Lieutenant Colonel John Joseph Scanlan, DSO & Bar (19 October 1890 – 6 December 1962) was an Australian Army officer who served during the First and Second World Wars.

Promoted to captain on 1 November 1916, and then to major on 20 February 1917,[2] he held a number of staff positions at brigade and divisional level.

[1] Scanlan ably led the battalion during the battles of Amiens and Mont Saint-Quentin and finally, in late September, the St. Quentin Canal.

Scanlan returned to Australia in 1919 having been awarded the Distinguished Service Order and a Bar, and the French Legion of Honour, as well as being mentioned in despatches three times.

[1][3] Returning to civilian life, Scanlan first worked as a secretary for the Victorian Prices Commission before turning his hand to farming.

Lark Force was a mixture of regular Australian Army troops (the bulk of whom came from the 2/22nd Battalion) and locally raised militia, a total of 1,400 men.