Peter Cosgrove

His Excellency General The Honourable Sir Peter Cosgrove AK, MC
26th Governor-General of Australia
Incumbent
Assumed office 28 March 2014
Monarch	Elizabeth II
Prime Minister	Tony Abbott Malcolm Turnbull
Preceded by	Dame Quentin Bryce
Personal details
Born	Peter John Cosgrove (1947-07-28) 28 July 1947 Sydney
Spouse(s)	Lynne, Lady Cosgrove
Children	Stephen Philip David
Residence	Government House, Canberra
Alma mater	Royal Military College, Duntroon
Religion	Roman Catholicism[1]
Military service
Allegiance	Australia
Service/branch	Australian Army
Years of service	1965–2005
Rank	General
Commands	Chief of the Defence Force (2002–05) Chief of Army (2000–02) International Force for East Timor (1999–00) 1st Division (1998–99) 6th Brigade (1992–93) 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (1983–84)
Battles/wars	Vietnam War International Force for East Timor
Awards	Knight of the Order of Australia Military Cross Complete list

General Sir Peter John Cosgrove, AK, MC (born 28 July 1947) is a retired senior Australian Army officer and the 26th and current Governor-General of Australia.

A graduate of the Royal Military College, Duntroon, Cosgrove fought in the Vietnam War, receiving the Military Cross in 1971. From 1983 to 1984, he was commander of the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment (1 RAR), and he later served as commander of the 6th Brigade and the 1st Division. Cosgrove rose to prominence in 1999, when he served as commander of the International Force for East Timor (INTERFET), which oversaw the peacekeeping mission in East Timor during its transition to independence.

Cosgrove was Australia's Chief of Army from 2000 to 2002, and then Chief of the Defence Force from 2002 to 2005, receiving corresponding promotions to lieutenant general and general. Cosgrove retired from active service following the end of his term as Chief of the Defence Force, and subsequently served as leader of a taskforce helping to rebuild communities in Queensland after Cyclone Larry in 2006. In January 2014, Cosgrove was named to succeed Dame Quentin Bryce as Governor-General of Australia. He was sworn in on 28 March 2014, and created a Knight of the Order of Australia on the same date.

Military service

Cosgrove at the Centenary of the Kangaroo March launch in 2013.

Cosgrove was educated at Waverley College, then followed his father, a warrant officer, into the Australian Army by attending the Royal Military College, Duntroon in 1965. Lieutenant Peter Cosgrove was commissioned on 11 December 1968 and was allotted to the Royal Australian Infantry. He arrived in Vietnam on 3 August 1969 and was posted to 9th Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment on 20 August 1969. On 10 October 1969, Lieutenant Cosgrove was commanding 5 Platoon, B Company. The platoon located an occupied bunker system in an area where, because of the proximity of allied troops, indirect fire support was difficult to obtain. In spite of this, he led his platoon in an assault on the bunkers without indirect fire support, capturing the system and killing and wounding at least four enemy without sustaining any casualties. On 16 October 1969, 5 Platoon located another bunker system occupied by about a platoon of enemy. Lieutenant Cosgrove silently deployed his own platoon for an attack. His assault completely surprised the enemy causing them to flee, abandoning large quantities of food, stores and documents. The following day in the same bunker system a party of enemy approached his right forward section and was engaged by the sentry. Knowing that the remainder of the section was elsewhere on other tasks, Lieutenant Cosgrove ran to the contact area and personally conducted the fight against the enemy. As a result of his actions, two enemy were killed and three weapons and four packs containing rice were captured. He was awarded the Military Cross for these actions.^[2][3] In 1980 he was awarded the National Medal.^[4] In the mid-1980s he commanded the 1st Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment.^[5]

Cosgrove came to national fame in 1999 when, as a major general, he led the international forces (INTERFET) in a peacekeeping mission to East Timor. The mission's success made him one of Australia's most respected and popular military leaders.^[6] He was promoted in 2000 to lieutenant general as Chief of the Army and in 2002 to general as Chief of the Defence Force.^[7]

In 2004, the Foreign Minister Alexander Downer queried the judgement of Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty.^[8] Following a joint interview with the then Defence Minister Robert Hill, Cosgrove was accused of "playing politics" when he said that, on this occasion, he disagreed with Keelty's point of view. However, Cosgrove expressed strong support for the Police Commissioner in his Australian best selling autobiography, My Story, published in 2006.^[9] On 3 July 2005, Cosgrove's three-year appointment as Chief of the Defence Force was completed, and he was succeeded by then-Chief of Air Force Air Marshal Angus Houston.

