General Sir John Gordon Noel Wilton, (22 November 1910 – 10 May 1981) was a senior commander in the Australian Army. He served as Chief of the General Staff (CGS), the Army's professional head, from 1963 until 1966, and as Chairman of the Chiefs of Staff Committee (CCOSC), forerunner of the role of Australia's Chief of the Defence Force, from 1966 until 1970. His eight-year tenure as senior officer of first the Army and then the Australian military spanned almost the entire period of the nation's involvement in the Vietnam War.
Born in Sydney, Wilton entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon, in 1927. Owing to lack of opportunity in the Australian military at the time, he took a commission in the British Army following his graduation in 1930. He spent most of the remainder of the decade with the Royal Artillery in India. Wilton returned to Australia on the eve of World War II and was commissioned into the Royal Australian Artillery. He saw action with the 7th Division in Syria and the 3rd Division in New Guinea, earning a mention in despatches in the former campaign and the Distinguished Service Order in the latter. Finishing the war a temporary colonel, he was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in 1947. Wilton was posted to Korea in 1953 to take command of the 28th Commonwealth Brigade, leading it in its final action of the war in July. He was raised to Commander of the Order of the British Empire and awarded the US Legion of Merit for his performance in Korea.
Wilton was promoted to major general in 1957 and became Commandant of Duntroon. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1962 and made CGS the following January, with the rank of lieutenant general. As CGS he oversaw a reorganisation of the Army's divisional structure, the reintroduction of conscription, and deployments during the Indonesia–Malaysia Konfrontasi and the Vietnam War. Knighted in 1964, he handed over the position of CGS in May 1966 and was appointed CCOSC. In this role he had overall responsibility for Australia's forces in Vietnam, and worked to achieve an integrated defence organisation, including a tri-services academy, a joint intelligence group, and the amalgamation of separate government departments for the Army, Navy and Air Force. Wilton was promoted to general in September 1968, and retired from the military in November 1970. He served as Consul-General in New York City from 1973 to 1975, and died in 1981, aged seventy.
Early career John Wilton was born in Sydney on 22 November 1910, the second of two sons to English migrants Noel and Muriel Wilton. Noel was an electrical engineer, and moved with his family to Hobart in 1915 to take up employment with the Tasmanian Hydro Electric Department.Horner, Strategic Command, pp. 1–3 Attending several schools, John and his brother Maurice lived in Sydney for a time with Muriel following their parents' separation in 1917, before Noel brought them back to Hobart in 1921.Horner, Strategic Command, p. 5 In 1923 he moved with them to Grafton, New South Wales, where he managed the Clarence River County Council.Horner, Strategic Command, p. 7 John attended Grafton High School, where he attained his leaving certificate.Horner, Strategic Command, pp. 8–10 Considered by family to be a "loner", "a clear thinker", and a "quite, determined, achiever", he entered the Royal Military College, Duntroon, in February 1927, aged sixteen.McNeill, "General Sir John Wilton", pp. 318–319 Early on he was subjected to the usual bastardisation handed out to younger cadets by seniors, but was not known to inflict the same treatment on juniors once he reached the senior class. Although somewhat aloof from his fellows, he did well in team sports such as rugby and hockey, as well as swimming and diving. Second academically in his class of twelve, Wilton graduated from Duntroon on 9 December 1930.
By 1930, the effects of the Great Depression had reduced the opportunities for Duntroon graduates. Only four of Wilton's classmates joined the Australian Military Forces; four transferred to the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) and four to the British Army. Wilton was among the last-mentioned, taking a commission as a second lieutenant in the Royal Artillery, with seniority from 22 November 1930. Seeking active duty, he requested a posting to India, and sailed with the 6th Field Brigade to Bombay in November 1931.Horner, Strategic Command, pp. 27–28 He spent the next three years based at Fyzabad, near the Nepalese border. Promoted to lieutenant in November 1933, he undertook training and exercises with his battery, and learned to speak Urdu, but saw no action.Horner, Strategic Command, pp. 29, 33–35 In February 1935 he was posted to Burma, joining the 10th (Abbottabad) Battery of the Indian Mountain Artillery at Maymyo, near Mandalay.Horner, Strategic Command, pp. 36–38 According to biographer David Horner, Wilton's "first taste of excitement" was in April 1935, when he joined the hunt for a rogue tiger and shot the animal as it attacked and mauled one of his companions.Horner, Strategic Command, pp. 39–40 In November he saw operational service with his unit in skirmishes with local tribesmen in the Wa State of northern Burma, on the Chinese border.Horner, Strategic Command, pp. 40–43
After eight months extended leave in 1936, and a posting to the Indian Army Ordnance Corps, Wilton briefly returned to Australia to marry Helen Marshall on 9 July 1938 at St. Andrew's Church in Summer Hill, New South Wales.Horner, Strategic Command, pp. 45–49 John had met Helen, then a nurse, on a double date in Sydney while he was in his last year at Duntroon; the couple had two sons and a daughter.Horner, Strategic Command, p. 20 On the same trip home he was invited to transfer to the Australian military, and accepted. Promoted to captain on 31 December 1938, Wilton saw out his British service with a coastal battery in Karachi, and was commissioned into the Royal Australian Artillery on 26 May 1939. His service with the British Army in India and Burma had afforded him regimental experience that he could never have gained in Australia, as well as an understanding of mountainous and tropical conditions that would benefit him in years to come.Horner, Strategic Command, pp. 36, 47
