Arthur Blackburn
Arthur Seaforth Blackburn, was an Australian soldier, lawyer, politician, and recipient of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for valour in battle that could be awarded to a member of the Australian armed forces at the time. A lawyer and part-time soldier prior to the outbreak of World War I, Blackburn enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force in August 1914, and was assigned to the 10th Battalion. His unit landed at Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, on April 25, 1915, and he and another scout were credited with advancing the furthest inland on the day of the landing. Blackburn was later commissioned and, along with his battalion, spent the rest of the Gallipoli campaign fighting Ottoman forces.
The 10th Battalion was withdrawn from Gallipoli in November 1915, and after re-organising and training in Egypt, sailed for the Western Front in late March 1916. It saw its first real fighting in France on 23 July during the Battle of Pozières, part of the Battle of the Somme. It was during this battle that Blackburn's actions resulted in a recommendation for his award of the VC. Commanding 50 men, he led four separate sorties to drive the Germans from a strong point using hand grenades, capturing of trench. He was the first member of his battalion to be awarded the VC during World War I, and the first South Australian to receive the VC. He also fought in the Battle of Mouquet Farm in August, before being evacuated to the United Kingdom and then Australia suffering from illness. He was medically discharged in early 1917.
Blackburn returned to legal practice and pursued a military career during the interwar period, and served as a member of the South Australian parliament in 1918–1921. He led the Returned Sailors' and Soldiers' Imperial League of Australia in South Australia for several years, and was appointed the coroner for the city of Adelaide, South Australia. After the outbreak of World War II, Blackburn was appointed to command the 2/3rd Machine Gun Battalion of the Second Australian Imperial Force, and led it during the Syria–Lebanon Campaign against the Vichy French in 1941, during which he personally accepted the surrender of Damascus. In early 1942, his battalion was withdrawn from the Middle East and played a role in the defence of Java in the Dutch East Indies from the Japanese. Captured, Blackburn spent the rest of the war as a prisoner-of-war. After he was liberated in 1945, he returned to Australia and was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire for his services on Java in 1942.
Following the war, Blackburn was appointed as a conciliation commissioner of the Commonwealth Court of Conciliation and Arbitration until 1955 and in that year was made a Companion of the Order of St Michael and St George for his services to the community. He died in 1960 and was buried with full military honours in the Australian Imperial Force section of the West Terrace Cemetery, Adelaide. His Victoria Cross and other medals are displayed in the Hall of Valour at the Australian War Memorial.
Early life
Arthur Seaforth Blackburn was born on 25 November 1892 at Woodville, Colony of South Australia. He was the youngest child of Thomas Blackburn, an Anglican canon and entomologist, and his second wife, Margaret Harriette Stewart, Browne. Arthur was initially educated at Pulteney Grammar School. His mother died in 1904 at the age of 40. He studied at St Peter's College, Adelaide from 1906-1909 followed by studies at the University of Adelaide, where he completed a Bachelor of Laws in 1913, after being articled to C.B.Hardy. During Blackburn's term as his articled clerk, on one occasion Hardy was assaulted by two men on the street, and despite his slight build, Blackburn intervened and chased them away. In 1911, compulsory military training had been introduced, and Arthur had joined the South Australian Scottish Regiment of the Citizen Military Forces. He was called to the bar on 13 December 1913. His half-brother, Charles Blackburn, became a prominent Sydney doctor, served in the Australian Army Medical Corps in World War I, and later became a long-serving Chancellor of the University of Sydney. Their father died in 1912. At the outbreak of World War I, Arthur was practising as a solicitor in Adelaide with the firm of Nesbit and Nesbit, and was still serving in the CMF.World War I
Gallipoli
On 19 August 1914, aged 21, Blackburn enlisted as a private in the Australian Imperial Force and was assigned to the 10th Battalion, 3rd Brigade, 1st Division. The 10th Battalion underwent initial training at Morphettville in Adelaide, South Australia, before embarking on at nearby Outer Harbor on 20 October. Sailing via Fremantle and Colombo in Ceylon, the ship arrived at Alexandria, Egypt, on 6 December. The troops went into camp near Cairo. They trained there until 28 February 1915, when they moved to Alexandria. They embarked on on 1 March and a few days later arrived at the port of Mudros on the Greek island of Lemnos in the northeastern Aegean Sea, where they remained aboard for the next seven weeks.The 3rd Brigade was chosen as the covering force for the landing at Anzac Cove, Gallipoli, on 25 April, which marked the commencement of the Gallipoli campaign. The brigade embarked on the battleship and the destroyer, and after transferring to strings of rowing-boats initially towed by steam pinnaces, the battalion began rowing ashore at about 04:30. Blackburn was one of the battalion scouts, and among the first ashore.
Australia's World War I official war historian, Charles Bean, noted there was strong evidence that Blackburn, along with Lance Corporal Philip Robin, probably made it further inland on the day of the landing than any other Australian soldiers whose movements are known, some. The 3rd Brigade covering force fell well short of its ultimate objective, the crest of a feature later known as "Scrubby Knoll", part of "Third Ridge", but Blackburn and Robin, who were sent ahead as scouts, got beyond it. Robin was killed in action three days after the landing. Later in life, Blackburn was modest and retiring about his and Robin's achievement, stating that it was "an absolute mystery" how they had survived, given the range at which they were being shot at and the men who were shot around them.