Cyclone Larry Taskforce

On 23 March 2006, Cosgrove was selected to lead the Queensland Government taskforce of rebuilding communities damaged by Cyclone Larry, a Category 5 tropical cyclone that devastated the Innisfail region of northern Queensland.^[10] "In recognition of the important contribution General Cosgrove made to the community of North Queensland following Cyclone Larry", on 11 October 2008, Queensland Premier Anna Bligh announced that a new residential suburb in the Bohle Plains area of Townsville would be named Cosgrove.^[11][12][13]

Other post-Defence activities

Cosgrove served on the board of Australia's main airline Qantas between July 2005^[14] and January 2014^[15] and is on numerous other boards as chairman or member. He served as Chancellor of the Australian Catholic University between November 2010^[16] and January 2014;^[1] and is Honorary Patron in Chief of the ACT Veterans Rugby Club^[17] and the Rosies Youth Mission.^[18] Peter Cosgrove was appointed as Patron to the Australian Volunteer Coast Guard Association in 2015.

Governor-General

Swearing in as Governor-General

On 28 January 2014, Prime Minister Tony Abbott announced that the Queen had accepted his advice to appoint Peter Cosgrove as the next Governor-General of Australia, to succeed Quentin Bryce in late March.^[19] On 25 March, Abbott announced that the Queen had also approved the reinstatement of the grade of Knight or Dame in the Order of Australia (she had abolished it in 1986 on the advice of Bob Hawke), and that the Governor-General would be ex officio the Principal Knight or Dame of the Order.^[20] The incumbent, Quentin Bryce, was immediately made the first new Dame of the Order. On 28 March Cosgrove succeeded Dame Quentin and was sworn in as Governor-General by Chief Justice Robert French,^[21] becoming Sir Peter Cosgrove.^[22]

Personal life

Peter and Lynne Cosgrove.

Cosgrove married Lynne Payne in 1976;^[23] they have three sons (Stephen, Philip and David)^[24] and one grandson,^[23] and lived in Sydney before taking up residence in Government House, Canberra. Cosgrove is a Roman Catholic and frequently attends Mass in the St Christopher's Cathedral parish in Canberra.

Sir Peter is a strong supporter and member of the Sydney Roosters. He is also a keen follower of cricket and rugby union.

Titles, styles and honours

Viceregal styles of Sir Peter Cosgrove (2014–present)
Reference style	His Excellency the Honourable
Spoken style	Your Excellency
Alternative style	Sir

Titles

Cosgrove's full title: His Excellency General the Honourable Sir Peter John Cosgrove, Principal Knight and Chancellor of the Order of Australia, Military Cross, Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia.

