Eulogy
Lieutenant General Sir Thomas
Daly
at St Mary's Cathedral
By General Peter Cosgrove
Wednesday 14 January 2004
Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Daly, Knight of the Order of the British Empire, Companion of the Order of the Bath, Distinguished Service Order, twice mentioned in Dispatches, husband, father, grandfather, most eminent Australian, warrior chief - gone with courage, dignity and honour to his maker.
Lady Daly, Betty Ann, Susan, Edwina, Your Excellencies, my Lord Bishop, family and friends of the late Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Daly, welcome to this farewell and celebration of the life of a great man. The Tom that many of you knew would have said 'what's all the fuss!' but you and I know what a sad and significant day this is - a day upon which we are privileged to farewell and remember a remarkable man. He was a man simultaneously marked by greatness and humility, by the honours and plaudits of a marvelous public life and the simplicity and quietude of a close and loving family existence. He endured and overcame the most turbulent and challenging periods at the pinnacle of his profession and in doing so made a profound impression on what truly became 'his Army' and then with great dignity went into a long and honourable retirement.
As a young man who entered the Army just before he became Chief of the General Staff, I feel particularly honoured to represent the family and all of you here, and the General's legion of admirers, to give this eulogy today. There's a significant coincidence at play here. In 1971, when the General was leaving the Army at the Eastern Command Personnel Depot, my father, then the Adjutant at the Depot, signed his discharge certificate. Knowing my Dad, I am sure how keenly he was aware of the significance of the moment, as he played a small part in the farewell to a warrior chief; it's the same feeling, much magnified, as I feel now.
Tom Daly grew up in Victoria, son of a distinguished World War 1 soldier, Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Joseph Daly, DSO, VD who commanded a Light Horse regiment, the 9th during the War and returned to his job in the bank. He gave his son up to Duntroon in 1929 and how proud he must have been on that day and every day thereafter. Tom had gone to school in Sale where the family then lived and then to Xavier College, that great Jesuit seat of learning in Melbourne. His headmaster knew he would excel and said as much to the Commandant at Duntroon - very perceptive, Jesuits!
Tom's four years at Duntroon showed him to have the enormous promise which was so abundantly realised in his subsequent career. He was even then noted for that quietness and dignified reserve which so characterized his entire life. He traveled with the Corps of Staff Cadets in the transition from Canberra to its temporary accommodation at Victoria Barracks in Sydney. Here as the senior cadet of the Corps he suffered the only setback I could glean from his many years of service - in his senior year he was reduced in rank from Sergeant Major to Sergeant for some infraction in the cadets mess which apparently he had not prevented. It was hardly dire though, for he was restored to his rank a few months later and well before graduation - very perceptive, Commandants! During this time he showed himself not only to be a leader but to have a level of physical excellence, particularly in horsemanship, which led to him being posted after graduation as a cavalry officer.
After graduation he spent a period with the British Army in India and received high praise, not just on account of his equestrian ability, but on his leadership qualities, including a ringing endorsement from his CO at the time about his prospects should he wish to transfer permanently to the British Army - very perceptive these British COs (we would have said "hands off!").
Can you imagine how proud Tom Daly senior was at this time. To see his son so good, so happy, so well placed in the heart of Tom senior's 'other life'! The Thirties though must have been a long and possibly frustrating time for young Tom - a tiny permanent Army and not much in prospect, promotion virtually stagnant. Nonetheless when the Second World War burst upon the scene, he was immediately accepted into the 2nd AIF as Adjutant of the 2/10th Battalion and the Army started to sit up and take notice of what it had in the younger Tom Daly.
As the saying goes, Tom Daly had a marvelous War. He was a Brigade Major in the Middle East, to the legendary George Wootten. He was a senior Staff Officer on Headquarters of the 5th Division. He commanded with great distinction his original 2nd AIF Battalion, the 2/10th at the Balikpapan campaign. He was awarded two MIDs and an OBE for his World War 2 service and as historians will know, was the only Staff Corps officer to finish the war in command of an infantry battalion - a discovery I found amazing and greatly to his credit.
