John Galvin was born in 1908 and was one of seven children whose father was an odd-jobs man at His Majesty’s Theatre which was located in the upper end of Liverpool St between Murray and Harrington Streets.
John Galvin was born in 1908 and was one of seven children whose father was an odd-jobs man at His Majesty’s Theatre which was located in the upper end of Liverpool St between Murray and Harrington Streets.
What follows has been gleaned from various newspaper clippings contained in the College’s archives and from Tim Jetson’s ‘St Virgil’s College (1911-94).’ It is extraordinary that no biography appears to have been written on this ‘larger than life’ character.
From the Sun-Herald (16/12/62):
A Mr Alan Watt was quoted thus: John From the Archives Graeme Rainbow and Bruce Woods College Archivists THE OLD VIRGILIAN – 27 June 2017 Vol.23 No.36
“Galvin went to the same school – St Virgil’s Christian Brothers in Barrack St – as I had gone to 10 years earlier. I remember at one time, things got so tough for the father that it looked as though he would have to take John and his other boys from the College because he could not afford the fees. But the Brothers told him to keep sending the boys and forget the fees for the time being,” said Mr Watt. Mr Watt said that John Galvin apparently never forgot the generosity of his old school. Some years ago Galvin was said to have bestowed £50 000 on the school and more recently £100 000 towards the cost of new classrooms for St Virgil’s at Austins Ferry. Watt also recalled that as a boy Galvin was something of a local hero – he won a Royal Humane Society award for rescuing a boy from drowning. Records still held by the Society show that on 15 February 1921, a group of boys were swimming in the Derwent River when one of them got out of his depth. Galvin, only twelve years old and a poor swimmer, didn’t hesitate when he heard the boy’s cries for help. He went out to him and dragged him into shallow water.”
The same John Galvin became a multimillionaire and was reported “to have a fortune that equals, if not exceeds, that of J Paul Getty, said to be worth £50 million, and listed as the richest man in America.” (People Magazine – 24/05/61).
John Galvin worked initially in the newspaper industry in Australia, New Zealand and England. In 1937 he moved to South East Asia where his fortune grew through his further involvement with newspapers, and, later on, with tin and iron ore mining and associated shipping ventures.
He was one of the very few to interview the Chinese dictator, Mao Tse-tung.
In 1944 Galvin returned to Australia. Soon after the British government appointed him second-in-charge of a wartime information service to be set up in New Delhi and aimed at directing Allied propaganda all over Asia and the Middle East.
In the mid-1950s, the Galvins – now a family of seven with three daughters and two sons – moved to the United States where he moved into property in a very big way. Among other things, he acquired ranches totalling 50,000 acres, plus grazing rights to a further 60 000 acres of national forest land. His land acquisition, made Galvin the greatest cattle baron in California, rivalling the earliest great landowners in California 150 years earlier, when California was under Spanish rule.
In 1964 John Galvin received a knighthood for his services to Malaya. He was appointed a Hospitaller of the Knights of Malta (the first English speaker to hold office since the Order’s foundation in the 11th century).
He served as a member of the committee that advises the Pope on charitable activities. In 1971 Sir John was awarded an Honorary Doctorate of Laws by the National University of Ireland for his academic interest and his role in the Sisters of Charity teaching hospital at University College, Dublin.
Following his death in 1994, John’s son, Sean, granted permission for the magnificent contribution made by his father to the College to be publicly recognised.
The actual bank cheque was made out to Brother E. D. Joyce, whom Galvin described as ‘mighty religious who served God well’.
One wonders, what may have eventuated at the Austins Ferry property had not the College received an extraordinary donation?
With the opening of the Austins Ferry campus £225,000 had been expended of which £110,000 had been received from John Galvin.
John Galvin was inducted posthumously onto the St Virgil’s College Heritage Roll of Honour in 2009.
