Lieutenant General Sir J. J. Talbot Hobbs Print Page

The statue was the first memorial erected in Perth to commemorate of one of Australia’s most distinguished World War One soldiers and one of Western Australian`s finest architects, Lieutenant General Sir J. J. Talbot Hobbs. It is made of Donnybrook stone with a bronze bust of Hobbs on top, and placed against a background of Canary Island Palms.

On 8 August 1914, Talbot Hobbs was selected by General Bridges to command the 1st Australian divisional artillery. After training in Egypt he was at the landing at Gallipoli on 25 April 1915, and was soon ashore searching for positions for his guns. He was then promoted brigadier-general and made a C.B. In March 1916 he went with the first Australian division to France, and was in command of the Australian artillery when Pozières was captured. In December 1916 he was given command of the 5th division and was made a major-general.

This division was in the thick of the fighting in the spring of 1917, and in September did magnificent work at Polygon Wood. Hobbs was created a K.C.B. on 1 January 1918. At the end of April his division fought a great fight at the second battle for Villers-Bretonneux, which probably contributed to the abandonment of the German operations towards Amiens. After the war Hobbs returned to Perth and resumed his work as an architect. With his partners he was responsible for many important buildings in Perth including the state war memorial, St George`s College, Crawley, the Temperance and General and Royal Insurance buildings. He was also architect for the Church of England diocese of Perth.

The twin ceremonies of the Armistice Day observance and the unveiling of the statue of the late Lieutenant General Sir Talbot Hobbs were carried out on the Perth esplanade this morning. The ceremonies were preceded by a march of about 1500 ex-servicemen through the city streets to the Perth where they were joined by detachments of the Royal Australian Air Force, A.I.F. reinforcements, militia units, secondary school senior cadet corps, boy scouts and members of the Sons of Soldiers League. The usual two minutes silence was observed in remembrance of those who fell in the last war, and later the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir James Mitchell, unveiled the memorial to the late Sir Talbot Hobbs.
Kalgoorlie Miner (WA), 12th November 1940.

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