Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Born in Cornwall, William migrated to Australia when he was 9 years of age and later enlisted at the age of 39 in June 1916 while working as a miner at Mt Morgan in Queensland. He went to France as a reinforcement for the 11th Machine Gun Company. After being transferred to the Third Machine Gun Battalion as a Vickers gunner he was wounded, gassed by a gas shell and suffered from shell shock. After he recovered from this in hospital, a month later (on 4th July 1918) he was killed by shellfire in the Battle of Le Hamel (also called Hamel). This was a very successful attack by the Australians, who suffered much lower casualties than usual, so one might say that he was particularly unlucky to be killed. Initially he was buried in the Le Hamel area but his grave was subsequently lost and he is remembered on the memorial to the missing at Villers Bretonneux.

One brother Norman Henry Blamey was killed during the landing battles at Gallipoli and another Sydney Blamey won the MM.

Australian Machine Gun Corps 3rd Bn.

Son of William James and Cecelia Blamey.

Births Jun 1877 BLAMEY William James Truro 5c 142

Next of kin
Sister, Mrs Norah Harrison, c/o Mrs Gregory, Culcairn, New South Wales
Previous military service
6th Commonwealth Horse, South Africa (120 days)
Enlistment date 23 June 1916
Place of enlistment Rockhampton, Queensland Private
Machine Gun Company 11, Reinforcement 6

Unit embarked from Melbourne, Victoria, on board HMAT A67 Orsova on 6 December 1916-he was then 39.

War service: Western Front

Embarked Melbourne, 6 December 1916; disembarked Plymouth, England, 17 February 1917; marched into Australian Details, Perham Downs, 18 February 1917.

Marched out of Australian Details, 23 February 1917; marched into Machine Gun Training Depot, Grantham, 24 February 1917.

Admitted to isolation, 24 February 1917.

Proceeded overseas to France, 24 April 1917; marched into Machine Gun Base Depot, Camiers, 25 April 1917.

Proceeded to unit, 13 June 1917; marched into Convalescent Camp, 14 June 1917; proceeded to unit, 15 June 1917; taken on strength of 11th Machine Gun Company, in the field, 17 June 1917.

Marched into Bde Detention Room, 2 November 1917; rejoined unit, 8 November 1917.

Admitted to No 10 Australian Field Ambulance, 7 February 1918 (scabies); transferred to No 9 Australian Field Ambulance (Divisional Rest Station), 7 February 1918; discharged, 15 February 1918, and rejoined unit the same day.

On leave, 27 February 1918; rejoined unit, 16 March 1918.

Wounded in action, 26 May 1918; admitted to No 47 Casualty Clearing Station, 28 May 1918 (gassed); discharged, 12 June 1918, and rejoined unit the same day.

From How We Served

The private commemorations for; - 455/455a Private William James Blamey of Albert Park, Victoria and Mount Morgan, Queensland, a Boer War veteran who enlisted on the 22nd of June 1916, together with 283 Corporal Norman Henry Blamey (suspect brother?) of Collingwood, Victoria and Sydney, New South Wales who had already joined up previously to his older brother on the 26th of August 1914.

Corporal Norman Blamey had been employed prior to enlisting as a commercial traveler and was allocated to the 4th Battalion 1st AIF with whom he was shipped to Egypt with for further training on the 20th of October. Norman would be present with his Unit when it was committed to the landing on Gallipoli for the 25th of April 1915, and somewhere between this and the 30th of April, Norman was confirmed as having been “killed in Action’.

Due to Norman having no known grave he is instead officially commemorated on the Walls of the Lone Pine Memorial, Gallipoli Peninsula, Canakkale Province, Turkey.

Private William James Blamey, a veteran of the Boer War during which he served with the 6th Battalion Australian Commonwealth Horse had been working as a miner prior to his joining up for War service and he was allocated to Machine Gun reinforcements, departing Australia for England and further training on the 5th of December 1916.

By the 24th of April 1917, William had arrived in France and would be taken on strength with the 11th Machine Gun Company 1st AIF on the 17th of June with whom his service in the trenches would be continuous aside bouts of sickness after which he would recover and be returned to his Unit.

On the 26th of May 1918 William was cited as wounded in action due to being gassed, and following treatment he was again returned to the front, being again taken on strength with his Unit in the field on the 12th of June.

Within three weeks after his return, on the 4th of July, William was ‘Killed in Action’ by shellfire during operations in the vicinity of Hamel. His body was recovered for a formal burial and he now rests within Villers-Bretonneux Military Cemetery, Villers-Bretonneux, Picardie, France.

Back in Australia the supreme sacrifice made by both Norman and William during the ‘Great War’ would be privately commemorated at the Blamey family’s collective burial site within Melbourne General Cemetery, Victoria.