Early life[edit]

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. He graduated in 1921 and was posted to the Australian Light Horse as
a lieutenant.[2][3] In November 1922, Garrett was appointed adjutant/quartermaster of
the 23rd Light Horse Regiment.[3] The following month he served as an extra aide-de-
camp to the new Governor of South Australia, General Sir Tom Bridges.[4] 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.[2][5] On his return to Australia in
January 1925, he was reappointed adjutant/quartermaster of the 23rd Light Horse. [3][6] 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.[2] Garrett became
adjutant/quartermaster of the 9th Light Horse Regiment at Jamestown, South Australia, in
February 1926.[3] He was promoted to captain in November 1929.[7][8]
In March 1930, Garrett was posted as adjutant/quartermaster to the 3rd Light Horse
Regiment at Mount Gambier, South Australia.[3][9] 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." [10] In August
that year he was transferred to the 4th Light Horse Regiment at Warrnambool, Victoria, as
adjutant/quartermaster.[11] 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.[3][12] He was promoted to major in July 1938, and returned to Australia
upon the outbreak of the Second World War.[2][3]

Second World War[edit]

Brigadier Garrett with Lieutenant General Kanda at the Japanese surrender on Bougainville,

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.[2][13] 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.[2][14] 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.[2][15] From March to June he served as General Staff Officer
Grade 2 (Operations) of I Corps under Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Blamey.[3][16] In April
Garrett was briefly seconded to Savige Force, which fought in Greece under
Brigadier Stanley Savige.[2][16] 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".[17] Garrett was also
attached to the 19th Brigade in Crete.[2]
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.[2][18] He was posted to Army Headquarters, Melbourne, in
October as Director of Armoured Fighting Vehicles.[2] In September 1943, he was appointed
General Staff Officer Grade 1 (Operations) of I Corps under Lieutenant General Sir
Edmund Herring in New Guinea.[2][19] Three months later he was promoted to
temporary brigadier and became Brigadier General Staff of I Corps.[3] He continued to serve
in that position as I Corps was redesignated II Corps in April 1944, New Guinea Force the
following month, and finally II Corps again in October 1944 for the campaign
on Bougainville under Lieutenant General Savige.[2][20][21] The campaign was controversial in
that it appeared to have little impact on the main drive against Japan; Garrett was quoted
as calling it "an absolute waste of time".[22]
Garrett was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his "skill,
direction, and supervision of the highest order" in having "prepared and guided all staff
work to meet every conceivable requirement in the complete reorganisation of forces in
New Guinea"; the honour was promulgated in The London Gazette on 19 July 1945.[23]
[24]
 Garrett was also responsible for interrogating the first Japanese peace envoy to make
contact with the Australians on Bougainville, on 18 August 1945, and was present when the
instrument of surrender was signed on 8 September.[25][26] In November 1945, he took
command of the 8th Brigade in New Guinea.[27] He oversaw the brigade's return to Australia
before its disbandment in March 1946.[2][28] His "exceptional service in the field" in the South
West Pacific Area earned him a mention in despatches, which was gazetted on 6 March
1947 and backdated to 2 November 1946.[29][30]

Post-war career[edit]

Brigadier Garrett (left) with Air Vice Marshal Alan Charlesworth in Nagano, Japan, c. 1949

Following a three-month course at the Staff College, Camberley, Garrett was appointed
commandant of the Staff College, Queenscliff, Victoria, in June 1946.[3] He was posted to
Japan in March 1947, becoming Brigadier-in-Charge of Administration for the British
Commonwealth Occupation Force in July. The size and scope of the occupation declined
considerably during his tour, which finished in October 1949. [2] Approximately 2,400
Australians, most from the 67th Battalion, remained by late 1948, compared to 11,000 in
October 1946.[31][32] In December 1949, Garrett resumed command of the Staff College,
Queenscliff.[2] Promoted temporary major general, he was appointed General Officer
Commanding (GOC) Western Command, which covered the state of Western Australia, in
August 1951.[2][33] He became Deputy Chief of the General Staff in February 1953.[3]
In December 1953, Garrett succeeded Major General Eric Woodward as Adjutant-General
and Second Military Member of the Military Board. [34] He was promoted temporary lieutenant
general in October 1954 and appointed GOC Southern Command, which
covered Victoria, South Australia, and Tasmania and was, as of April 1953, the superior
headquarters for several major Citizen Military Forces (CMF) formations including the 3rd
Infantry Division, the 4th and 6th Infantry Brigades, the 2nd Armoured Brigade, and two
artillery groups.[2][35] His elevation to lieutenant general was made permanent in December
1954.[2] Garrett was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in the Queen's
Birthday Honours on 13 June 1957.[36] He succeeded Lieutenant General Sir Henry
Wells as Chief of the General Staff (CGS) on 23 March 1958.[2][37] Garrett was raised
to Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 1959 New Year Honours.[38]
The Army underwent significant change during Garrett's term as CGS.[2] In March 1959, he
chaired the first meeting of the Military Board at the new Army Headquarters in Canberra,
following its move from Melbourne. [39][40] Alan Stretton, executive officer to the Military Board
at the time, recalled Garrett's sense of humour and "most informal" manner. [41] In August,
the CGS announced to his senior officers a radical reorganisation of the Army that would
strengthen the regular forces and reduce reliance on the CMF, which since Federation had
formed the backbone of Australia's military. This plan included the abolition of National
Service, to which the Federal government had already agreed, and the introduction of a
"pentropic" divisional structure.[42] Garrett championed the pentropic structure to overcome
what he saw as the weakness of the traditional battalion for overseas deployments, and to
ensure compatibility with the US Army's pentomic formations. The Australian Army's
traditional "triangular" divisional structure of three infantry battalions under a brigade
headquarters was to be replaced with an organisation consisting of five larger battalions
(hence "pentropic") without a brigade layer between division and battalion headquarters.
[43]
 The plan was opposed by CMF officers as it would result in the disbandment of the
citizens' brigades and many of the old militia battalions. [42][43] Under the new structure the
CMF would not only shrink, its units would lose traditional ties to local communities through
the establishment of new multi-battalion state-based regiments, leading to suspicion in
some quarters that the entire process was designed to demolish the CMF. [43][44]
In future, the Regular Army will be supported by the non-regular forces and not the reverse as at present.
—Lieutenant General Garrett, 22 December 1959[45]
Garrett was concerned not only with changing the Army's organisation but with upgrading
its equipment; by the early 1960s the Army would acquire the FN 7.62mm rifle, the M60
machine gun, the M101 105mm howitzer, the M113 armoured personnel carrier, and new
mortars and radios.[43] He also advocated strongly for the Army to operate its own
helicopters and light aircraft; the Australian Army Aviation Corps was eventually established
in July 1968.[46] Garrett was scheduled to retire from the Army on his sixtieth birthday in
February 1960 but the government extended his term.[37] He retired on 30 June 1960 and
was succeeded by Lieutenant General Reg Pollard, whom Garrett had recommended for
the post in the face of opposition from the Minister for the Army, John Cramer, who had
attempted to appoint Major General Ivan Dougherty, a retired CMF officer.[47] Although
Garrett's proposed reorganisation of the Army along pentropic lines went ahead under
Pollard, it proved short-lived. The US Army abandoned the system in June 1961, and the
Australian Army returned to the triangular formation following a review commissioned by
Pollard's successor as CGS, Lieutenant General Sir John Wilton, in October 1964.[48][49]