Ragnar Garrett

Lieutenant General Sir Alwyn Ragnar Garrett, KBE, CB (12 February 1900 – 4 November 1977) was a senior commander in the Australian Army.

Born on 12 February 1900 in Northam, Western Australia, Alwyn Ragnar Garrett was the son of accountant Alwyn Garrett and his Swedish wife Maria Carolina (née Wohlfahrt).

Ragnar attended Guildford Grammar School before entering the Royal Military College, Duntroon, in 1918.

Born in Western Australia, Garrett graduated from the Royal Military College, Duntroon, in 1921.

He was adjutant and quartermaster in several regiments of the Australian Light Horse before undertaking staff training in England, which he completed just as the Second World War broke out.

He graduated in 1921 and was posted to the Australian Light Horse as a lieutenant.

In November 1922, Garrett was appointed adjutant/quartermaster of the 23rd Light Horse Regiment.

The following month he served as an extra aide-de-camp to the new Governor of South Australia, General Sir Tom Bridges.

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.

On his return to Australia in January 1925, he was reappointed adjutant/quartermaster of the 23rd Light Horse.

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.

Garrett became adjutant/quartermaster of the 9th Light Horse Regiment at Jamestown, South Australia, in February 1926.

He was promoted to captain in November 1929.

In March 1930, Garrett was posted as adjutant/quartermaster to the 3rd Light Horse Regiment at Mount Gambier, South Australia.

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."

In August that year he was transferred to the 4th Light Horse Regiment at Warrnambool, Victoria, as adjutant/quartermaster.

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.

He was promoted to major in July 1938, and returned to Australia upon the outbreak of the Second World War.

Garrett joined the Second Australian Imperial Force in November 1939, and was appointed brigade major of the 18th Brigade under Brigadier Leslie Morshead in January 1940.

The brigade departed for the Middle East in May but, owing to the military situation following the Fall of France, it was diverted to Britain, arriving in June.

Garrett joined the Second Australian Imperial Force soon afterwards, and commanded the 2/31st Battalion in England before seeing action with Australian brigades in Greece and Crete in 1941.

Garrett was promoted lieutenant colonel on 16 September and took command of the 2/31st Battalion the same day; he handed over to Selwyn Porter in February 1941, and departed England for the Middle East.

From March to June he served as General Staff Officer Grade 2 (Operations) of I Corps under Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Blamey.

In April Garrett was briefly seconded to Savige Force, which fought in Greece under Brigadier Stanley Savige.

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".

Returning to Australia, Garrett was promoted to temporary colonel in April 1942 and became senior operations officer in the 1st Armoured Division, which served as a garrison force in case of Japanese invasion.

He was posted to Army Headquarters, Melbourne, in October as Director of Armoured Fighting Vehicles.

In September 1943, he was appointed General Staff Officer Grade 1 (Operations) of I Corps under Lieutenant General Sir Edmund Herring in New Guinea.

Promoted to colonel the following year, he held senior positions with I Corps in New Guinea and II Corps on Bougainville in 1944–1945.

He was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his staff work.

After the war, Garrett served two terms as commandant of the Staff College, Queenscliff, in 1946–1947 and 1949–1951.

Between these appointments he was posted to Japan with the British Commonwealth Occupation Force.

Promoted to major general, he took charge of Western Command in August 1951, and became Deputy Chief of the General Staff in January 1953.

He took over Southern Command as a lieutenant general in October 1954, and was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1957.

He served as Chief of the General Staff (CGS) from 1958 to 1960.

As CGS from March 1958, Garrett focused on rearmament and reorganisation, initiating the Army's short-lived restructure into a "pentropic" formation.

He was 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.

Garrett was also attached to the 19th Brigade in Crete.