, “despite the anti-German hysteria of the time.”
• By 1918, however, after his great successes had begun accumulating, Charles Bean, the official Australian war historian, was plotting with Keith Murdoch (yes, Rupert’s father) “to undermine Monash, and have him removed from the command of the Australian Corps.”  The antipathy seems to have been partly based on “a general prejudice against Monash’s Prussian-Jewish background”, and partly because he didn’t “fit Bean’s concept of the quintessential Australian character.”  In any event, the plot failed.
• On 12 August 1918 Monash was knighted on the battlefield by King George V, “the first time a British monarch had honoured a commander in such a way in 200 years.”
• When Monash died in Melbourne in October 1931, “an estimated 250,000 mourners … came to pay their respects.”
• Before his death, and “despite his achievements, honours and titles,” Monash had instructed that his tombstone “simply bear the words ‘John Monash’”.

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Images: Morell Bridge (photographs taken by me); John Monash presenting a medal after the Battle of Hamel (unknown photographer) (bottom)

All references from Wikipedia.