page_title: Peter Cosgrove
section_title: Governor-General
hierarchical_section_title: Peter Cosgrove / Governor-General
caption_attribution_description: English: At Parliament House, Canberra, General the Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK MC (Retd) attended a ceremony at which General Cosgrove was sworn-in as the twenty-sixth Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia.
context_page_description: General Sir Peter John Cosgrove, AK, CVO, MC is a retired senior Australian Army officer who served as the 26th Governor-General of Australia, in office from 2014 to 2019.
  A graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon, Cosgrove fought in the Vietnam War, receiving the Military Cross in 1971. From 1983 to 1984, he was commander of the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment, and he later served as commander of the 6th Brigade and the 1st Division. Cosgrove rose to prominence in 1999, when he served as commander of the International Force for East Timor, which oversaw the peacekeeping mission in East Timor during its transition to independence.
  Cosgrove was Australia's Chief of Army from 2000 to 2002 and Chief of the Defence Force from 2002 to 2005, receiving corresponding promotions to lieutenant general and general. Cosgrove retired from active service following the end of his term as Chief of the Defence Force, and subsequently served as leader of a taskforce helping to rebuild communities in Queensland after Cyclone Larry in 2006. In January 2014, Cosgrove was named to succeed Dame Quentin Bryce as Governor-General of Australia.
context_section_description: On 28 January 2014, Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced that the Queen Elizabeth II had accepted his advice to appoint Peter Cosgrove as the next Governor-General of Australia, to succeed Quentin Bryce in late March. On 25 March, Abbott announced that the Queen had also approved the reinstatement of the grade of Knight or Dame in the Order of Australia (she had abolished it in 1986 on the advice of Bob Hawke), and that governors-general would be ex officio the Principal Knight or Dame of the Order. The incumbent, Quentin Bryce, was immediately made the first new Dame of the Order.  On 28 March Cosgrove succeeded Dame Quentin and was sworn in as Governor-General by Chief Justice Robert French, becoming Sir Peter Cosgrove.
  On 16 December 2018 Prime Minister Scott Morrison announced that The Queen had approved the appointment of retired General David Hurley, the current Governor of New South Wales as the next Governor-General of Australia commencing in July 2019, and that Cosgrove's term would be extended until that time to ensure smooth transitions following the New South Wales election in March and federal election expected in May 2019.
  On 12 August 2019, during a post appointment call upon the Queen, Her Majesty appointed Cosgrove a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order.
caption: Swearing in as Governor-General
exif: {}