John Monash was born in Melbourne, the son of emigrants from Poland. He studied engineering and arts at the University of Melbourne, but his studies were delayed by his involvement in part-time soldiering and the University Union (he was one of its founders), and by his need to help support his family.
In the early 1890s, as Melbourne's boom economy slid towards collapse, the newly married Monash added law to his part-time studies. He ultimately graduated in engineering, arts and law.
Monash continued in Victoria's colonial army, and then in the Australian militia after Federation in 1901. In civilian life, he struggled at first as a civil engineer, before making a fortune in reinforced concrete construction.
In World War I, Monash joined the Australian Imperial Force, commanding a brigade at Gallipoli in 1915. In France from the following year, his rise to higher command continued: he became corps commander and lieutenant-general in 1918. He took a prominent part in the fast-moving battles that marked Germany's collapse, making him one of Australia's most famous soldiers.
After the war, Monash made a new name for himself as chairman of the State Electricity Commission, pioneering the generation of cheap power from Victoria's huge reserves of brown coal. Governments and civic groups queued for his services. He commanded the special constables (many returned soldiers among them) who took to the streets during the police strike of 1923, and was part-time vice-chancellor of the University. He was a Jewish spokesman and titular president of the Australian Zionist Federation.
The crowds at Monash's funeral in 1931 were estimated at 250 000, exceeded only at the opening of Melbourne's Shrine of Remembrance, the war memorial Monash laboured to create, three years later. He is remembered in the names of Monash University and the City of Monash.
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