BLAKE, Alexander
| Service Number: | 5055 |
|---|---|
| Enlisted: | Not yet discovered |
| Last Rank: | Private |
| Last Unit: | 11th Infantry Battalion |
| Born: | Fremantle, Western Australia, 1879 |
| Home Town: | Geraldton, Western Australia |
| Schooling: | Geraldton State School, Western Australia |
| Occupation: | Labourer |
| Died: | Killed in Action, France, 27 February 1917 |
| Cemetery: |
No known grave - "Known Unto God" Villers-Bretonneux Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France |
| Memorials: | Australian War Memorial Roll of Honour, Fremantle 849 Memorial, Geraldton District Great War Honour Roll, Kings Park Western Australia State War Memorial, Villers-Bretonneux Memorial |
World War 1 Service
| 31 Mar 1916: | Involvement Private, 5055, 11th Infantry Battalion, --- :embarkation_roll: roll_number: '10' embarkation_place: Fremantle embarkation_ship: HMAT Shropshire embarkation_ship_number: A9 public_note: '' | |
|---|---|---|
| 31 Mar 1916: | Embarked Private, 5055, 11th Infantry Battalion, HMAT Shropshire, Fremantle |
Help us honour Alexander Blake's service by contributing information, stories, and images so that they can be preserved for future generations.
Add my storyBiography contributed by Amber Blake
Alexander Blake's full name was Duncan Alexander John Blake. He was one of eight children of Henry and Mary Blake, Henry was a convict transported to WA in 1863. Alexander's place of birth is incorrectly listed as Kent UK on his enlistment papers, he was actually born in Fremantle where his dad was a barber. The whole family moved to Geraldton when Alexander was a child.
As an adult, Alexander was a wanderer and not on the right side of the law 100% of his time. He worked as a teamster on pastoral stations all over the Murchison and Wheatbelt regions of WA before enlisting. He never married nor became a parent. By the time he enlisted, both his parents had died.
His loss, in France 1917, was keenly felt, especially by his two brothers. Oldest brother Harry was his Next of Kin and a returned injured soldier himself. Arthur had been refused enlistement on medical grounds. From letters held on his service records, his brothers were both keen to receive his personal effects after he died and make his details availble for memorials.
Alexander enlisted to do better, be better and maybe find new opportunities. His family even today is proud of him for taking that chance.
Biography contributed by Geoff Tilley
Duncan Alexander Blake, known as Alexander, was born in 1879 at Fremantle, Western Australia to parents Henry Blake and Mary Christine Blake, nee Urquhart. He was one of eight siblings.
His father was a convict and upon release in 1873 worked as a barber in Fremantle.
It was in 1886 the Blake family moved to Geraldton, again with his father setting up a barber’s shop. Alexander attended Geraldton State School.
On leaving school he was known to wander, working within the Murchison and Wheatbelt regions of Western Australia as a farmhand.
He never married with his parents dying in 1891 and 1900.
Alexander enlisted into the AIF in September 1916 at Blackboy Hill, where he had been working as a farmhand at Grass Valley near Northam.
He was 36 years of age when he embarked from Fremantle in March 1916 from Fremantle with the 16threinforcements attached to 11th Battalion, A Coy.
He arrived in France in June 1916 and by July 1916 he was in action on the Somme of the Western Front.
In late July he was wounded in action with “shell shock” and was evacuated from the front, returning to his battalion in October 1916.
In February 1917, Alexander was once again in the front line and was sent forward into the trenches, at a section known as “Cough Drop” near the village of Ligny Thilloy.
It was on the night of the 26th/27th February that the battalion conducted patrols to ascertain the German positions.
During the battalion’s time in the trenches, their positions constantly came under heavy machine gun fire and were shelled by high explosives and shrapnel.
Alexander’s fate is unknown during this time.
Private Alexander Blake, Service number 5055 of 11th Battalion was Killed in Action on the 27th February 1917. He was 38 years of age.
He has no know grave and is commemorated at Villers Bretonneux Memorial France and is remembered with honour.