MHHV Key Appointments

Patron – Major General Jim Barry, AM, MBE, RFD, ED (Rtd)
Major General J. E. (Jim) Barry AM, MBE, RFD, ED (Rtd) was educated at Melbourne University, graduating as a Bachelor of Commerce. He enlisted in the Citizen Military Forces in 1951, and rose through the ranks in various artillery and headquarters positions to Major General and appointment as Commander 3rd Division in 1985. On relinquishing command in 1987, he was appointed Honorary Colonel of Melbourne University Regiment, a position he held for six years. He was also appointed Colonel Commandant of Artillery – Victoria from 1992 to 1996.

Major General Barry also has a wide range of experience in business and sports administration. After 10 years in the printing and publishing industry, he established his own business in the Graphic Arts industry in the 60’s, before retiring in 1992. He was an Executive Member of the Australian Olympic Committee from 1993 to 2005 and has officiated at ten Olympic Games as well as six Commonwealth Games. Holding headquarters positions on Olympic Teams – Munich, 1972 – Montreal, 1976 and as Assistant General Manager, Moscow in 1980, he was also General Manager of the 1982 Commonwealth Games Team to Brisbane.

A gymnast by sport, he was President of the Australian Gymnastic Federation for 25 Years, and an Executive Member and Vice-President of the International Gymnastic Federation (FIG) for 12 years. He was awarded an MBE in 1978 and an AM in 1998 for his service to sport and especially gymnastics. He has been Chairman of the Federal Government’s Sports Advisory Council 1978-1982, the precursor to the Australian Sports Commission, as well as President of the Confederation of Australian Sport 1988-89.

Major General Barry was the National President of the Defence Reserves Association (DRA) between 2005 and 2013 and remains on its Executive as Past President. He is also Vice President-Reserves on the Defence Force Welfare Association (DFWA). He is currently also a Foundation Member of the General Sir John Monash Foundation, a committee member of the Field Marshal Sir Thomas Blamey Memorial Fund and Deputy Chairman of the Spirit of Australia Foundation.

Vice-Patron – Professor Peter Edwards, AM
Dr Edwards has published extensively on the history of Australian foreign and defence policies. As the Official Historian of Australia’s Involvement in Southeast Asian Conflicts 1948–1975, he was the author of the volumes dealing with politics, strategy and diplomacy, Crises and Commitments (1992) and A Nation at War (1997), and general editor of the nine-volume Official History.

He is also the author of Australia and the Vietnam War (2014); Robert Marsden Hope and Australian Public Policy (2011); Arthur Tange: Last of the Mandarins (2006); Permanent Friends? Historical Reflections on the Australian-American Alliance (2005); and Prime Ministers and Diplomats (1983); the co-author of A School with a View (2010); the editor of Defence Policy-Making (2008) and Australia through American Eyes 1935-45 (1979); and the co-editor of Facing North Vol 2 (2003) and the initial volumes of Documents on Australian Foreign Policy.

A Rhodes Scholar, Dr Edwards has held a Harkness Fellowship, based at Duke University in the United States, a Harold White Fellowship at the National Library; a Research Fellowship and a Visiting Fellowship at the Australian National University; a Visiting Scholarship at the John Curtin Prime Ministerial Library; a Visiting Professorship at the University of New South Wales, Canberra; and a part-time professorship at Flinders University.

Dr Edwards has worked extensively with a number of Commonwealth Government agencies, including the Australian War Memorial, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Department of Defence, the National Library, the National Archives, and the Office of National Assessments. He is a long-standing member of the editorial advisory board of the Historical Documents Project in DFAT, and the Army Military History Advisory Committee.

Dr Edwards’s publications have been awarded the Queensland Premier’s Prize for History, the WA Premier’s Book Award for Non-Fiction, the Colin Roderick Award and H.T. Priestley Medal, the George Watson Prize and a short-listing for the National Biography Award. He is a Member of the Order of Australia, a Fellow of the Australian Institute of International Affairs, and a former Trustee of the Shrine of Remembrance in Melbourne.

President – Colonel Marcus Fielding
Marcus Fielding was born and raised in Melbourne. He joined the Australian Regular Army in 1983 and graduated from the Royal Military College Duntroon as a Lieutenant in 1986. In the following decades of military service Marcus held a broad range of senior appointments in Army, defence and interagency organisations in a number of locations throughout Australia and overseas.

Marcus has participated in four operational deployments. In 1992 he directed operations to clear land mines in Afghanistan. In 1995 he coordinated infrastructure construction projects in Haiti. In 1999 and 2000 Marcus directed security operations and coordinated the repatriation of displaced persons as part of the Australian-led international force in East Timor. For his work in East Timor, he was awarded a Commendation for Distinguished Service.

In 2008 and 2009 Marcus spent nine months in Baghdad as an ‘action officer’ in the Headquarters Multi-National Force–Iraq.  In 2011 he published a book of his experiences in Iraq titled Red Zone Baghdad.  Colonel Fielding transferred from full-time to part-time service with the Australian Army in 2011. He now runs his own business in Melbourne and provides specialist advice to a range of organisations.

Marcus is a member of the Returned and Services League, the Royal United Services Institute of Victoria, and the Field Marshal Sir Thomas Blamey Memorial Fund; is a lifetime member of the Defence Force Welfare Association as well as lifetime Friend of the Shrine of Remembrance.
 
Secretary – Mr Jason McGregor
Jason McGregor is the Secretary of MHHV Inc. and a Past President of the Fort Queenscliff Museum Association. He has a keen interest in Australian military history as well as in Victorian colonial history and heritage. He is active in the Museum, especially in marketing, media and recording oral history. Jason has served on a number of not-for-profit boards and was a team member of Cooee History. Some of his written articles can be found on the MHHV website. Jason is Web Coordinator for MHHV.

Treasurer – Mr Peter Fielding
Peter Fielding was raised and educated in Sydney. After travelling extensively throughout the UK and Europe he embarked on a career in the private sector. His early career was predominantly in sales and marketing roles for several large multi-national companies. In 1988, Peter established a corporate travel management company based in Melbourne, which for more than 27 years has met the travel needs of public companies, private companies and not-for-profit organizations alike.

Peter has a keen interest in military history and has toured many theatres of war including the Western Front, the Kokoda Track, the Gallipoli Peninsula, Zulu War and Boer War battle sites as well as Vicksburg and Gettysburg. He has a keen interest in Victorian colonial history and heritage and is also an avid genealogist.

A director of several proprietary companies and a member of the Australian Institute of Company Directors, Peter is also the founding Chairman of the Fielding Foundation which provides financial support to selected charities and other philanthropic ventures.