Branch of Service

Army

Conflict

World War II (1939-1945)

Date of Enlistment

13/06/1940

Date of Discharge

03/12/1945

Place of Enlistment

Paddington NSW

Gender

Male

Date of Birth

21/09/1905

Place of Birth

Prahran, Melbourne, Victoria

Address (at enlistment)

Bonshaw ACT

School(s) Attended

Melbourne Grammar, University of Melbourne

Occupation

Grazier

Next of Kin

Margaret Garran (daughter), Red Hill ACT

Service Number

NX32014

Final Rank

Corporal

Final Unit

1st Company, Australian Army Service Corps

Garran was the second son of Sir Robert Garran, one of the architects of the Australian Constitution. He spent one year at university then left to pursue a farming career. After jackarooing at Mossgiel he took up the lease at Bonshaw (near HMAS Harman) in 1928. Garran married Elsie Chrisp in 1932 but they divorced a few years later. He specialised in wool growing and was awarded a master farmer certificate for his skills.

After enlisting Garran was posted to the 22nd Brigade, Army Service Corps (part of the 8th Division) but became a prisoner of war when the Japanese captured Singapore in February 1942. He was sent to the Nakorn Pathom POW Camp to work on the Burma-Thailand railway. John Garran was a large man, about 6 feet 5 inches tall, and suffered as much as the other men. According to an obituary in the CDHS Newsletter, "there was widespread testimony to his spiritual strength and his practical efforts to survive and to help others to survive. 'You mustn't die', he used to say, 'It would be one up to them'. A Canberra boy who did come home tried to express what John had done for him: he simply said, 'He listened'. One prisoner said, 'He used to look down at the Japanese scurrying around like ants when something was wrong, and roar with laughter. It really made them mad". According to another he would use his farming knowledge to experiment with eating insects, leaves and roots from the jungle. If a food source didn't upset him then it would be alright as a supplement to the diet of other prisoners. He would mix it in with rice flour and cook a kind of damper. Garran would unravel any material he could find so he could make yarn. He taught himself to knit so that he could turn the yarn into covers for men with injured or amputated limbs.

After being released from captivity in August 1945 he returned to Canberra to resume farming. He acquired the lease to Erindale in the Tuggeranong valley and married Winifred Wilson in 1955. Garran was Chairman of the board of Canberra Community Hospital in the late 1940s (he was nominated for the board while still a POW), an executive-member of the Graziers' Association of New South Wales, the Federal Capital Territory Lessees Association and of the ACT division of the Arts Council of Australia. He performed with and was president (1953-56) of, the Canberra Repertory Society. Society members would recall how he would knit away between scenes.

A devoted historian, he contributed several papers on the history of livestock in Australia and was writing an account of the history and genetic development of the merino sheep when he died. The manuscript was completed by a colleague and published as 'Merinos, Myths and Macarthurs' in 1985.

John Garran died from a heart attack on 5 January 1976 at Red Hill.

WWII Nominal Roll http://www.ww2roll.gov.au
ACT Electoral Rolls 1916 to 1967 http://canberraheritageportal.org/default.php
Australian Dictionary of Biography online
http://www.adb.online.anu.edu.au/adbonline.htm
Anne Edgeworth, 'The Cost of Jazz Garters: A History of Canberra Repertory Society 1932 to 1982', 1992
Hope Hewitt, A Legend in His Lifetime, Canberra & District Historical Society Newsletter, February 1977
Stories from the ACT Memorial, 'Survivor of the Thai-Burma Railway', ACT Heritage Library www.library.act.gov.au/find/history/stories_from_the_act_memorial
The Canberra Times - 4 February 1936, 27 January 1941, 10 August 1942, 11 September 1945, 12 December 1945, 31 December 1945