Major-General Francis Eric Poke AO KStJ RFD ED
Eleventh Commissioner of St John Victoria District, 1980-1984
Frank Poke was the first Commissioner not to have been a medical practitioner. He had been recruited as Deputy Commissioner to Peter Bush in 1979 because of his military leadership experience. He had served in Darwin and the Dutch East Indies during WW II. He enlisted in the post-war Citizens Military Forces, continuing for 28 years, rising through the ranks to become a Major-General in Logistics Command, responsible for all Army Reserve matters. In a parallel way he rose to become Grand Master of the United Grand Lodge of Freemasons in Victoria. A year later he became Commissioner.
The key events during Frank’s period as Commissioner were the Ash Wednesday bushfires and the centenary of St John in Australia in 1983. A year later, Frank was appointed Deputy Chief Commissioner to General Peter Falkland. In 1990, at the end of his second triennium as Deputy Chief Commissioner, Frank was appointed Director of Ceremonies at Priory Headquarters and became a member of the National Board, continuing until age retirement in 1996. He was invested in 1992 as a Knight of Grace in the Order of St John by the Grand Prior, Richard, Duke of Gloucester.