After the War and setting aside just for a moment the most important event in Tom's life - his marriage and starting of a family, he was posted soon enough as the Australian DS at Camberley where he again mightily impressed his British superior officers. On return to Australia, after a stint at Duntroon, he was selected in 1952, still at very young age to be Commander of 28th Commonwealth Brigade in Korea. His performance there was outstanding and he was widely admired and recognized by a promotion to Commander of the Order of the British Empire and by the award of Officer of the US Legion of Merit. After Tom's return, a few years later his service and his outstanding potential were justly recognised when he was first, in the interim, retained in Brigadier's rank and then promoted to Major General in 1957, as GOC Northern Command, followed by a stint as Adjutant General and then the very senior appointment as GOC Eastern Command. It was inevitable and expected when Tom was made CGS in 1966.
His period as CGS must be considered as one of the most challenging and frenetic periods for the Australian Army in modern times. His tenure spanned the introduction of National Service, the expansion of the Army, the huge political upheavals that ensued at home and the prosecution of the War itself - this last a matter of the proudest record in the Army for the way in which our men and women under his leadership performed magnificently. He was recognised for his eminent service by his elevation to be Knight of the Order of the British Empire in 1967 - a distinction he carried humbly but most aptly until his final days. His invariable introduction to a stranger first met was 'Hullo, I'm Tom Daly.'
General Daly epitomised the great leadership figure of a proud institution - loyalty, impeccable integrity, hugely morally courageous, and humane and compassionate to the nth degree. Only his family and very close friends will today know of the toll that his burden of leadership imposed over those long years from 1966 to 1971. We can but imagine and admire and give thanks that he was steadfast and so marvelously a professional. I can only pray that the Army does not need to undergo quite such a trial again; and if that must be so, we can look to a leader of Sir Thomas' character to guide our men and women through. His leadership in those years is his enduring legacy. His influence on the Army we have today is profound and I thank him from the depths of my soldier's heart. In his departure, preceded by drama and controversy, none of his making, he went with the loyalty, integrity and dignity which resounded through his time and we all of us were again so proud of our leader.
During the last year of World War 2 Tom met his great and eternal love, his wife and life partner, Heather Fitzgerald, herself a Melbourne girl who waited while Tom fought and survived and thrived during those final dramatic months of the War. As soon as they could, which proved to be February 1946, Heather and Tom married and these nearly 58 years later, Lady Daly, Heather, sits with her husband and daughters and all his family and friends, with him today as she has been all these many years. Lady Daly, we know, all of us here know, that with all of Sir Thomas' marvelous qualities, you were the rod and the staff that comforted him all the days of his life.
I have here a wonderful tribute from the General's family, penned by one of his daughters, I think. I include it in entirety.
Tom Daly had two parallel lives: Tom Daly the soldier and Tom Daly the family man. The two were kept quite separate.
He married the love of his life, Heather Fitzgerald, on his return from Balikpapan at the beginning of 1946. Together they stripped, painted, curtained and established gardens in the many houses they lived in on their various postings.
Soon they were the proud parents of three daughters. Having gone from boarding school straight to the army Tom was somewhat bemused to find himself a member of an all female household. No amount of strategic planning had prepared him for this. The problem was easily solved. Pretend the girls were boys. Heather made overalls for the three of them and every one was happy.
Family trips to the beach incorporating rigorous surfing lessons and blistering sunburn were a favourite past time. So were barbecue picnics with the modified kerosene can and the chicken wire. He and the girls used the car trips to give raucous renditions of some of his favourite songs, "There is Something about a Soldier", "The Quarter Master's Store", "Swanny", "There is a Tavern in the Town", and songs from Gilbert & Sullivan. He was a keen gardener and the picnics provided a golden opportunity to purge surrounding paddocks of cow manure. He had green fingers and his gardens reflected this. Indeed passers by, seeing him in the garden, would offer him employment asking what he charged. He would reply cheerfully that he came free but expected the lady of the house to look kindly on him from time to time.
He enjoyed all sports both as a spectator and a participant. He was a keen follower of Rugby Union and would take his girls to the football on weekends encouraging them to get involved and be seriously vocal. There were also days at the cricket where he would test their eyes on the scoreboard and instruct them in the mysteries of long leg and silly mid on. When asked what he would have done if he had had a son he replied, "Strapped his right arm to his side, Australia desperately needs a left hand bowler." Christmas brought its fair share of boy toys and reading lists comprised books such as Black Arrow, Huckleberry Finn, and The Last of the Mohicans.
He introduced the girls to ballet, opera and symphony concerts and on special occasions would escort them to such events. He had a discerning eye for art and took great pleasure in the paintings he collected. And, when they were very small, he would join them in Scottish reels and figure eights after the Sunday roast and the weekly ration of coca cola.
