page_title: Iven Mackay
section_title: Between the wars
hierarchical_section_title: Iven Mackay / Between the wars
caption_attribution_description: English: Lieutenant W. H. Travers NX57 and Mrs Jean Margaret Travers (born 1919), son-in-law and daughter of (then) Major General Iven Giffard Mackay
context_page_description: Lieutenant General Sir Iven Giffard Mackay, KBE, CMG, DSO & Bar, VD was a senior Australian Army officer who served in both world wars.
  Mackay graduated from the University of Sydney in 1904 and taught physics there from 1910 until 1914, when he joined the Australian Imperial Force shortly after the outbreak of the First World War. 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 Pozières, 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.
context_section_description: After the end of the war Mackay took advantage of Brigadier General George Long's education scheme to study physics at Emmanuel College at the University of Cambridge under Ernest Rutherford.  His first child, Jean Margaret, was born in Cambridge in 1919.  Iven and Marjorie later had two more children – a son, Iven John, born in Sydney in 1920, and another daughter, Alison, born in Sydney in 1930.
  They returned to Australia aboard the transport Mantua, which reached Sydney on 19 February 1920.  With the war over, the AIF was demobilised, and Mackay's appointment to the AIF was terminated on 4 April 1920.  Mackay returned to lecturing in physics at the University of Sydney.  Between 1922 and 1932 he was student adviser.  From 1925 he was also faculty secretary.  From 1932 to 1940 Mackay also worked evenings as a Commonwealth Film Appeals Censor.
  In 1933, he was appointed headmaster of Cranbrook School, Sydney.  The school's constitution was changed to allow Mackay, a Presbyterian, to hold the post.  As a result of a case of mistaken identity following the death of Major General James Mackay in 1935, Mackay got to read his own obituary in The Times, entitled "Athlete, Soldier and Headmaster".  He normally avoided publicity, but this incident brought him to national attention.
  Mackay remained active in the Militia throughout the inter-war period.  He held the rank of honorary brigadier general from 21 January 1920 to late June 1937, when he was promoted to that rank substantively.  He commanded the 9th Infantry Brigade from 1 July 1920 to 30 April 1921; the 8th Infantry Brigade from 1 May 1921 to 30 April 1926; and the 5th Infantry Brigade from 1 May 1930 to 31 December 1932.  On 24 March 1937 he took command of the 2nd Division.  He was promoted to major general on 1 July 1937.  Mackay was one of only four Militia officers to be substantively promoted to that rank between 1929 and 1939.
  His term of office at Cranbrook ended acrimoniously after Justice Kenneth Street and others blamed Mackay for the school's slow recovery from the Great Depression, and the school council voted to remove him on 25 October 1939.  Mackay was given twelve months' notice.  When, in December 1939, Mackay's daughter Jean married Lieutenant W. H. Travers, the grandson of Major General William Holmes; the reception was held at Cranbrook.
caption: Lieutenant W. H. Travers and Mrs. Jean Margaret Travers, son-in-law and daughter of Major General Iven Mackay, January 1941
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