Major General Kenneth Mackay, CB, MBE
(1917–2004)
Kenneth Mackay served with distinction in the Australian Army for almost forty years. He entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon, as a cadet in 1935 and retired as a Major General in 1974. In a long and meritorious career, Mackay saw service in the Middle East and New Guinea in World War II; and during the Cold War, in Japan, Korea and Vietnam.
In 1938, Mackay graduated from Duntroon as a Lieutenant in the Artillery Branch of the Australian Staff Corps, and his first appointment was to the 1st Heavy Brigade at the North Head Fort in Sydney. During his time at the fort, the then Lieutenant Mackay first demonstrated the courage and moral fibre that was to distinguish the whole of his military career. Using a rope, he courageously rescued a seriously injured civilian from the base of the cliff at North Head. For his action, Mackay was awarded the Royal Humane Society’s Bronze Medal.
In late 1939, the then Captain Mackay graduated from the Field Artillery School and was subsequently posted as adjutant of the 2nd/8th Field Regiment at Puckapunyal. In November 1940 he was deployed to the Middle East area of operations as a battery commander, and later served as a regimental artillery officer and artillery liaison officer with the Headquarters of the 9th Division. He ended his service in the Middle East as the Brigade Major of the 26th Australian Infantry Brigade in 1941–42 and was directly involved in the fearsome battles around El Alamein that stopped the German drive to capture Cairo and the Suez Canal.
During his service in the Middle East, Mackay also attended the United Kingdom’s Commando Instructors Course in Northern Palestine and the United Kingdom’s Staff College (which had been temporarily relocated to Haifa in Palestine). As a result of this experience, he helped to raise and train the 9th Division’s commando unit—a remarkable achievement for a still relatively junior officer.
In early 1943, Mackay deployed with the 9th Division to New Guinea as Brigade Major of the 26th Brigade. In New Guinea, he distinguished himself with outstanding staff-work during operations against the Japanese at Lae, Satelberg and Wareo, and was made a Member of the Order of the British Empire. In early 1944, he was posted as an operations staff officer at Army Headquarters in Melbourne before being seconded to the War Office in London. During this secondment, Mackay was part of an exclusive military team that reported directly to the Chief of the General Staff of the British Army. In July 1945, he attended the Postdam Conference as a member of Field Marshal Lord Allanbrook’s personal staff.
Following the end of World War II, Mackay was appointed Secretary to the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Joint Planning Committee for the British Commonwealth Occupation Force in Japan. He was subsequently promoted to Lieutenant Colonel, and in mid-1949 became Commanding Officer of the 67th Australian Infantry Battalion, then stationed in Japan.
Under his command the 67th Battalion became the 3rd Battalion of the Royal Australian Regiment (RAR). The 3rd Battalion, or 3 RAR, has since become an integral part of today’s Army, and for the rest of his life Kenneth Mackay remained deservedly proud of the unit that he fathered and of its very fine combat record in Korea, Malaya, Vietnam and East Timor.
Mackay returned to Australia in August 1949 as a staff officer in the Directorate of Military Operations and Plans at Army Headquarters. With the exception of a short stint in Korea in late 1952, he remained at Army Headquarters until he was posted as the Chief Instructor at the School of Tactics and Administration in Victoria. Between 1955 and 1962 he served in both Britain and Australia. In Britain, as a colonel, Mackay served in London as Assistant Defence Representative and then, following promotion to brigadier, he attended the Imperial Defence College. His appointments in Australia during the late 1950s and early 1960s included Director of Personnel, Maintenance, Quartering and Military Training at Army Headquarters in Melbourne, and then Director of Military Operations and Plans at the new Army Headquarters in Canberra.
When the Australian Government decided to provide ground combat troops to South Vietnam in the mid-1960s, Brigadier Mackay led the initial planning team and negotiated arrangements with the Americans for operational areas of responsibility, logistic support, and command and control. Indeed, it was on his recommendation that Australia assumed control of a separate operational area in Phuoc Tuy province—a decision that served Australia well. In 1966, when Australia’s military commitment expanded from one battalion group to a joint taskforce, Mackay was promoted to Major General to command the expanded force. In his book Too Long Tan, Ian McNeil writes admiringly of Ken Mackay:
He [Mackay] was one of the few senior officers at the time who had a clear understanding of the development of the war and Australia’s part. Besides, he had formed a close and harmonious working relationship with senior American and Vietnamese commanders and staff. With disdain for the excesses of red tape, and possessing considerable knowledge and drive, helped along by a rather roguish sense of humour, he was well equipped to lead he Australian forces into their biggest commitment since 1945.
In Vietnam, Mackay proved to be a resolute commander, standing his ground against American efforts to move Australian operations towards attrition and ‘body count’ tactics rather than pacification measures in Phouc Tuy province. In 1967, on his return from Vietnam, Mackay was appointed a Companion of the Order of Bath and took command of the 1st Division. Between 1969 and his retirement in 1974, he was Quarter Master General in Canberra and then General Officer Commanding Eastern Command. In 1973, his last appointment was as the inaugural General Officer Commanding the new Field Force Command, the precursor of today’s Land Command.
To his military contemporaries, Ken Mackay was a tough, uncompromising officer who possessed an excellent sense of humour and great integrity. He was a thoroughly professional soldier who served his country long and well. Finally, with Major General Mackay’s passing, we are again reminded of the thinning of the ranks of that great generation of Australian soldiers who came of age in World War II, and whose careers spanned Cold War conflicts in Malaya, Korea, Borneo and Vietnam. All of Australia owes this generation, of which Kenneth Mackay was an outstanding example, a great debt of gratitude. Their military service must always be honoured and is never to be forgotten.
Major General Ken Gillespie
Land Commander, Australia
