Brisbane Anzac honoured at Australian War Memorial

The Australian War Memorial in Canberra will commemorate the service and sacrifice of Brisbane resident Private Frederick Alfred Herbert Blake at the Last Post Ceremony on Tuesday 20 May.

“Frederick Blake was born in Brisbane on 29 December 1884, the eldest of three sons born to Edward and Mary Blake,” Australian War Memorial Director Matt Anderson said. Tragically, all three brothers died in military service during 1914 and 1915.

“After finishing school, Frederick worked as a labourer in Townsville and spent three years with the Moreton Regiment of the Territorial Force in Queensland.”

He enlisted in the Australian Imperial Force on 31 October 1914, six weeks after the death of his younger brother Ernest, when the submarine HMAS AE1 was lost with all hands.

Assigned to E Company of the 15th Infantry Battalion, Frederick landed at Anzac Cove on the afternoon of 25 April 1915.

On 8 August during the offensive to capture Hill 971, the 15th Battalion was exposed to heavy machine-gun fire, incurring 417 casualties over a 48-hour period.

Among the dead was Private Frederick Albert Herbert Blake. He was 30 years old.

His brother, Walter, also died during the Gallipoli campaign, killed in action on 2 November 1915.

The Last Post ceremony is held at 4.30 pm every day except Christmas Day in the Commemorative area of the Australian War Memorial.

Each ceremony shares the story behind one of 103,000 names on the Roll of Honour. To date, the Memorial has delivered more than 4,100 ceremonies, each featuring an individual story of service from colonial to recent conflicts. It would take more than 280 years to read the story behind each of the 103,000 names listed on the Roll of Honour.

“The Last Post Ceremony is our commitment to remembering and honouring the legacy of Australian service,” Mr Anderson said.

“Through our daily Last Post Ceremony, we not only acknowledge where and how these men and women died. We also tell the stories of who they were when they were alive, and of the families who loved and, in so many cases, still mourn for them.

“The Last Post is now associated with remembrance but originally it was a bugle call to sound the end of the day’s activities in the military. It is a fitting way to end each day at the Memorial.”

The Last Post Ceremony honouring the service of Private Frederick Alfred Herbert Blake will be live streamed to the Australian War Memorial’s YouTube page: https://www.youtube.com/c/awmlastpost.

The stories told at the Last Post Ceremony are researched and written by the Memorial’s military historians, who begin the process by looking at nominal rolls, attestation papers and enlistment records before building profiles that include personal milestones and military experiences.

HANDOUT images:

www.awm.gov.au/collection/C385351 (second row, ninth from left)

recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=3089486