Brigadier-General Carl Herman Jess
- Position
- Member Centenary Committee
- Committee group
- Executive; Aerial; Historical, arts and science and pageantry
- Year of death
- 1948
- Plaque number
- FB12
- Dedicated by
- Kings Park Board on 29 September 1929
- More information
Biography abstract:
Brigadier General Carl Herman Jess (16 February 1884 – 16 June 1948) was born in Bendigo, Victoria. He was educated at Violet St State School in Bendigo and later taught there (1899-1906).
In parallel with his teaching career, Jess became involved in the military, joining the Victorian Volunteer Cadets and enlisting in 1902 in the 5th Battalion, Victorian Infantry.
He resigned from the Victorian Education Department in 1906 to join permanent staff of the Australian Military Forces as an instructor.
In September 1914, Colonel Sir John Monash selected Jess as staff captain on his headquarters of the Australian Imperial Forces.
He served on front line duty throughout the Dardanelles campaign, followed by service in Egypt and later on the western front where he was gassed at Pozieres but remained on duty.
Further service saw him as an instructor at the Senior Officers' School, the first Dominion officer to hold such an appointment.
After the war, he was involved with repatriation and demobilisation for the AIF. In January 1921, his AIF appointment was terminated and he reverted to peacetime AMF.
He returned to Australia to resume militia instructional duties in Victoria and followed with a term as commandant of the 6th Military District in Tasmania (1925-1927).
He was appointed district commandant in Western Australia from August 1928 until 1931 when he was made aide de camp to the Governor General for four years.
After Jess's organisational involvement in centenary celebrations in Western Australia, he was invited in 1933 by the Premier Sir Stanley Argyle to organise Victoria's centenary celebrations.
The army released him from May 1933 to November 1934 and was knighted in the 1935 New Year honours. During World War II he was involved on the man power committee and retired due to illness in 1945.
Brigadier Jess served on several of the Western Australian Centenary Committee groups (Executive; Aerial; Historical, arts and science and pageantry) in 1929.