Eventually he admitted that girls will be girls and knowing that boys will be boys he viewed any young man who came to the door with deep misgiving. But he would joke that he was standing there with a metaphorical gun not so he could keep them out, but rather to stop them getting away. One by one they left home to lead their own lives with the advice to be true to themselves and the values that had been instilled into them. Not to be daunted by failure but to continue fighting the good fight.
Having been the head of an all female household he was then surrounded by grandsons, five in all, and two granddaughters, one of whom, Nicola, has preceded him on his current journey. He loved each one of them and while both hoping, and fearing, one of them might join the military he only wanted for them to be happy and have the strength and determination to make the most of their talents. They in their turn, having been used to Grandad who they laughed and played with, and whose sage advice they took for granted, are a little overwhelmed by their brief encounter today with Tom Daly, the soldier.
Grandad was dearly loved and will be remembered fondly by all the family he has left behind.
Such warm, loving and eloquent words need no embellishment!
In Sir Thomas' retirement he kept discreetly busy with some directorships and voluntary work, until the frailty of age imposed its limits. He kept a warm association with the Army through his colonelcies of the RAR and the RPIR. He loved his golf and he will be missed by all at Royal Sydney Golf Club. He loved skiing and did so, well beyond the age that many would allow for themselves.
In 2001, the Australian Army celebrated its 100th Anniversary. Among the great celebrations this entailed we had a very large and hugely enjoyed Formal Dinner in Canberra. It was a great affair for about 1600 or so. The Army was represented by its serving and retired members, by cadets from RMC and ADFA, by members of most units of the Army, by officers, senior and junior NCOs and by younger soldiers. Our Guest of Honour was the Prime Minister. I escorted the PM to be the last to enter among the special guests for the evening. As we stood ready to make our entrance, I was privileged to see the groups just before us go in and the reception they received. When our three surviving VC winners entered there was a mighty roar. When all our General Officers entered there was applause swelling to a roar, to match those of our VC heroes, when the crowd saw Messrs Daly and Hassett bring up the rear of the General Officers. It was a marvelous moment to hear the applause rolling and rebounding and the cheering to the echo as these two great men brought their leadership and dignity and wisdom and love of the Army into the room.
During the evening which was a sort of 'formal dinner al fresco', hordes of young people, mostly cadets from RMC and ADFA and emboldened junior officers, wandered around between courses to pay their respects to the mighty men and women of former times. I noticed at one stage a flurry around Sir Thomas and Sir Francis. I thought little of it until, a few days after the event, I received a letter from Sir Thomas. Now some of you will know that Sir Thomas had the most exquisite manners and writing style.
Many General Officers over the years have received a missive from him and have needed to apply keen analysis of it to detect the mild but always absolutely merited reproof from the General over the issue therein subtly mentioned. I opened the letter with interest and not a little trepidation. The letter was substantial about five pages or so. At the outset Sir Thomas was clear in his compliments about how the overall arrangements had gone for the Centenary. He went on to note his particular thanks for arrangements put in place for his own participation in some of the events and that included those for the Dinner. He then, on page four of this letter, went on to describe that at one of these informal interludes during the dinner, a young lady in Mess Dress had come up to him and Sir Francis and asked if she might have a photo taken with both of them and that they had agreed. She had then quickly stood behind them and leaned forward with her arms around their necks and shoulders. (This was the last sentence on page 4! You can imagine the trepidation with which I turned to page 5!) On page 5, the General went on to say that she seemed like a very nice young lady, it was nice to be remembered and could he please have a copy of the photograph! Although I enquired vigorously about the photograph, including uttering blandishments and reassurances that the young lady and the photographer would be in no sort of trouble, I could not locate the intrepid pair. Perceptive kids these Staff Cadets!
When the General was known to be very ill over the last year or so, his stoicism and his dignity and his good humour characterised his decline. He typically didn't want people to fuss, not to make anything of it and in that attitude, he wouldn't have realised that he was Sir Thomas to the last, the man we all so admire until the last, a great Australian to the last, a warrior chief until the last.
Lieutenant General Sir Thomas Daly is gone and we celebrate his life and mourn his passing and rejoice in his salvation. We look upon his life and times, his leadership and love of family and friends and of his Army and we give thanks that God gave us 90 years of his servant's life.
What a wonderful Australian.
May he rest in peace.