Major General Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...

Sir John Charles Hoad (25 January 1856 – 6 October 1911) was an Australian military leader, best known as the

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 ...

's second

Chief of the General Staff The Chief of the General Staff (CGS) is a post in many armed forces (militaries), the head of the military staff. List * Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ( United States) * Chief of the General Staff (Abkhazia) * Chief of General Staff (Af ...

.Warren Perry
'Hoad, Sir John Charles (1856–1911)'
Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 9, Melbourne University Press, 1983, pp 311–312.

Family

John Hoad's parents were George Hoad, born in

Winchelsea Winchelsea () is a small town in the non-metropolitan county of East Sussex, within the historic county of Sussex, England, located between the High Weald and the Romney Marsh, approximately south west of Rye and north east of Hastings. The ...

, Sussex, and Catherine Kearney, born

Tipperary Tipperary is the name of: Places *County Tipperary, a county in Ireland **North Tipperary, a former administrative county based in Nenagh **South Tipperary, a former administrative county based in Clonmel *Tipperary (town), County Tipperary's na ...

. They married in March 1851 at

Goulburn, New South Wales Goulburn ( ) is a regional city in the Southern Tablelands of the Australian state of New South Wales, approximately south-west of Sydney, and north-east of Canberra. It was proclaimed as Australia's first inland city through letters patent ...

. They had four sons and one daughter. Hoad was a talented athlete, excellent horseman, Australian rules footballer and

cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprising two bails balanced on three stumps. The batting side scores runs by str ...

er. He married Sarah Denniston Sennetts, (née Brown), in

Wangaratta Wangaratta ( ) is a city in the northeast of Victoria, Australia, from Melbourne along the Hume Highway. The city had an estimated urban population of 19,318 at June 2018. Wangaratta has recorded a population growth rate of almost 1% annually ...

on 22 December 1881. They had a daughter, who died as a child, and two sons. The younger son, Oswald Vick Hoad (30 July 1888 – 12 September 1963), enlisted in the Victorian militia in 1907 and transferred to permanent military forces in 1910; as Major Hoad served as Base Commandant in South Australia, retired from the Australian Army in 1946.

Career

On 1 January 1878, John Hoad entered the

Victorian Education Department The Department of Education is a government department in Victoria, Australia. Formerly known as the Department of Education and Early Childhood Development until January 2015 and Department of Education and Training (DET) until January 2023, the ...

as a teacher at

Gooramadda Gooramadda is a locality in north east Victoria, Australia. The locality is in the Shire of Indigo local government area and on the Murray River, north east of the state capital, Melbourne. Gooramadda played Australian Rules Football in the Ch ...

State School and by September he was an assistant at

School. In April 1881 he became head teacher at Wangaratta North. Hoad began his military career in 1884, when he joined the

Victorian Rifles The Royal Victoria Regiment is an Infantry Regiment of the Australian Army, consisting of two battalions, the 5th/6th Battalion, Royal Victoria Regiment, 5th/6th Battalion and the 8th/7th Battalion, Royal Victoria Regiment, 8th/7th Battalion. Hist ...

as a

militia A militia () is generally an army or some other fighting organization of non-professional soldiers, citizens of a country, or subjects of a state, who may perform military service during a time of need, as opposed to a professional force of r ...

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 ...

. He soon resigned his position as a teacher to join the permanent military staff. On 4 June 1886, Hoad was appointed as adjutant of the Victorian Mounted Rifles, and through his aptitude, was quickly promoted to captain, and then major, within two years. In October 1889 he left Victoria for England where he studied

signalling In signal processing, a signal is a function that conveys information about a phenomenon. Any quantity that can vary over space or time can be used as a signal to share messages between observers. The ''IEEE Transactions on Signal Processing'' ...

, military engineering and

musketry A musket is a muzzle-loaded long gun that appeared as a smoothbore weapon in the early 16th century, at first as a heavier variant of the arquebus, capable of penetrating plate armour. By the mid-16th century, this type of musket gradually di ...

for two years before returning to Victoria to be appointed as the second in command of the Victorian Mounted Rifles. Hoad was an astute and capable commander, and by 1895 he had been promoted to lieutenant colonel, as well as becoming the first Australian-born assistant

Adjutant General An adjutant general is a military chief administrative officer. France In Revolutionary France, the was a senior staff officer, effectively an assistant to a general officer. It was a special position for lieutenant-colonels and colonels in staf ...

at Victorian Military Headquarters. Hoad was again sent to England in 1897, and was appointed to the personal staff of Lord Roberts and the

Duke of Connaught Duke of Connaught and Strathearn was a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom that was granted on 24 May 1874 by Queen Victoria of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland to her third son, Prince Arthur. At the same time, he was also ...

for

Queen Victoria Victoria (Alexandrina Victoria; 24 May 1819 – 22 January 1901) was Queen of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 20 June 1837 until her death in 1901. Her reign of 63 years and 216 days was longer than that of any previo ...

Diamond Jubilee A diamond jubilee celebrates the 60th anniversary of a significant event related to a person (e.g. accession to the throne or wedding, among others) or the 60th anniversary of an institution's founding. The term is also used for 75th anniver ...

. Immediately after, he returned to

Melbourne Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...

, and by 1899 had attained the rank of

colonel Colonel (abbreviated as Col., Col or COL) is a senior military officer rank used in many countries. It is also used in some police forces and paramilitary organizations. In the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries, a colonel was typically in charge o ...

