Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

In 1914, young, Adelaide born man Ralf Blakeney “Blake” Young was an educated man with a promising career ahead of him as a newspaper journalist. With the onset of WWI, Blake also had a problem. How to square his philosophical or religious view that he should not take another man’s life with his love of Australia. He presumably agreed that the reported atrocities carried out by Imperial Germany needed to be curtailed. Blake’s solution to this conundrum was to enlist in the AIF as a stretcher-bearer in September 17th, 1914 so he could help save the lives of his cobbers, rather than take enemy lives with a gun. He chose to go into battle without a gun.

The photo of Blake with his mates mucking around in camp before heading off overseas shows them all to be carefree and happy. His letter written on a tug off ANZAC Cove on April 25th, 1915 awaiting his SA Battalion to be sent in, would have set a somewhat more sobering scene. On the one hand, the description of the demolition of Turkish fortifications by the Allies heavy guns was reassuring, but he would have also seen casualties beginning to mount up. On the 27th April, he wrote of his first taste of battle and was relieved that passed the test of courage in the face of fire and even found himself becoming somewhat nonchalant about the risks. He would also have noted that in not carrying a gun or his white stretcher-bearer’s arm band did not give him immunity from being a target by the Turkish soldiers.

May 4th was Blake’s day of reckoning. On this day, a snipper almost got him. While on duty, somewhere towards the front-line Blake was hit in the throat by bullet. He was fortunate in that his wind pipe remained intact but he was bleeding. He approached a group of “Tommy” soldiers, one of whom whisked him to Capt. Jeffries’ dressing station for treatment. On May 9th Blake arrived on the Gloucester Castle hospital ship. Either there or somewhere in between Blake contracted pneumonia. This insidious and opportunistic disease was a lethal as shell fire in WWI as the doctors did not have Fleming and Florey’s antibiotics.

Blake survived his brief tour of duty but carried with him a permanently collapsed lower portion of his right lung. This was an injury that would see him declared medically unfit and discharged in February 1916 back in Australia. Reflecting on Blake’s fate, I return to a quote from VC winner, Lieut. Donovan Joynt (8th Battalion) in his book “Breaking the road for rest,” “My sergeant [Ira Gunn, DCM, b1893, KIA 16/4/18] was shouting something to me – the noise of battle was terrific. “What do you want, sergeant?” I yelled. He yelled back at me. “One minute of this is worth a lifetime of ordinary life, isn’t it, sir!”

After the war, Blake Young made good on his fortune and returned to his journalist profession. He eventually rose to the senior post of Editor of the Herald in Melbourne. Each ANZAC day he would write an editorial such as the one from 1953 (attached) reflecting on Gallipoli and the good fortune that he and Australia shared. He died at the age of 60, having survived the loss of his wife Monica and was the loving father of two daughters, Elaine and Dympna.

Blake’s stretcher-bearer arm band survived him although it has mellowed and the red cross has faded (see picture).

I am indebted in writing this biography to discussions and provision of information by Dympna Lodge (nee Young). Interestingly, Dympna is married to Allan Lodge, the youngest son of another very fine man, Lieut. Frank Spry Lodge MC, MM (2nd Pioneer Battalion) whose company, Lodge Bros Stone Masons who made a substantial contribution to the Shrine of Remembrance, Melbourne.