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Thomas Blamey

Field Marshal Sir Thomas Albert Blamey, GBE, KCB, CMG, DSO, CStJ, ED (24 January 1884 – 27 May 1951) was an Australian general of the First and Second World Wars. He is the only Australian to attain the rank of field marshal.

Sir Thomas Blamey

(1884-01-24)24 January 1884
Wagga Wagga, Colony of New South Wales

27 May 1951(1951-05-27) (aged 67)
Heidelberg, Victoria, Australia

Fawkner Memorial Park, Victoria

Australia

Australian Army

1906–1950

Field marshal

VX1 (2nd AIF)

Alexander Nicholson

Alexander Duncan

Blamey joined the Australian Army as a regular soldier in 1906, and attended the Staff College at Quetta. During the First World War he participated in the landing at Anzac Cove on 25 April 1915, and served as a staff officer in the Gallipoli campaign, where he was mentioned in despatches for a daring raid behind enemy lines. He later served on the Western Front, where he distinguished himself in the planning for the Battle of Pozières. He rose to the rank of brigadier general, and served as chief of staff of the Australian Corps under Lieutenant General Sir John Monash, who credited him as a factor in the Corps' success in the Battle of Hamel, the Battle of Amiens and the Battle of the Hindenburg Line.


After the war Blamey became the Deputy Chief of the General Staff, and was involved in the creation of the Royal Australian Air Force. He resigned from the regular Army in 1925 to become Chief Commissioner of the Victoria Police, but remained in the Militia, rising to command the 3rd Division in 1931. As chief commissioner, Blamey set about dealing with the grievances that had led to the 1923 Victorian police strike, and implemented innovations such as police dogs and equipping vehicles with radios. His tenure as chief commissioner was marred by a scandal in which his police badge was found in a brothel, and a later attempt to cover up the shooting of a police officer led to his forced resignation in 1936.


During the Second World War Blamey commanded the Second Australian Imperial Force and the I Corps in the Middle East. In the latter role he commanded Australian and Commonwealth troops in the disastrous Battle of Greece. He attempted to protect Australian interests against British commanders who sought to disperse his forces. He was appointed deputy commander-in-chief of Middle East Command, and was promoted to general in 1941. In 1942, he returned to Australia as commander-in-chief of the Australian Military Forces and commander of Allied Land Forces in the South West Pacific Area under American General Douglas MacArthur. On the orders of MacArthur and Prime Minister John Curtin, he assumed personal command of New Guinea Force during the Kokoda Track campaign, and relieved Lieutenant General Sydney Rowell under controversial circumstances. He planned and carried out the significant and victorious Salamaua–Lae campaign but during the final campaigns of the war he faced criticism of the Army's performance. He signed the Japanese Instrument of Surrender on behalf of Australia at Japan's ceremonial surrender in Tokyo Bay on 2 September 1945, and personally accepted the Japanese surrender on Morotai on 9 September.

Early life[edit]

The seventh of ten children, Blamey was born on 24 January 1884 in Lake Albert, near Wagga Wagga, New South Wales. He was the son of Richard Blamey, a farmer who had emigrated from Cornwall at the age of 16 in 1862, and his Australian-born wife, Margaret (née Murray). After farming failures in Queensland and on the Murrumbidgee River near Wagga Wagga, his father Richard moved to a small 20-acre (8.1 ha) property in Lake Albert, where he supplemented his farm income working as a drover and shearing overseer.[1]


Blamey acquired the bush skills associated with his father's enterprises and became a sound horseman. He attended Wagga Wagga Superior Public School (now Wagga Wagga Public School), where he played Australian football, and was a keen member of the Army Cadet unit. He transferred to Wagga Wagga Grammar when he was 13, and was head cadet of its unit for two years.[2]


Blamey began his working life in 1899 as a trainee school teacher at Lake Albert School. He transferred to South Wagga Public School in 1901, and in 1903 moved to Western Australia, where he taught for three years at Fremantle Boys School. He coached the rifle shooting team of its cadet unit there to a win in the Western Australian Cup.[3] He was raised in the Methodist faith and remained involved with his church. By early 1906 he was a lay preacher, and church leaders in Western Australia offered him an appointment as an associate minister in Carnarvon, Western Australia.[4]

Early military career[edit]