Blackburn participated in heavy fighting at the landing; by 30 April, the 10th Battalion had suffered 466 killed and wounded. He was soon promoted to lance corporal, and was placed in charge of the unit post office for one month shortly after his promotion. He was involved in subsequent trench warfare defending the beachhead, including the Turkish counter-attack of 19 May. He was commissioned as a second lieutenant on 4 August, and appointed as a platoon commander in A Company. Blackburn served at the front for the rest of the campaign, until the 10th Battalion was withdrawn to Lemnos in November, and subsequently back to Egypt. The battalion suffered over 700 casualties during the campaign, including 207 dead. The unit underwent re-organisation in Egypt, and on 20 February 1916, Blackburn was promoted to lieutenant. In early March, he was hospitalised for two weeks with neurasthenia. The battalion sailed for France in late March, arriving in early April. By this time, Blackburn was posted to a platoon in D Company.
Western Front
Blackburn went on leave in France from 29 April to 7 May. The 10th Battalion entered the fighting on the Western Front in June, initially in the quiet Armentières sector of the front line. While in this area, Blackburn was selected as a member of a special raiding party led by Captain Bill McCann. In the early hours of 23 July, the 10th Battalion was committed to its first significant action on the Western Front during the Battle of Pozières, part of the Battle of the Somme. Initially, A Company under McCann were sent forward to assist the 9th Battalion, which was involved in a bomb fight over the O.G.1 trench system. Held up by heavy machine gun fire and bombs, McCann, who had been wounded in the head, reported to the commanding officer of the 9th Battalion, Lieutenant Colonel James Robertson, that more help was needed. About 05:30, a detachment of 50 men based on 16 Platoon, D Company, 10th Battalion, was then sent forward under Blackburn to drive the Germans out of a section of trench. Blackburn, finding that A Company had suffered heavy casualties, immediately led his men in rushing a barricade across the trench. Breaking it down, and using bombs, they pushed the Germans back. Beyond this point, preceding artillery bombardments had almost obliterated the trench, and forward movement was exposed to heavy machine gun fire.Blackburn, along with a group of four men, crawled forward to establish the source of the German machine gun fire, but all four of the men were killed, so he returned to his detachment. He went back to Robertson, who arranged support from trench mortars. Under the cover of this fire, Blackburn again went forward with some of his men, but another four were killed by machine gun fire. Another report to Robertson resulted in artillery support, and Blackburn was able to push forward another before being held up again, this time by German bombers. Under cover from friendly bombers, Blackburn and a sergeant crawled forward to reconnoitre, establishing that the Germans were holding a trench that ran at right angles to the one they were in. Blackburn then led his troops in the clearing of this trench, which was about long. During this fighting, four more men were killed, including the sergeant, but Blackburn and the remaining men were able to secure the trench and consolidate. Having captured the trench, Blackburn made another attempt to capture the strong point that was the source of the machine gun fire, but lost another five men. He, therefore, decided to hold the trench, which he did until 14:00, when he was relieved. By this time, forty of the seventy men that had been under his command during the day had been killed or wounded. Sometime that night, Blackburn took over command of D Company, but was relieved the following morning.
For his actions, Blackburn was recommended for the award of the Victoria Cross, the highest award for gallantry in battle that could be awarded to a member of the Australian armed forces at the time. Describing his actions in a letter to a friend, the normally retiring Blackburn said it was, "the biggest bastard of a job I have ever struck". In recommending him for the VC, his commanding officer, Lieutenant Colonel Stanley Price Weir, observed, "Matters looked anything but cheerful for Lieutenant Blackburn and his men, but Blackburn lost neither his heart nor his head".
The 10th Battalion was relieved from its positions at Pozières in the late evening of 25 July, having suffered 327 casualties in three days. Blackburn was temporarily promoted to the rank of captain on 1 August, due to the heavy losses. The battalion spent the next three weeks in rest areas, but returned to the fighting during the Battle of Mouquet Farm on 19–23 August, incurring another 335 casualties from the 620 that were committed to the fighting. Following this battle, the 10th Battalion went into rest camp in Belgium, and on 8 September, Blackburn reported sick with pleurisy and was evacuated to the 3rd London General Hospital. He relinquished his temporary rank upon evacuation, and was placed on the seconded list. Blackburn's VC citation was published on 9 September, and read:
Blackburn was the first member of the 10th Battalion and first South Australian to be awarded the VC, and his VC was earned in the costliest battle in Australian history. He was discharged from hospital on 30 September, and attended an investiture at Buckingham Palace on 4 October to receive his VC from King George V. The same day, McCann received the Military Cross for his own actions at Pozières that immediately preceded those of Blackburn. Blackburn embarked at Southampton for Australia aboard the hospital ship Karoola on 16 October for six months' rest, arriving home via Melbourne on 3 December. The train he arrived on was met by the state premier, Crawford Vaughan, but he declined to speak to the assembled crowd about his exploits. The following day he was fêted by the staff and students of St Peter's College.
He married Rose Ada Kelly at the St Peter's College chapel on 22 March 1917; they had two sons and two daughters. Their sons were Richard and Robert; Richard also became a lawyer and eventually became an eminent jurist, chief justice of the Supreme Court of the Australian Capital Territory and chancellor of the Australian National University. His daughter Margaret married Jim Forbes, who became a long-serving federal government minister, and his other daughter Rosemary became a literary editor, author, and adviser to the South Australian government on women's affairs. Blackburn was discharged from the AIF on medical grounds on 10 April 1917, as he was classified as too ill to return to the fighting. He was awarded an invalid soldier's pension. In addition to his VC, Blackburn also received the 1914–15 Star, British War Medal and Victory Medal for his service in World War I. His brothers Harry and John also served in the AIF during the war.