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As a substantive Major, he held appointments including Training Officer at OCS Portsea and was S02 (Staff
Officer Grade 2) Projects at Headquarters Field Force Command in November 1980 when he submitted a Minute
on the ‘Operational Concept for NORFORCE’ to the General Officer Commanding Field Force Command, Major
General Ron Grey. He identified that the emphasis would be on patrolling, with patrols operating out of Darwin
or from squadron bases; it would be a ‘special conditions’ unit, in the sense of having patrols deployed almost
continually throughout the year.
At 2400 hours on 30 June 1981, the 7th Independent Rifle Company (see Pike) was deleted from the Order of
Battle, its members and equipment being absorbed into a new unit titled North West Mobile Force (NORFORCE),
which was raised in its place on 1 July 1981. John George was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel and appointed
the unit’s first Commanding Officer (1 July 1981 to 24 July 1983). The regiment has specific responsibility for
surveillance of the north Australian coastline from the Northern Territory to Broome, providing early warning
of any incursions, including the location, strength and probable intentions of the force, and the collection of
topographic intelligence and local infrastructure knowledge, information which would be vital in assisting higher
commanders to commit the appropriate forces to the right location in a timely manner. It is a concept that requires
exceptional skills to operate successfully in an austere environment that is harsh on troops and equipment, and
demands an innovative approach to soldiering. Always emphasising the value of fitness to his soldiers, George was
most commonly recalled as a zealot for physical fitness, and any original member of the regiment can still hear the
shrill tones of his whistle as they pounded the roads of Larrakeyah Barracks.
George was careful to ensure the appropriate insignia was selected to give the young unit a sense of heritage.
The similarity of NORFORCE’s role to that of the wartime North Australia Observer Unit (NAOU) over largely
the same territory (see Stanner and White), led to the adoption of the NAOU’s distinctive colour patch from the
Second World War, making NORFORCE the only unit in the Australian Army (at that time) authorised to wear
such a distinguishing colour patch. The officially sanctioned unit patch, approved by the Army Dress Committee
on 28 November 1983, was a double-diamond patch of orange and green, green to the front, on a ‘sand’ background
(in lieu of the grey which had been used for Australian Imperial Force units); the sand colour was chosen to reflect
the common earth colour of the vast area of operations in the north of Australia, and had a secondary link to the
sand-coloured beret of the SASR. One veteran wrote to George, ‘Humbly, albeit proudly, we wish to acknowledge
your gracious act in adopting our Colour Patch so that the double-diamond shall continue to be symbolic of fine
soldiers, past and present, who volunteer to defend their country’.
George led his regiment in accepting the Freedom of Entry of two major centres during his term, Darwin on
3 July 1982 and Derby on 9 July 1983. He was created an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in
the Military Division in the New Year’s Honours List in 1983, for ‘service to the Australian Army, particularly in
raising the North West Mobile Force’. He noted, ‘The Regiment shared in my OBE; it was a team effort’.
George’s intensity and professionalism whilst Commanding Officer was marred somewhat by the circumstances
of his departure from Darwin, which have become shrouded by the re-telling and mis-telling of the story.
The incident involved John George striking a particular Captain from the Headquarters 7th Military District staff
who, he recalls, ‘had in fact uttered some caustic remarks about the Regiment and I certainly took offence on this
occasion’. The incident did not occur in the Mess, and there were no witnesses, and George was not ‘sacked’ as
has often been stated. He related that he had in fact offered his resignation, having announced to his Regular Army
staff that ‘I had breached my own standards’ and that I had always believed in the principle ‘live by the sword,
die by the sword’. General Kelly rejected his resignation and George went to his originally planned appointment
at Army Office; he subsequently tendered his resignation for the second time, which was accepted. He returned
to Western Australia as the chief administrator of a shire council near Perth, and later became the Queensland
State Manager for MSS Security Services in Brisbane. Another SASR veteran, Lieutenant Colonel Doug Gibbons,
succeeded him as Commanding Officer NORFORCE.
The Army List of Officers of the Australian Military Forces, vol 1, 31 July 1970; Lieutenant Colonel A J George OBE: CV and press clippings
(NORFORCE Museum); personal correspondence and conversations with Lieutenant Colonel A J George OBE and former unit members;
personal correspondence with NAOU veterans, 1993–94; NORFORCE Newsletter, various editions 1981–83.
PAUL ROSENZWEIG, Vol 3.
GEVERS, MINNA MARIA M: see ALBRECHT, MINNA MARIA MARGARETHA
GIBUNGURRICH: see BLITNER, GERALD
GIESE, HARRY CHRISTIAN (1913– ), teacher, soldier, public servant and community worker, was born on
9 December 1913 in the small town of Greenbushes, about 250 kilometres south of Perth, Western Australia.
He was the eldest of four children, one of whom died of diphtheria at the age of five.
Harry’s father (also Harry Christian) was the son of German immigrants who had settled in Clare, South
Australia, in the 1870s, then moved to the Victorian Wimmera, before shifting yet again, following successive
droughts, to south-western Australia just before the turn of the century. Here, in Greenbushes, Harry senior met
and married Lilian May Montgomery, the daughter of a Scottish crofting family.
Harry attended the local primary school. In 1926 he began boarding in the town of Bunbury, 74 kilometres
away, in order to attend Bunbury High School. One year later, Harry’s father died as a result of a tree-felling
accident, leaving Lilian with three young children to support and educate. The family moved to Perth, where Lilian
purchased a corner store with live-in accommodation in Victoria Park. Harry stayed on at Bunbury High School
until 1931, when he matriculated and won a Hackett Bursary at the University of Western Australia.