Andrew James Molan AO DSC (1950 - 2023)

Born 11 Apr 1950 in East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

Ancestors

Died 16 Jan 2023 at age 72 in Australia

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Biography

Andrew Molan AO DSC is Notable.

Major General Senator Jim Molan AO DSC BA BEc FAICD MPD was a senior officer in the Australian Army with a military career spanning four decades; an Australian politician, being a senator for New South Wales from December 2017 to June 2019 and from November 2019 until his death in January 2023, representing the Liberal Party; and an author and orator.
Andrew James 'Jim' Molan was born on 11th April 1950 in East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Major General Senator Jim Molan was the son of Andrew Molan, a Second World War veteran, and Norah Harnetty.

Andrew Molan AO DSC is a Military Veteran.
Served in the Australian Army 1971-2008
attained the rank of Major General

Military Career

Early Years

On graduating from the Royal Military College, Duntroon in 1971, Jim was allocated to the Royal Australian Infantry Corps. Jim graduated with a Bachelor of Arts from the University of New South Wales and a Bachelor of Economics from the University of Queensland.

Jim was also a graduate of the Australian Defence Force's School of Languages where he studied Indonesian.

Family

Jim married Anne in 1972. The couple have a son and three daughters, including Erin, a television sports presenter, radio presenter and newspaper columnist.

Building a career and climbing through the ranks as an officer, he served in the 1st Battalion, Pacific Islands Regiment (Papua New Guinea) as a rifle platoon commander; 9th Battalion, Royal Queensland Regiment, as adjutant; rifle company second-in-command and rifle company commander in the 3rd Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment; commanding officer of the 6th Battalion, Royal Australian Regiment; commander of the Army's mechanised 1st Brigade; and commander of the 1st Division and its Deployable Joint Force Headquarters.

He was commandant of the Australian Defence College, which included Australian Defence Force Academy, Australian Command and Staff College, and Australian Centre for Defence and Strategic Studies. Between 1992 and 1994 JIm served as the army attache in Jakarta as a Colonel, for which service he was awarded the Indonesian Bintang Dharma Yudha Nararya in 1995.

Overseas Postings

Between 1998 and 1999, Jim was the defence attache in Jakarta as a Brigadier and served in East Timor. On 25th March 2000 JIm was appointed Officer of the Order of Australia (AO) for his service in Indonesia and in East Timor. In April 2004, he was deployed for a year to Iraq.

Military Awards

He was despatched to serve as the chief of operations and of the Multinational Force in Iraq Headquarters. For distinguished command and leadership in this period, Jim was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross (DSC) and the American Legion of Merit.

Retirement from Military

After returning from Iraq he served as defence materiel advocate for the Defence Materiel Organisation and adviser to the Vice Chief of the Defence Force on Joint Warfighting Lessons and Concepts. He retired from the Army in July 2008 with the rank of Major General.

Published Works

He published his opinion on matters related to his expertise, and gave interviews and speeches to recount his experiences.
His published books are:

• Operations in the Land of Two Rivers. Australian Defence College, Centre for Defence Command, Leadership and Management Studies, Canberra, 2005.
• Running the War in Iraq: An Australian General, 300,000 Troops, the Bloodiest Conflict of Our Time (HarperCollins: Sydney, 2013) {{Green|ISBN 978-0-7322-8781-8)
  
• Danger on Our Doorstep (HarperCollins: Sydney, 2022) ISBN 9781460762608

Post-military Career

Post-military, Jim was appointed a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors (FAICD) and was accredited as a Master Project Director (MPD).

Political Career

Jim became associated with the Australian Liberal Party, helping to launch the Liberal opposition party's military-led border protection campaign in the lead up to the 2013 federal election. At the 2016 federal election, Jim unsuccessfully stood as a Liberal party Senate candidate for New South Wales.

High Court of Australia Ruling

In November 2017, after the High Court of Australia ruled that Nationals Senator Fiona Nash was ineligible to be elected to the Senate due to her dual British citizenship, Jim was appointed in her stead.

Placed in the 'unwinnable' fourth spot on the Senate ticket for the 2019 election, Jim failed to be re-elected. However, JIm was again selected by the New South Wales Liberal Party to fill a casual vacancy in November that year. He was re-elected at the 2022 federal election for a six-year term starting on 1st July 2022.

Aged 72 years, Jim passed away as a result of an aggressive form of cancer on 16th January 2023 in Australia.

See also

• https://en.wikipedia.org Wikipedia: Jim Molan; accessed 28 Jan 2023.

Research Notes

I have edited the prefix to reflect the better formatting option than was previously displayed as 'MAJGEN Sen'. The Senator designation is uneccesary and will not fit within the suffix window so is therefore redundant. It can be mentioned in the biography without being used as part of the proper full name. This is within the WikiTree style guidelines.
Maher-1078 27th February 2024

Sources