Brigadier Brigadier is a military rank, the seniority of which depends on the country. In some countries, it is a senior rank above colonel, equivalent to a brigadier general or commodore, typically commanding a brigade of several thousand soldiers. I ...

Alfred Barrett Garland, AM (19 March 1932 – 9 March 2002) was an

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal land warfare force of Australia, a part of the Australian Defence Force (ADF) along with the Royal Australian Navy and the Royal Australian Air Force. The Army is commanded by the Chief of Army (CA), wh ...

officer, and National President of the

Returned and Services League of Australia The Returned and Services League of Australia (RSL) is a support organisation for people who have served or are serving in the Australian Defence Force. Mission The RSL's mission is to ensure that programs are in place for the well-being, care ...

(RSL) from 1988 to 1993. Garland had a distinguished military career, and attracted media attention by being outspoken on many controversial social issues, often antagonising the Keating government at the time.

Military career

Garland's army career spanned 35 years. In 1965, he commanded the 1st Special Air Service squadron against Indonesian forces in

Borneo Borneo (; id, Kalimantan) is the third-largest island in the world and the largest in Asia. At the geographic centre of Maritime Southeast Asia, in relation to major Indonesian islands, it is located north of Java, west of Sulawesi, and ea ...

. During the

Vietnam War The Vietnam War (also known by other names) was a conflict in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. It was the second of the Indochina Wars and was officially fought between North Vietnam a ...

, he was second-in-command of the 7th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, and was appointed Australia's chief liaison officer to US forces.

National Presidency of the RSL and activism

Garland was President of the

Australian Capital Territory The Australian Capital Territory (commonly abbreviated as ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) until 1938, is a landlocked federal territory of Australia containing the national capital Canberra and some surrounding townships. I ...

branch of the RSL, before becoming the RSL National President in 1988. Garland was elected as the Australian Monarchist League delegate from New South Wales at the

1998 Australian Constitutional Convention The 1998 Australian Constitutional Convention was a Constitutional Convention which gathered at Old Parliament House, Canberra from 2 to 13 February 1998. It was called by the Howard Government to discuss whether Australia should become a rep ...

. He joined Bruce Ruxton in campaigning against the notion of Australia becoming a republic. The two sat next to each other, angering republican delegates by opposing them on almost every point. In one attempt to filibuster debate, Garland recounted his family's loyalty to

the Crown The Crown is the state in all its aspects within the jurisprudence of the Commonwealth realms and their subdivisions (such as the Crown Dependencies, overseas territories, provinces, or states). Legally ill-defined, the term has different ...

beginning in medieval times. Garland was Chairman of both the Australian Monarchist League NSW and ACT branches. Garland also opposed the construction of the Japanese funded technology city known as the

Multifunction Polis The Multifunction Polis (MFP) was a controversial scheme for a planned community in Australia proposed in 1987 and abandoned in 1998. From the Greek word "polis", meaning "city", it was imagined as a place where work and leisure, lifetime edu ...

(MFP). Garland was also opposed to Asian immigration, saying in 1988 Australia must alter the selection of immigrants to ensure Australia remained "predominantly European"."We want to retain Australia for Australians,". Garland died at age 69, after a long battle with

motor neurone disease Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), also known as motor neuron disease (MND) or Lou Gehrig's disease, is a neurodegenerative disease that results in the progressive loss of motor neurons that control voluntary muscles. ALS is the most commo ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Garland, Alf 1932 births 2002 deaths Australian brigadiers Anti-Asian sentiment in Oceania Anti-Asian sentiment in Australia Australian military personnel of the Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation Australian military personnel of the Korean War Australian military personnel of the Vietnam War Australian monarchists Delegates to the Australian Constitutional Convention 1998 Members of the Order of Australia Military personnel from New South Wales