Victor Secombe Lieutenant General Victor Clarence Secombe CB , CBE ( 9 January 1897 – 3 February 1962 ) was a general officer of the Australian army . He served in the First and the Second World War s . Born in Glen Wills near Omeo , Victoria , Secombe graduated from the Royal Military College , Duntroon , in late 1917 and was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Australian Imperial Force . He served with engineering units of the 5th Division during the last months of the First World War . Remaining in the military for the interwar period , he held a number of engineering postings in and later taught at Duntroon . During the early years of the Second World War , he served with the 7th Australian Division during the early stages of the North African Campaign before taking up engineering commands in the South West Pacific Area . After the war he served as Master - General of Ordnance and commanded Northern and Eastern Commands . He retired from the military in 1954 and took up cattle farming . He died in 1962 at the age of 65 . Early life . Victor Clarence Secombe was born on 9 January 1897 at Glen Wills near Omeo , Victoria , to a miner and his wife . Educated initially at Swifts Creek State School , he later attended a boarding school at Ballarat . In 1915 he entered the Royal Military College at Duntroon . He graduated in late 1917 . Military career . Secombe was commissioned as a lieutenant in the Australian Imperial Force in January 1918 , and was posted to 15th Field Company , Engineers , on the Western Front . He became adjutant of the 5th Division engineers in January 1919 . After attending an engineering course in England he returned to Australia at the end of 1919 , and for the next several years held a number of staff positions with Royal Australian Engineer ( RAE ) units working on coastal defences . From 1922 to 1923 , he attended Melbourne University , where he studied civil engineering . By 1936 , he had been promoted to major and at the end of the year , joined the teaching staff at Duntroon . Promoted to temporary lieutenant colonel shortly after the outbreak of the Second World War , he took up command of the engineering elements of 7th Australian Division in 1940 . In May 1941 , he was promoted to full colonel and became the assistant divisional adjutant and quartermaster - general for the Syria - Lebanon campaign . He was made a Commander of the British Empire and mentioned in dispatches for his work during this time . In late 1941 , Secombe transferred to I Corps headquarters as deputy - director , supply and transport . His new corps soon moved to the South West Pacific Area , and he was based firstly in Java and then in Australia . He was responsible for construction and lines of communication in New Guinea during the campaign there against the Japanese Empire . He held a succession of administrative posts for the remainder of the war . He was mentioned in dispatches in 1943 and again after the war , in 1947 . Following the Japanese surrender he was appointed the deputy quartermaster - general for the Army , and in 1946 became the Engineer - in - Chief of the General Staff . Promoted to major general in early 1949 , he was Master - General of Ordnance for nearly two years until he was appointed commander of Northern Command , based in Brisbane . His period in charge lasted for 12 months before he took over Eastern Command , based in Sydney . He later returned to Northern Command . He retired from the army on 4 April 1954 as an honorary lieutenant general . Later life . In 1955 , Secombe was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath . The same year , he was made colonel commandant of the RAE . In his retirement , he took up cattle farming on a 10 , 000 acre ( 4047 ha ) property near Gatton , in Queensland . He later purchased an orchard at Kenmore . He died of cancer on 3 February 1962 in the Mater Misericordiae Hospital , South Brisbane , and was buried in Toowong Cemetery . He was survived by his wife , who he married in 1929 , and two children . A son , also a graduate of Duntroon , predeceased him .