. Hoad saw service in the

Second Boer War The Second Boer War ( af, Tweede Vryheidsoorlog, , 11 October 189931 May 1902), also known as the Boer War, the Anglo–Boer War, or the South African War, was a conflict fought between the British Empire and the two Boer Republics (the South ...

as a special service officer, and upon arriving in

Cape Town Cape Town ( af, Kaapstad; , xh, iKapa) is one of South Africa's three capital cities, serving as the seat of the Parliament of South Africa. It is the legislative capital of the country, the oldest city in the country, and the second largest ...

on 28 April 1899, was given overall command of the 1st Australian Regiment, which contained colonial troops from

Tasmania ) , nickname = , image_map = Tasmania in Australia.svg , map_caption = Location of Tasmania in AustraliaCoordinates: , subdivision_type = Country , subdi ...

South Australia South Australia (commonly abbreviated as SA) is a state in the southern central part of Australia. It covers some of the most arid parts of the country. With a total land area of , it is the fourth-largest of Australia's states and territories ...

, Victoria and

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

. The force moved to

Orange River The Orange River (from Afrikaans/Dutch: ''Oranjerivier'') is a river in Southern Africa. It is the longest river in South Africa. With a total length of , the Orange River Basin extends from Lesotho into South Africa and Namibia to the north ...

, where they met up with the Kimberley Relief Force. In

Bloemfontein Bloemfontein, ( ; , "fountain of flowers") also known as Bloem, is one of South Africa's three capital cities and the capital of the Free State province. It serves as the country's judicial capital, along with legislative capital Cape To ...

in April 1900, the 1st Australian Regiment was merged with the 1st Mounted Infantry Brigade under Edward Hutton, and Hoad was appointed as assistant

adjutant general An adjutant general is a military chief administrative officer. France In Revolutionary France, the was a senior staff officer, effectively an assistant to a general officer. It was a special position for lieutenant-colonels and colonels in staf ...

. However, by July 1900, he had been invalided and evacuated back to Australia. For his services in the Boer War, Hoad was appointed a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George, awarded the

Queen's South Africa Medal The Queen's South Africa Medal is a British campaign medal awarded to British and Colonial military personnel, and to civilians employed in an official capacity, who served in the Second Boer War in South Africa. Altogether twenty-six clasps wer ...

, and mentioned in despatches. Between 1902 and 1906 Hoad served as aide-de-camp to the Governor-General of Australia. From November 1903 to January 1904 he was temporarily commander of the

6th Military District 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

(Tasmania). Hoad was sent by

, Edward Hutton, to

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer M ...

on attachment to the

Imperial Japanese Army The was the official ground-based armed force of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945. It was controlled by the Imperial Japanese Army General Staff Office and the Ministry of the Army, both of which were nominally subordinate to the Emperor o ...

. Along with other Western military attachés, Hoad had two complementary missions: to assist the Japanese, and; to observe the Japanese forces in the field during the

Russo-Japanese War The Russo-Japanese War ( ja, 日露戦争, Nichiro sensō, Japanese-Russian War; russian: Ру́сско-япóнская войнá, Rússko-yapónskaya voyná) was fought between the Empire of Japan and the Russian Empire during 1904 and 1 ...

. For this service, he received the Japanese Order of the Rising Sun, Gold Rays with Neck Ribbon, which represents the third highest of eight classes associated with this award.Daly, Sean
"Rare Japanese honour for Director of AJRC"
''ANU Reporter''. Vol. 32, No. 9 (8 June 2001), p. 4. His participation in the war was also recognised with a presentation of the Japanese War Medal. Upon returning to Australia in January 1905, Hoad was appointed to the newly formed Military Board with the title of Deputy

. In September 1906 he was promoted to

brigadier general Brigadier general or Brigade general is a military rank used in many countries. It is the lowest ranking general officer in some countries. The rank is usually above a colonel, and below a major general or divisional general. When appointed ...

, and again promoted to

major general Major general (abbreviated MG, maj. gen. and similar) is a military rank used in many countries. It is derived from the older rank of sergeant major general. The disappearance of the "sergeant" in the title explains the apparent confusion of ...

in January 1907. At this time he was serving the Military Board as Inspector General. In 1908 Hoad again visited London, this time to discuss plans for the establishment of an Imperial General Staff at the

War Office The War Office was a department of the British Government responsible for the administration of the British Army between 1857 and 1964, when its functions were transferred to the new Ministry of Defence (MoD). This article contains text from ...

. He also participated in the

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

's autumn manoeuvres. Hoad's recommendations about the Imperial General Staff were accepted, and on 1 July 1909, then Secretary for Defence, Sir

George Pearce Sir George Foster Pearce KCVO (14 January 1870 – 24 June 1952) was an Australian politician who served as a Senator for Western Australia from 1901 to 1938. He began his career in the Labor Party but later joined the National Labor Party, ...

, appointed him as

. He met Lord Kitchener in Darwin on 21 December 1909 to discuss Australia's land defences, and joined him for a two-month-long tour of inspection of the whole country. By 1911 he had begun planning for the introduction of Australian universal military training, but with failing health, took sick leave on 1 June 1911. Hoad was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) upon the occasion of the

coronation A coronation is the act of placement or bestowal of a crown upon a monarch's head. The term also generally refers not only to the physical crowning but to the whole ceremony wherein the act of crowning occurs, along with the presentation of ot ...

King George V George V (George Frederick Ernest Albert; 3 June 1865 – 20 January 1936) was King of the United Kingdom and the British Dominions, and Emperor of India, from 6 May 1910 until his death in 1936. Born during the reign of his grandmother Qu ...

on 22 June 1911. Sir John died of a heart disorder in

on 6 October 1911.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hoad, John Charles 1856 births 1911 deaths Military personnel from New South Wales Australian generals Australian Knights Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George Australian military personnel of the Second Boer War Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 3rd class People from Goulburn People of the Russo-Japanese War Chiefs of Army (Australia)

Family

Career

See also

References