Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Commandant Olga Ora Blamey served with the Australian Red Cross (ARC Field Force; National HQ Melbourne) from 1941 to 1945. Commandant Blamey was in the Middle East (1940 - 1942) and Morotai (1945), and in 1945 was greatly admired for her work in looking after Australia's PoWs at Changi Prison after the war' In 1942, Commandant Blamey was described as 'a perfect godsend to the sick soldiers. She used to visit us regularly, bring comforts and write letters for those too sick to write their own. You can't imagine what a joy it was for the men to have a talk with her .... She was practical too ... with a true Australian flair for improvisation. They were always short of glasses in the canteens, and she hit on the idea of cutting down empty beer bottles. They always use them now, and the boys have christened them 'Lady Blameys' (Australian Womens Weekly; 23 March 1942). Commandant Blamey's Appointment was Terminated on 14 December 1945.

Olga Ora Farnsworth was born in Melbourne, Victoria in Melbourne, Victoria in 1910, youngest of three children of Henry Richard Farnsworth (b1864 in Victoria) and Isabella Agnes Renn (b1864 in Otaga, New Zealand). Henry and Isabella married in 1889 in Melbourne, where they settled and raised their family and Henry was a Grazier and Mining Investor. 

Olga was working as an Artist in Melbourne in 1939 when she married Sir Thomas Albert Blamey MBE (b1884 in Wagga Wagga, NSW) and became Lady Blamey. Sir Thomas Blamey - a Widower and father of two sons (eldest son Charles was killed in 1932) - was a decorated Officer in the Australian Military Forces, and in the 1920s had been Commissioner of Police in Victoria. In WWII Sir Blamey was Commander in Chief of the Australian Army, and on 15 August 1945 signed the Japanese surrender document on behalf of Australia and then flew to Morotai where he accepted the surrender of the remaining Japanese in the South West Pacific. Sir Blamey died in 1951 and Lady Blamey in 1967.