World War II
Wilton spent a year in coastal artillery posts at North Head and Port Kembla before transferring to the Second Australian Imperial Force.McNeill, "General Sir John Wilton", pp. 319–321 He was promoted major on 7 May 1940 and given command of a battery in the 2/4th Field Regiment, part of the recently formed 7th Division, which embarked for the Middle East in October.Horner, Strategic Command, pp. 55–57 On the voyage he wrote his wife a letter in case he was killed, admonishing: "Remember what has always been our motto—nothing can defeat us—not even death!"Horner, Strategic Command, p. 58 Appointed the division's brigade major Royal Artillery on 19 March 1941, Wilton served under Brigadier Frank Berryman in the Syrian campaign, and was responsible for coordinating operations during the Battle of Merdjayoun in June.Horner, Strategic Command, pp. 60, 66–67 Assigned to the staff of Headquarters I Corps, Wilton became General Staff Officer Grade 2 (Artillery) on 1 November; this would be the final artillery posting of his career.Dennis et al., Oxford Companion to Australian Military History, pp. 603–604Horner, Strategic Command, pp. 69–70 He was promoted to temporary lieutenant colonel on 25 November. On 30 December, Wilton was mentioned in despatches for his service with the 7th Division. He entered the Middle East Staff School at Haifa in January 1942, and graduated in May.Horner, Strategic Command, p. 71
Returning to Australia, Wilton became General Staff Officer Grade 1 in Major General Stanley Savige's 3rd Division in August 1942. Savige later recalled that "I never had a more competent staff, nor such a co-operative team, than that staff after Wilton came along."Keating, The Right Man for the Right Job, p. 87 The 3rd Division was part of Lieutenant General Edmund Herring's II Corps. In October, Herring succeeded Lieutenant General Sydney Rowell as commander of New Guinea Force, and Savige became acting corps commander. With his attention focused on the corps, Savige relied on Wilton to supervise the training of the 3rd Division.Keating, The Right Man for the Right Job, pp. 86–89 Wilton travelled to New Guinea in February 1943 to reconnoitre the terrain and begin plans for the division's forthcoming campaign in Salamaua. He was attached to Kanga Force in Wau during March 1943, before its absorption by 3rd Division the following month.Dexter, The New Guinea Offensives, p. 26 Herring had ordered that the 3rd Division "threaten" Salamaua, and despite Wilton's attempts to clarify precisely what this meant, the order remained vague. Savige and Wilton interpreted it as meaning that the 3rd Division was to capture Salamaua, when in fact its main purpose in the campaign was to divert Japanese forces from Lae.Horner, Strategic Command, p. 96 In any event, 3rd Division progressed steadily and by August it had to be ordered to slow down so that Lae could be attacked before Salamaua.Horner, Strategic Command, p. 111 Wilton received much of the credit for 3rd Division's performance.Horner, Strategic Command, pp. 112–113 He was awarded the Distinguished Service Order (DSO) for his "skill and ability in New Guinea" between July 1942 and April 1943, the citation being promulgated on 27 April 1944.
In September 1943, following his service with 3rd Division, Wilton was posted to Washington, D.C. as General Staff Officer, Australian Military Mission; he spent November and December 1944 in Europe, observing the Allies' military organisation. He was promoted temporary colonel in May 1945, and spent the remainder of the war on the staff of General Sir Thomas Blamey's Advanced Land Headquarters at Morotai in the Dutch East Indies and Forward Echelon Advance Land Headquarters at Manila in the Philippines.Horner, Strategic Command, pp. 122–125 On Blamey's recommendation, Wilton was honoured for the "particularly high standard" of his work on the general staff with appointment as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE), promulgated on 6 March 1947.Horner, Strategic Command, p. 127
Post-war career
Rise to senior command
Wilton was still only a substantive captain at the end of hostilities, but was considered by the Military Board to be among those "promising officers who have forced their way to the top during the war" and hence to deserve retention of their wartime rank.Grey, The Australian Army, p. 167 He became Deputy Director of Military Operations and Plans at Army Headquarters (AHQ), Melbourne, in March 1946 and was promoted to substantive lieutenant-colonel on 30 September. Wilton took charge of Military Operations and Plans the following year. He was promoted substantive colonel on 11 April 1950, and appointed a member of the Bridgeford Mission, which advised the Australian government on the state of the Malayan Emergency.Dennis; Grey, Emergency and Confrontation, pp. 45–47 On a visit to Singapore in February–March 1951 as part of a joint planning team, he urged his British counterparts to maintain their presence in Malaya as the basis of a combined force, without which Australia would be reluctant to commit any troops for the region's security.O'Neill, Strategy and Diplomacy, pp. 227–228 Wilton relinquished his post at AHQ in November 1951, and attended the Imperial Defence College in London during 1952. Having been assigned a combat command in the Korean War, he was promoted to brigadier on 13 March 1953, arrived in Seoul within the week, and took over the 28th Commonwealth Brigade from fellow Duntroon graduate Brigadier Thomas Daly on 25 March.Horner, Strategic Command, pp. 143–149