View source for Victor Secombe

{{Short description|Australian general}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2015}}
{{Use Australian English|date=September 2015}}
{{Infobox military person
|name= Victor Clarence Secombe
|image= Secombe-116295.jpg
|image_size= 
|alt= 
|caption= Brigadier Victor Secombe in Morotai, September 1945
|nickname= 
|birth_date= {{Birth date|1897|01|09|df=yes}}
|birth_place= Glen Wills, [[Victoria (Australia)|Victoria]]
|death_date= {{Death date and age|1962|02|03|1897|01|09|df=yes}}
|death_place= [[South Brisbane]], Queensland
|placeofburial= [[Toowong Cemetery]]
|allegiance= Australia
|branch= [[Australian Army]]
|serviceyears= 1915–1954
|rank= [[Lieutenant general (Australia)|Lieutenant General]]
|servicenumber= 
|unit= 
|commands= Eastern Command (1951–52)<br/>[[Northern Command (Australia)|Northern Command]] (1950–51, 1952–54)<br/>Royal Engineers, [[7th Division (Australia)|7th Division]] (1940–41)
|battles= 
{{tree list}}
* [[First World War]]
** [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]]
* [[Second World War]]
** [[Syria-Lebanon campaign]]
** [[New Guinea campaign]]
{{tree list/end}}
|awards= [[Companion of the Order of the Bath]]<br/>[[Commander of the Order of the British Empire]]<br/>[[Mentioned in Despatches]] (3)<br/>[[Medal of Freedom (1945)|Medal of Freedom]] (United States)
|relations= 
|laterwork= Farmer
}}
[[Lieutenant general (Australia)|Lieutenant General]] '''Victor Clarence Secombe''', {{postnominals|country=AUS|size=100%|sep=,|CB|CBE}} (9 January 1897 – 3 February 1962) was a [[general officer]] of the [[Australian Army]]. He served in the [[First World War|First]] and [[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 [[First Australian Imperial Force|Australian Imperial Force]]. He served with engineering units of the [[5th Division (Australia)|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, Duntroon|Royal Military College]] at [[Duntroon, Australian Capital Territory|Duntroon]]. He graduated in late 1917.<ref name=Greville>{{cite Australian Dictionary of Biography |last=Greville|first=P. J|year=2002|title=Secombe, Victor Clarence (1897–1962)|id2=secombe-victor-clarence-11648|volume=16 |access-date=15 June 2013}}</ref>

==Military career==
Secombe was commissioned as a [[lieutenant]] in the [[First Australian Imperial Force|Australian Imperial Force]] in January 1918, and was posted to 15th Field Company, Engineers, on the [[Western Front (World War I)|Western Front]]. He became adjutant of the [[5th Division (Australia)|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 (rank)|major]] and at the end of the year, joined the teaching staff at Duntroon.<ref name=Greville/>

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 Order of the British Empire]] and [[mentioned in despatches]] for his work during this time.<ref name=Greville/>

In late 1941, Secombe transferred to [[I Corps (Australia)|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 [[New Guinea campaign|campaign]] there against the [[Japanese Empire]]. He held a succession of administrative posts for the remainder of the war. He was mentioned in despatches 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.<ref name=Greville/>

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 (Australia)|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]].<ref name=Greville/>

==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,<ref name=Greville/> and was buried in [[Toowong Cemetery]].<ref name=BCC>{{cite web|work=Grave Location Search|url=https://online.brisbane.qld.gov.au/cemeteries/cemeteries_step3.jsp?mapdisplay=159662 |title=Secombe, General Victor|publisher=Brisbane City Council|access-date=15 June 2013}}</ref> He was survived by his wife, whom he married in 1929, and two children. A son, also a graduate of Duntroon, predeceased him.<ref name=Greville/>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*Photos at AWM: [http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/011888 1942]; [http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/020010 1941];[http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/021321 1941]; [http://cas.awm.gov.au/item/068622 1944]

{{s-start}}
{{s-mil}}
{{s-bef|before=Lieutenant General [[William Bridgeford]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=General Officer Commanding Eastern Command|years=1951–1952}}
{{s-aft|after=Lieutenant General [[Frank Berryman]]}}
{{s-end}}
{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Secombe, Victor Clarence}}
[[Category:1897 births]]
[[Category:1962 deaths]]
[[Category:Military personnel from Victoria (state)]]
[[Category:Australian Commanders of the Order of the British Empire]]
[[Category:Australian Companions of the Order of the Bath]]
[[Category:Australian generals]]
[[Category:Australian military personnel of World War I]]
[[Category:Australian Army personnel of World War II]]
[[Category:Australian orchardists]]
[[Category:Burials at Toowong Cemetery]]
[[Category:Royal Military College, Duntroon graduates]]
[[Category:Australian military engineers]]