Iven Mackay

Lieutenant General Sir Iven Giffard Mackay KBE, CMG, DSO and Bar, VD was a senior Australian Army officer who served in both World Wars. A graduate of the University of Sydney, Mackay taught physics there from 1910 until 1914, when he joined the Australian Imperial Force. He served with the 4th Infantry Battalion at Gallipoli, where he distinguished himself in hand-to-hand fighting at the Battle of Lone Pine. In April 1916, he assumed command of the 4th Infantry Battalion on the Western Front and led it at the Battle of Pozieres, Battle of Bullecourt and Battle of Broodseinde. He was promoted to brigadier general in June 1918, and led the 1st Infantry Brigade at the Battle of Hazebrouck, the Battle of Amiens and in the attack on the Hindenburg Line. After the war Mackay studied physics at the University of Cambridge under Ernest Rutherford before returning to Australia and his old job as a lecturer at the University of Sydney. From 1933 to 1940 he was headmaster of Cranbrook School Sydney. He remained in the Militia between the wars, and was a major general by the time the Second World War broke out.