{{Infobox military person , name = John Joseph Scanlan , image = John Joseph Scanlan.jpg , caption = Lieutenant Colonel J. J. Scanlan {{{circa, 1919 , nickname = , birth_date = {{Birth-date, 19 October 1890 , birth_place =

South Melbourne, Victoria South Melbourne is an inner suburb in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, 3 km south of Melbourne's Central Business District, located within the City of Port Phillip local government area. South Melbourne recorded a population of 11,548 at t ...

, death_date = {{Death date and age, 1962, 12, 6, 1890, 10, 19, df=yes , death_place = Kingston, Tasmania , placeofburial = , allegiance = Australia , branch =

Australian Army The Australian Army is the principal Army, 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 (Austral ...

, serviceyears = , rank =

Lieutenant Colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

, servicenumber = , unit = , commands = 59th Battalion

Lark Force Larks are passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. Larks have a cosmopolitan distribution with the largest number of species occurring in Africa. Only a single species, the horned lark, occurs in North America, and only Horsfield's bush lark occ ...

, battles =

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

* Gallipoli Campaign * Battle of Amiens * Battle of Mont Saint-Quentin *

Battle of St. Quentin Canal The Battle of St. Quentin Canal was a pivotal battle of World War I that began on 29 September 1918 and involved British, Australian and American forces operating as part of the British Fourth Army under the overall command of General Sir He ...

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

* Battle of Rabaul , battles_label = , awards =

Distinguished Service Order The Distinguished Service Order (DSO) is a military decoration of the United Kingdom, as well as formerly of other parts of the Commonwealth, awarded for meritorious or distinguished service by officers of the armed forces during wartime, typ ...

Bar Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar (u ...

Mentioned in Despatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

(3)

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon, ...

(France) , relations = , laterwork =

John Joseph Scanlan, {{postnominals, country=AUS, size=100, DSO1 (19 October 1890 – 6 December 1962) was an

officer who served during the First and Second World Wars.

Early life

John Joseph Scanlan was born in

, on 19 October 1890, to John Andrew Scanlan and Mary Josephine {{nee, McMahon. He attended Christian Brothers College, St Kilda, after which he worked as a shipping clerk at the Customs Department. He joined the Citizens Military Force in 1910 and was initially posted to 5th Battalion (Victorian Scottish Regiment). Two years later, by then a

sergeant Sergeant (abbreviated to Sgt. and capitalized when used as a named person's title) is a rank in many uniformed organizations, principally military and policing forces. The alternative spelling, ''serjeant'', is used in The Rifles and other uni ...

, he transferred to 60th Battalion. He was commissioned as a

second lieutenant Second lieutenant is a junior commissioned officer military rank in many armed forces, comparable to NATO OF-1 rank. Australia The rank of second lieutenant existed in the military forces of the Australian colonies and Australian Army until ...

in the 58th Infantry (Essendon Rifles) in July 1913.{{cite book, last=Sweeting, first=A. J, title=Scanlan, John Joseph (1890–1962), url=http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/scanlan-john-joseph-8349, work=Australian Dictionary of Biography, publisher=Australian National University, access-date=9 January 2012

First World War

Following the outbreak of the First World War, Scanlan enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force (AIF). Appointed a second lieutenant, he was posted to the newly raised 7th Battalion, which was to be part of the 1st Division. After departing Australia in October, he along with the rest of the battalion spent the remainder of 1914 and early 1915 in Egypt. A

lieutenant A lieutenant ( , ; abbreviated Lt., Lt, LT, Lieut and similar) is a commissioned officer rank in the armed forces of many nations. The meaning of lieutenant differs in different militaries (see comparative military ranks), but it is often sub ...

since February, Scalan was amongst the first of his battalion to land at

Gallipoli The Gallipoli peninsula (; tr, Gelibolu Yarımadası; grc, Χερσόνησος της Καλλίπολης, ) is located in the southern part of East Thrace, the European part of Turkey, with the Aegean Sea to the west and the Dardanelles ...

on 25 April 1915. A chest wound received on 8 May during the

Second Battle of Krithia The Second Battle of Krithia ( tr, İkinci Kirte Muharebesi) continued the Allies' attempts to advance on the Helles battlefield during the Battle of Gallipoli of the First World War. The village of Krithia and neighbouring hill of Achi Baba h ...

ended his participation in the Gallipoli Campaign and he was evacuated to Egypt. After convalescing for over a year, firstly in Egypt and then Australia, he was posted to the 59th Battalion, then recuperating in England after the

Battle of Fromelles The Attack at Fromelles (, Battle of Fromelles, Battle of Fleurbaix or ) 19–20 July 1916, was a military operation on the Western Front during the First World War. The attack was carried out by British and Australian troops and was subsidiary ...