Honours and awards

	Knight of the Order of Australia (AK)	28 March 2014	[25]
	Companion of the Order of Australia (AC)	25 March 2000 (Military division)	For eminent service to the Australian Defence Force as the Commander of the International Force East Timor[6]
	Member of the Order of Australia (AM)	26 January 1985 (Military division)	In recognition of service as Commanding Officer 1st Battalion, The Royal Australian Regiment[5]
	Military Cross (MC)	12 February 1971	Infantry – 9 RAR – Vietnam[26][27]
	Knight of the Order of St John	28 March 2014	[25][28]
	Australian Active Service Medal 1945–1975		with Vietnam clasp
	Vietnam Medal		[29]
	Australian Active Service Medal		with East Timor clasp[29]
	International Force East Timor Medal		(INTERFET)[29]
	Australian Service Medal 1945–1975		[29]
	Centenary Medal	1 January 2001	For service to Australian society as Chief of the Defence Force[7]
	Defence Force Service Medal with Federation Star		40–44 years service[29]
	National Medal	16 October 1980	For diligent long service to the community in hazardous circumstances, including in times of emergency and national disaster, in direct protection of life and property[29]
	Australian Defence Medal		[29]
	Vietnam Campaign Medal		Republic of Vietnam[29]
	Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit (CNZM)	5 June 2000	New Zealand[30]
	Commander of the Legion of Merit		United States[29]
	Tong-il Medal of the Order of National Security Merit		South Korea[29]
	Officer of the Legion of Honour		France[29]
	Grand Cross of the Order of Prince Henry (GCIH)	28 May 2002	Portugal[31]
	Distinguished Service Order	7 September 2004	Singapore[32]
	Collar of the Order of Timor-Leste	30 August 2009	Timor-Leste[33]
	Knight Grand Cross of the Order of St. Gregory the Great (GCSG)	7 February 2013	Holy See[34]
	Collar of the Order of the Liberator General San Martín	9 August 2016	Argentina[35]
Other awards
	Australian of the Year	26 January 2001	He accepted his Australian of the Year award on behalf of all those Australians who served in East Timor: "I did a lot of the talking, they did all the working."[36]

Honorary military positions

• 2014–present: Colonel-in-Chief of the Royal Australian Army Medical Corps^[25]
• 2014–present: Colonel of the Regiment of the Royal Australian Regiment

Honorary degrees

Victoria:

• 2016 Doctor of Laws (honoris causa), Monash University^[37]

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Peter Cosgrove.

• List of Governors-General of Australia
• List of Australian of the Year Award recipients

References

External links

• Cosgrove bio, Australian War Memorial
• Cosgrove bio, www.icmi.com.au
• Pictorial bio, www.diggerhistory.info

Copyright pictures of Cosgrove

• 2007 picture in civies from transcript of ABC Talking Heads interview
• 2006 picture from Cosgrove admits he was wrong about Iraq, news.com.au, 15 October 2006 – promoting release of Cosgrove's autobiography.
• 2005 (June), Pre-retirement – signing MOA with Steve Gumley (former CEO of DMO) and Ric Smith (former Secretary, Australian DoD) – from New Era for DMO and Defence, Defence Annual Report 2004–05
• 2005 picture from ABC interview on release of Cosgrove's autobiography, 2 Nov 2006.
• 2004 Official portrait
• 2002 picture at the Australian Chief of Defence Change of Command Ceremony.

Governors-General of Australia
	Hopetoun Tennyson Northcote Dudley Denman Novar Forster Stonehaven Isaacs Gowrie Gloucester McKell Slim Dunrossil De L'Isle Casey Hasluck Kerr Cowen Stephen Hayden Deane Hollingworth Jeffery Bryce Cosgrove

Chiefs of the Australian Army
General Officers Commanding	Edward Hutton Harry Finn
Chiefs of the General Staff	William Bridges John Hoad Francis Wilson Joseph Gordon James Legge Godfrey Irving Hubert Foster James Legge Brudenell White Harry Chauvel Walter Coxon Julius Bruche John Lavarack Ernest Squires John Northcott Brudenell White Vernon Sturdee John Northcott Vernon Sturdee Sydney Rowell Henry Wells Ragnar Garrett Reg Pollard John Wilton Thomas Daly Mervyn Brogan Francis Hassett Arthur MacDonald Donald Dunstan Phillip Bennett Peter Gration Lawrence O'Donnell John Coates John Grey John Sanderson
Chiefs of Army	John Sanderson Frank Hickling Peter Cosgrove Peter Leahy Ken Gillespie David Morrison

Chiefs of the Defence Force
Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee	Sir Henry Wells Sir Roy Dowling Sir Frederick Scherger Sir John Wilton Sir Victor Smith Francis Hassett
Chief of Defence Force Staff	Sir Francis Hassett Sir Arthur MacDonald Sir Anthony Synnot Sir Neville McNamara Sir Phillip Bennett
Chief of the Defence Force	Sir Phillip Bennett Peter Gration Alan Beaumont John Baker Chris Barrie Peter Cosgrove Angus Houston David Hurley Mark Binskin