With the creation of the Cadet Instructional Staff of the Australian Military Forces, Blamey saw a new opportunity. He sat the exam and came third in Australia, but failed to secure an appointment as there were no vacancies in Western Australia. After correspondence with the military authorities he persuaded the Deputy Assistant Adjutant General, Major Julius Bruche, that he should be given the option of taking up an appointment for one of the vacancies in another state. He was appointed to a position in Victoria with the rank of lieutenant, commencing duty in November 1906 with responsibility for school cadets in Victoria,[4] and was confirmed in his rank and appointment the following 29 June.[5]


In Melbourne, Blamey met Minnie Millard, the daughter of a Toorak stockbroker who was involved in the Methodist Church there. They were married at her home on 8 September 1909. His first child was born on 29 June 1910, and named Charles Middleton after a friend of Blamey's who had died in a shooting accident; but the boy was always called Dolf by his family. A second child, a boy named Thomas, was born four years later.[6]


Blamey was promoted to captain on 1 December 1910,[6] and became brigade major of the 12th Brigade Area. He then set his sights on attending staff college. There were two British staff colleges, at Camberley in England and Quetta in India, and from 1908 one position was set aside for the Australian Army at each every year. No Australian officers managed to pass the demanding entrance examinations, but this requirement was waived to allow them to attend. In 1911, Blamey became the first Australian officer to pass the entrance examination.[7] He commenced his studies at Quetta in 1912, and performed very well, completing the course in December 1913.[8]


The usual practice was for Australian staff college graduates to follow their training with a posting to a British Army or British Indian Army headquarters. He was initially attached to the 4th Battalion, King's Royal Rifle Corps at Rawalpindi, and then the staff of the Kohat Brigade on the North-West Frontier. Finally, he was assigned to the General Staff at Army Headquarters at Shimal. In May 1914, he was sent to Britain for more training, while his family returned home to Australia. He visited Turkey (including the Dardanelles), Belgium, and the battlefields of the Franco-Prussian War en route. In England he spent a brief time on attachment to the 4th Dragoon Guards at Tidworth before taking up duties on the staff of the Wessex Division, at that time entering its annual camp. On 1 July 1914, he was promoted to major.[9]

Inter-war years[edit]

General staff[edit]

Blamey arrived back in Australia on 20 October 1919 after an absence of seven years, and became director of Military Operations at Army Headquarters in Melbourne. His AIF appointment was terminated on 19 December 1919, and on 1 January 1920, he was simultaneously confirmed in the rank of lieutenant-colonel and promoted to substantive colonel, also receiving the honorary rank of brigadier-general with effect from 1 June 1918.[41] In May 1920, he was appointed Deputy Chief of the General Staff.[42]


His first major task was the creation of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). The government established a joint Army–Navy board to provide recommendations on the matter, with Blamey and Lieutenant Colonel Richard Williams as the Army representatives. Blamey supported the creation of a separate air force, albeit one still subordinate to the Army and Navy. He refused to yield, however, on his opposition to the Navy's demand that Lieutenant Colonel Stanley Goble become its first chief.[43]


In November 1922 Blamey embarked for London to be the Australian representative on the Imperial General Staff. He reported that the "conception of an Imperial General Staff ... was absolutely dead".[44] The British Army saw little use in the concept of a combined staff which could coordinate the defence of the British Empire.[44] He became involved with the development of the Singapore strategy, and he briefed Prime Minister Stanley Bruce on it for the 1923 Imperial Conference, at which it was formally adopted. Even in 1923, though, Blamey was sceptical about the strategy.[45]


When White retired as Chief of General Staff in 1923, Blamey was widely expected to succeed him, as he had as chief of staff of the Australian Corps in France, but there were objections from more senior officers, particularly Major General Victor Sellheim, at being passed over. Instead, the Inspector General, Lieutenant General Sir Harry Chauvel, was made Chief of General Staff as well, while Blamey was given the new post of Second CGS, in which he performed most of the duties of Chief of General Staff.[46]


Seeing no immediate prospects for advancement, Blamey transferred from the Permanent Military Forces to the Militia on 1 September 1925. For the next 14 years he would remain in the Army as a part-time soldier. On 1 May 1926 he assumed command of the 10th Infantry Brigade, part of the 3rd Division. Blamey stepped up to command the 3rd Division on 23 March 1931, and was promoted to major general, one of only four Militia officers promoted to this rank between 1929 and 1939. In 1937 he was transferred to the unattached list.[47]