. Promoted to

captain Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...

on 1 November 1916, and then to

major Major (commandant in certain jurisdictions) is a military rank of commissioned officer status, with corresponding ranks existing in many military forces throughout the world. When used unhyphenated and in conjunction with no other indicators ...

on 20 February 1917,{{cite web , url=http://www.awm.gov.au/units/people_1077257.asp , title=Lieutenant Colonel John Joseph Scanlan, DSO and bar , publisher=Australian War Memorial , access-date= 12 October 2011 he held a number of staff positions at brigade and divisional level. He briefly commanded the 57th Battalion in late January 1918 before being promoted to

lieutenant colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colone ...

on 6 February and given command of the 59th Battalion at the age of 27. Scanlan ably led the battalion during the battles of

Amiens Amiens (English: or ; ; pcd, Anmien, or ) is a city and commune in northern France, located north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in the region of Hauts-de-France. In 2021, the population of ...

and

Mont Saint-Quentin Mont Saint-Quentin overlooks the Somme River in the region of Picardie approximately 1.5 km north of the town of Péronne, Somme, France. The hill is about 100 metres high but as it is situated in a bend of the river it dominates the whole p ...

and finally, in late September, the

St. Quentin Canal The Canal de Saint-Quentin () is a canal in northern France connecting the canalised river Escaut in Cambrai to the Canal latéral à l'Oise and Canal de l'Oise à l'Aisne in Chauny. History The canal was built in two phases, the second much lo ...

. After the latter battle, the battalion was placed in reserve for rest and recuperation, a period during which the war ended. Scanlan returned to Australia in 1919 having been awarded the

and a

, and the French

, as well as being

mentioned in despatches To be mentioned in dispatches (or despatches, MiD) describes a member of the armed forces whose name appears in an official report written by a superior officer and sent to the high command, in which their gallant or meritorious action in the face ...

three times. On 1 August 1919, his service with the AIF was terminated.Corfield, 1991, pp. 230{{spaced ndash231

Interwar period

Returning to civilian life, Scanlan first worked as a secretary for the Victorian Prices Commission before turning his hand to farming. During the late 1920s and early 1930s, he was involved with the Sustenance Department. In 1936, he moved to Tasmania as the deputy governor of

Hobart Gaol H.M. Gaol Hobart or Campbell Street Gaol, a former Australian maximum security prison for males and females, was located in Hobart, Tasmania. Built by convict labour, the gaol operated between 1821 until the early 1960s. In 1961, male inmates w ...

Second World War

Following the outbreak of the Second World War, Scanlan was called up from the Reserve of Officers (having been placed on the reserve in 1920) and put in command of the 6th Garrison Battalion. In September 1941 he was put in command of

, which was tasked with the defence of

Rabaul Rabaul () is a township in the East New Britain province of Papua New Guinea, on the island of New Britain. It lies about 600 kilometres to the east of the island of New Guinea. Rabaul was the provincial capital and most important settlement in ...

, in

New Britain New Britain ( tpi, Niu Briten) is the largest island in the Bismarck Archipelago, part of the Islands Region of Papua New Guinea. It is separated from New Guinea by a northwest corner of the Solomon Sea (or with an island hop of Umboi the Dam ...

. Lark Force was a mixture of regular Australian Army troops (the bulk of whom came from the 2/22nd Battalion) and locally raised militia, a total of 1,400 men. When the

Japanese Empire The also known as the Japanese Empire or Imperial Japan, was a historical nation-state and great power that existed from the Meiji Restoration in 1868 until the enactment of the post-World War II 1947 constitution and subsequent forma ...

invaded Rabaul on 23 January 1942 in what is now known as the Battle of Rabaul, the force was quickly overrun and forced to take to the jungle. When 160 captured Australian soldiers were massacred by the Japanese, Scanlan opted to surrender. He spent the remainder of the war as a

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of wa ...

Later life

In 1946, Scanlan took up the position of governor at his former workplace, the Hobart Gaol, a position to which he had been appointed while still a prisoner of war. Scanlan died on 6 December 1962 in a hospital at Kingston, Tasmania of a

coronary occlusion A coronary occlusion is the partial or complete obstruction of blood flow in a coronary artery. This condition may cause a heart attack. In some patients coronary occlusion causes only mild pain, tightness or vague discomfort which may be ignored ...

. He was survived by his wife, son and daughter.

Notes

{{portal, Biography, World War I, World War II {{reflist

References

*{{cite book , last=Corfield , first=Robin , year=1991 , title=Hold Hard, Cobbers: The Story of the 57th and 60th and 57/60th Australian Infantry Battalions 1912–1990, Volume I: 1912–1930, location=Glenhuntly, Victoria , publisher=57/60th Battalion (AIF) Association , isbn=0-646-04097-9 , oclc=26582026 , pages=230–231 {{authority control {{DEFAULTSORT:Scanlan, John 1890 births 1962 deaths Australian military personnel of World War I Australian military personnel of World War II Companions of the Distinguished Service Order Recipients of the Legion of Honour Military personnel from Melbourne World War II prisoners of war held by Japan Australian prisoners of war People from South Melbourne 20th-century Australian public servants Public servants from Melbourne People educated at St Mary's College, Melbourne