David John Garland

David John Garland (1864–1939) was an Anglican clergyman and a military chaplain in Queensland, Australia. As senior army camp chaplain in Queensland from 1914 to 1917, Garland experienced the World War I both at home and at the front. He was one of the originators of the now annual Anzac Day ceremonies. Described as an "overpoweringly energetic with a distinctive flair, if not genius, for organisation", he played a pivotal role in the Queensland experience of the war, and was a central figure in a variety of committees and organisations established to aid the war effort and support or commemorate serving or returned soldiers.

David John Garland was born in Dublin on 4 October 1864, the son of James Garland and his wife Mary Ann (née Saunders). He studied law and immigrated with his parents to New South Wales.

Garland came to Brisbane in 1886. He worked in Toowoomba as a law clerk, where he was influenced by Reverend Tommy Jones at St James’ in Toowoomba and converted from his Irish Protestant faith to Anglo-Catholicism. He became a lay reader at St James.

Garland entered the Church of England ministry in 1889. He served as a deacon in Grafton, Quirindi and Narrandera in New South Wales. In 1892 he was sent to Perth, Western Australia, where he was ordained as a missionary priest by Bishop of Perth Henry Parry. In 1892 he married a widow, Mary Hawkins, née Hadfield, and they had one son, David James Garland. From 1900 to 1902, he was canon of Perth. Garland was a crusader for religious education in schools and devoted much energy to the Bible in State Schools League. During the Boer War, he was chaplain to the soldiers assembling at Fremantle before heading overseas. His last posting in Western Australia was at St John's in Northam, a congregation of whom he said "I never met a more docile and reverent congregation".

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