The Victories Of Failure

By C. J. De Garis

Published by Modern Printing Company Pty Ltd: Melbourne 1925 1st Edition

"Clement John "Jack" De Garis (22 November 1884 - 17 August 1926) was an Australian entrepreneur and aviator. He worked in the dried fruits industry in the Sunraysia area around Mildura in the early 20th century, and was noted for his vibrant personality and colourful marketing style. In 1925, after a number of financial failures within his empire and mounting debts, he disappeared, leaving his car at Mentone and having apparently drowned in Port Phillip on 5 January 1925. He had written almost seventy farewell letters. Suspicions that De Garis was still alive soon surfaced and he became the subject of an eight-day nationwide search. He was apprehended the following week after arriving in Auckland, New Zealand, on the SS Maheno. On 17 August 1926, with debts of £420,000, De Garis committed suicide by gassing himself at his Mornington home. Shortly before he died, an autobiographical novel Victories of Failure: A Business Romance (1925) was published in which he described his life and business career in great detail in the guise of "K.J. Rogers". De Garis married Rene (née Corbould) in September 1907; they had three daughters, and divorced in May 1923. The following month he married his former private secretary Violet (née Austin), with whom he had one daughter. De Garis is buried at Brighton Cemetery in Melbourne."