Thomas Blamey - After The War

After The War

MacArthur abolished SWPA on 2 September 1945, and on 15 September Blamey offered to resign. The war was over, and the post of Commander in Chief was now a purely administrative one. His offer was not accepted, but on 14 November, the government abruptly announced that it had accepted his resignation, effective 30 November. A farewell party was held in Melbourne, which was attended by 66 brigadiers and generals. Blamey was given time to write up his despatches, and was formally retired on 31 January 1946. Forde asked Blamey if he wanted anything in way of recognition for his services, and Blamey asked for knighthoods for his generals, but Forde could not arrange this. In the end, Forde decided to gift Blamey the Buick staff car he had used during the war, which had clocked up 50,000 miles (80,000 km) in the Middle East and the South West Pacific.

Blamey returned to Melbourne, where he devoted himself to business affairs, to writing, and to promoting the welfare of ex-service personnel. In September 1948, Blamey paid a visit to Japan, where he was warmly greeted on arrival at Iwakuni by Horace Robertson, the commander of the British Commonwealth Occupation Force, who also provided an RAAF honour guard. MacArthur sent his own aircraft, the Bataan, to collect Blamey and bring him to Tokyo, where he met Blamey at the airport and gave him another warm greeting. In the late 1940s Blamey became involved with The Association, an organisation similar to the earlier League of National Security, which was established to counter a possible communist coup. He was the head of the organisation until ill health forced him to stand down in favour of Morshead in 1950.

Menzies became prime minister again in December 1949, and he resolved that Blamey should be promoted to the rank of field marshal, something that had been mooted in 1945. The recommendation went via the Governor General, William McKell, to the War Office in London, which replied that a dominion officer could not be promoted to the rank. Menzies pointed out that Jan Smuts already had. The War Office then claimed that Blamey could not be promoted to field marshal because he was a retired officer, which was not true. Menzies then restored Blamey to active duty. Blamey was duly promoted to field marshal in the King's Birthday Honours of 8 June 1950.

A few days afterwards, Blamey became seriously ill and was forced to receive his field marshal's baton from McKell in a bedside ceremony at the Heidelberg Repatriation Hospital. Blamey died there of hypertensive cerebral haemorrhage on 27 May 1951. His body lay in state at the Shrine of Remembrance, where 20,000 people filed past. Crowds estimated at 300,000 lined the streets of Melbourne at his state funeral. Ten of his lieutenant generals served as pallbearers: Frank Berryman, William Bridgeford, Edmund Herring, Iven Mackay, Leslie Morshead, John Northcott, Sydney Rowell, Stanley Savige, Vernon Sturdee and Henry Wells. His body was cremated at the Fawkner Crematorium and Memorial Park.